he might be a
proper person enough to apply to."

When I relate these various instances of contemptuous behaviour shown to
a variety of people, I am aware that those who till now have heard little
of Mr. Johnson will here cry out against his pride and his severity; yet
I have been as careful as I could to tell them that all he did was
gentle, if all he said was rough. Had I given anecdotes of his actions
instead of his words, we should, I am sure, have had nothing on record
but acts of virtue differently modified, as different occasions called
that virtue forth: and among all the nine biographical essays or
performances which I have heard will at last be written about dear Dr.
Johnson, no mean or wretched, no wicked or even slightly culpable action
will, I trust, be found, to produce and put in the scale against a life
of seventy years, spent in the uniform practice of every moral excellence
and every Christian perfection, save humility alone, says a critic, but
that I think _must_ be excepted. He was not, however, wanting even in
that to a degree seldom attained by man, when the duties of piety or
charity called it forth.

Lowly towards God, and docile towards the Church; implicit in his belief
of the Gospel, and ever respectful towards the people appointed to preach
it; tender of the unhappy, and affectionate to the poor, let no one
hastily condemn as proud a character which may perhaps somewhat justly be
censured as arrogant. It must, however, be remembered again, that even
this arrogance was never shown without some intention, immediate or
remote, of mending some fault or conveying some instruction. Had I meant
to make a panegyric on Mr. Johnson's well-known excellences, I should
have told his deeds only, not his words--sincerely protesting, that as I
never saw him once do a wrong thing, so we had accustomed ourselves to
look upon him almost as an excepted being: and I should as much have
expected injustice from Socrates, or impiety from Paschal, as the
slightest deviation from truth and goodness in any transaction one might
be engaged in with Samuel Johnson. His attention to veracity was without
equal or example: and when I mentioned Clarissa as a perfect character;
"On the contrary," said he, "you may observe there is always something
which she prefers to truth. Fielding's Amelia was the most pleasing
heroine of all the romances," he said, "but that vile broken nose, never
cured, ruined the sale of perhaps