Sir Joshua Reynolds in the dedication, 'perceived all the
shades which mingled in the grand composition; all the peculiarities and
slight blemishes which marked the literary Colossus.' The inclusion of
the letters and of private details was an integral part of his scheme.
When he introduced the subject of biography at Dr Taylor's, no doubt
with his own book in his eye, he said that in writing a man's life the
man's peculiarities should be mentioned because they mark his character.
When he resolved on their publication, he thought it right to ask
Johnson explicitly on this point, and the reply was what in 1773 the
doctor had given to Macleod in Skye, when he had asked if Orrery had
done wrong, to expose the defects of Swift with whom he had lived in
terms of intimacy. 'Why, no, sir,' Johnson had decided, 'after the man
is dead, for then it is done historically.' A biographer that would omit
or disguise the relations of Nelson to Lady Hamilton, would be justly
suspected of disingenuousness, and Lockhart, especially in his treatment
of the political side of his subject,--for example in the notorious
_Beacon_ incident--is but too open to this charge. But disingenuousness
is a charge that never could have occurred to Boswell, whose veracity is
the prime quality that has made him immortal. When the _Journal_ was in
the press, Hannah More, studious of the name of the moralist and the
sage, 'besought him to mitigate his asperities.' 'I will not,' said
Boswell roughly, but wisely for posterity, 'cut off his claws, nor make
a tiger a cat to please anyone.'

Boswell's books are veritable books. Few books have had such a severe
test applied to them. His first was dedicated to Paoli, whose sanction
must be taken to guarantee every line of it. "In every narrative," he
writes in the dedication to Malone of the _Journal_, "whether historical
or biographical, authenticity is of the utmost consequence. Of this I
have ever been so firmly persuaded that I inscribed a former work to
that person who was the best judge of its truth. Of this work the
manuscript was daily read by Johnson, and you have perused the original
and can vouch for the strict fidelity of the present publication." His
_Life of Johnson_ was as fearlessly dedicated to Sir Joshua Reynolds,
one whose intimacy with Johnson could stamp, with assured knowledge of
the subject, the credit and success of the work. Among the 'some dozen,
or baker's dozen, and those chiefly of very a