he force to throw vitality and truth into what persons
differently constituted might reckon a mere external ceremony, and an
absurd one, would not have failed to see this necessity. I am resolved,
therefore, that the true site of Dr. Johnson's penance was in the middle
of the market-place.

How strange and stupid it is that tradition should not have marked and
kept in mind the very place! How shameful (nothing less than that) that
there should be no local memorial of this incident, as beautiful and
touching a passage as can be cited out of any human life! No inscription
of it, almost as sacred as a verse of Scripture on the wall of the church!
No statue of the venerable and illustrious penitent in the market-place to
throw a wholesome awe over its earthliness, its frauds and petty wrongs of
which the benumbed fingers of conscience can make no record, its selfish
competition of each man with his brother or his neighbor, its traffic of
soul-substance for a little worldly gain! Such a statue, if the piety of
the people did not raise it, might almost have been expected to grow up
out of the pavement of its own accord on the spot that had been watered by
the rain that dript from Johnson's garments, mingled with his remorseful
tears.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Seeing Europe with Famous Authors,
Volume I., by Various

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