style,' by the imitation of accepted models, and who
have, therefore, possessed it only by right of appropriation. Boswell
has a discussion as to the writers who may have served Johnson in this
capacity. But, in fact, Johnson, like all other men of strong
idiosyncrasy, formed his style as he formed his legs. The peculiarities
of his limbs were in some degree the result of conscious efforts in
walking, swimming, and 'buffeting with his books.' This development was
doubtless more fully determined by the constitution which he brought
into the world, and the circumstances under which he was brought up. And
even that queer Johnsonese, which Macaulay supposes him to have adopted
in accordance with a more definite literary theory, will probably appear
to be the natural expression of certain innate tendencies, and of the
mental atmosphere which he breathed from youth. To appreciate fairly the
strangely cumbrous form of his written speech, we must penetrate more
deeply than may at first sight seem necessary beneath the outer rind of
this literary Behemoth. The difficulty of such spiritual dissection is,
indeed, very great; but some little light may be thrown upon the subject
by following out such indications as we possess.

The talking Johnson is sufficiently familiar to us. So far as Boswell
needs an interpreter, Carlyle has done all that can be done. He has
concentrated and explained what is diffused, and often unconsciously
indicated in Boswell's pages. When reading Boswell, we are half ashamed
of his power over our sympathies. It is like turning over a portfolio
of sketches, caricatured, inadequate, and each giving only some
imperfect aspect of the original. Macaulay's smart paradoxes only
increase our perplexity by throwing the superficial contrasts into
stronger relief. Carlyle, with true imaginative insight, gives us at
once the essence of Johnson; he brings before our eyes the luminous body
of which we had previously been conscious only by a series of imperfect
images refracted through a number of distorting media. To render such a
service effectually is the highest triumph of criticism; and it would be
impertinent to say again in feebler language what Carlyle has expressed
so forcibly. We may, however, recall certain general conclusions by way
of preface to the problem which he has not expressly considered, how far
Johnson succeeded in expressing himself through his writings.

The world, as Carlyle sees it, is composed