as a connoisseur tastes old wine. Perhaps no man ever lived whose senses were more exquisitely alive to the manifold joys of social existence. In the course of an ill-ordered life he did many a foolish thing: he talked too much about himself, and babbled of his melancholy to all who listened; he was vain, and, I fear, he was sensual; moreover, he was frequently and increasingly drunk. But he never insulted his Creator by regarding life as a dull and uninteresting business. The consummate proof of Boswell's delight in social life is of course his abiding habit of recording it. He was dissatisfied with mere reminiscence. He would not trust to his memory, marvelous though his memory was. He wanted as full and accurate an account of life as it was possible to set down. One of the most delightful and telling of his remarks is found near the opening of the "Life of Johnson," in which he speaks of his desire that the reader should "live o'er each scene" with Johnson, that he might as it were "see him live"; and then adds, "Had his other friends been as diligent and ardent as I was, he might have been almost completely preserved." To James Boswell log? Presented, as afmall, but finceres to ken From Mr William Wallace Inscription in Boswell's copy of Jaussin's Memoire de la Corse" the best-known account of Corsica before Boswell's CHAPTER IX JOURNAL-KEEPING AND JOURNAL-PUBLISHING How did Boswell take his notes? Did he take them on the spot, or did he write them up afterwards? Are we to think of him as sitting about the drawing-rooms of the eighteenth century, scratching away like a stenographer? Such questions, I think, the reader of the "Life of Johnson is always asking himself. They are natural, but are not entirely easy to answer. In the first place, most of the prima-facie evidence is lost. The notes on which the books were based have, in general, perished. In his will Boswell made the following provision for the publication of the materials preserved in the "cabinet" at Auchinleck: “I hereby leave to the said Sir William Forbes, the Reverend Mr. Temple and Edmond Malone, Esquire, all my manuscripts of my own composition, and all my letters from various persons, to be published for the benefit of my younger children, as they shall decide, that is to say, they are to have a discretionary power to publish more or less." The three executors seem to have lacked interest or initiative. They never met. All that we know of their rather shocking neglect of duty is derived from the remarks of the Reverend Dr. Rogers, one of the earlier biographers of Boswell, who appears to have had access to some private family information. He says: "The three persons nominated as literary executors did not meet, and the entire business of the trust was administered by Sir William Forbes, Bart., who appointed as his law-agent, Robert Boswell, Writer to the Signet, cousin-german of the deceased. By that gentleman's advice, Boswell's manuscripts were left to the disposal of his family; and it is believed that the whole were immediately destroyed." Comment on such action would be superfluous. Two of the journals, at least, escaped the flames. One was the so-called Commonplace Book, from which quotations have been often drawn in these essays, and the other was one of the journals used in the composition of the "Life of Johnson." The manuscript of the former I have never seen; it is, perhaps, lost. It was published in 1874, and has long been familiar to scholars. The original must have been either a note-book, in which entries were made at widely-separated intervals, or, perhaps, a series of loose sheets kept together in a portfolio. Although the order of the entries is strangely confused, there is some semblance of sequence. The earliest anecdotes belong to the year 1763, and the latest date recorded is 1785. It covers, therefore, the most interesting period of Boswell's life. It is clear that the book was not one of those intended for publication, or even regarded as material to be written up for publication. But it is no less significant and valuable, since it affords us a strictly personal view. It is, in truth, what it has generally been called-a commonplace book, from which, on occasion, the author might draw an anecdote or a mot. The other note-book is of a very different kind. It is, as has been said, one of the journals used in writing the "Life of Johnson." It was filled up at two different periods. In the first place, it contains, set down in chronological order, the facts in Johnson's boyhood and life at Oxford that Boswell had been able to learn from Miss Porter, Johnson's step-daughter, Dr. Adams, Mr. Hector, and others, during a visit to Ashbourne, Lichfield, and Oxford in March, 1776. This entry is continuous and chronological, covering Johnson's life down to his departure for London. An anecdote from Dr. Percy is added; and then, in the month of April, after the return to London, notes on Johnson's relations with Tom Hervey, contributed by Beauclerk, and Langton's account of Johnson's dispute with Dr. Barnard, Dean of Derry. All this, it will be noticed, is material that had been |