course, not to
be denied that Boswell's _Life_ includes a large amount of matter wholly
unimportant in itself, relating to persons and events that have no
independent claim on the interest of readers of the present day. But it
does not follow that such details are superfluous and may properly be
weeded out. They give us the _milieu_, to use M. Taine's word, in which
Johnson's character and intellect were developed and displayed, the
perspective in which his career is to be viewed, the background from
which his figure stands out in bold relief. The impression they make
upon us is an essential part of the effect which is produced by the
book, deepening the sense of reality and the charm of intimate
familiarity which have so much to do with its abiding fascination. And
the style and manner of the narration are no less an integral part of
it. The book is not only a biography, but an autobiography. Johnson
without Boswell is Don Quixote without Sancho, Lear without the Fool,
Orestes without Pylades. It is safe to say, not only that a thousand
incidents of Johnson's life and conversation would never have been
preserved but for Boswell, but that some of the most amusing and
remarkable of them would never have occurred. The tour to Scotland and
the Hebrides, which may be said to have been the one romantic episode of
Johnson's life, bringing him into scenes and among characters widely
contrasted with his habitual surroundings, is one instance, and the
memorable midnight "frisk" in the neighborhood of the Temple is another,
among many that might be cited. To separate these two men, to reduce
Boswell to the status of a mere "reporter" or "authority," to repeat his
stories and records of conversation in any language but his own, to
interlard them with the comments and reflections of a superior wisdom,
seems to us a sort of moral offence as well as an impertinence. Mr.
Leslie Stephen is, without doubt, a very skilful workman, and has
brought to his task all the knowledge, taste and judgment, if not the
perfectly sympathetic tone, which the most exacting reader could
demand. It may, too, be urged on his behalf that he has written for
those who have not the leisure to make themselves acquainted with the
work which he has condensed. We can only reply that his talents would
have found ample scope in a more fitting field, and that people who
cannot spare the time to read Boswell can well afford to be ignorant of
Johnson.

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