nd laid
his opponents low by dogmatism or ridicule, he leans back to "blow out his
breath like a whale" and gulp down numberless cups of hot tea. Yet this
curious dictator of an elegant age was a veritable lion, much sought after
by society; and around him in his own poor house gathered the foremost
artists, scholars, actors, and literary men of London,--all honoring the
man, loving him, and listening to his dogmatism as the Greeks listened to
the voice of their oracle.

What is the secret of this astounding spectacle? If the reader turns
naturally to Johnson's works for an explanation, he will be disappointed.
Reading his verses, we find nothing to delight or inspire us, but rather
gloom and pessimism, with a few moral observations in rimed couplets:

But, scarce observed, the knowing and the bold
Fall in the general massacre of gold;
Wide-wasting pest! that rages unconfined,
And crowds with crimes the records of mankind;
For gold his sword the hireling ruffian draws,
For gold the hireling judge distorts the laws;
Wealth heaped on wealth nor truth nor safety buys;
The dangers gather as the treasures rise.[193]

That is excellent common sense, but it is not poetry; and it is not
necessary to hunt through Johnson's bulky volumes for the information,
since any moralist can give us offhand the same doctrine. As for his
_Rambler_ essays, once so successful, though we marvel at the big words,
the carefully balanced sentences, the classical allusions, one might as
well try to get interested in an old-fashioned, three-hour sermon. We read
a few pages listlessly, yawn, and go to bed.

Since the man's work fails to account for his leadership and influence, we
examine his personality; and here everything is interesting. Because of a
few oft-quoted passages from Boswell's biography, Johnson appears to us as
an eccentric bear, who amuses us by his growlings and clumsy antics. But
there is another Johnson, a brave, patient, kindly, religious soul, who, as
Goldsmith said, had "nothing of the bear but his skin"; a man who battled
like a hero against poverty and pain and melancholy and the awful fear of
death, and who overcame them manfully. "_That trouble passed away; so will
this,_" sang the sorrowing Deor in the first old Anglo-Saxon lyric; and
that expresses the great and suffering spirit of Johnson, who in the face
of enormous obstacles never lost faith in God or in himself. Though he was
a rea