wledge, and research, fit to form
the equipment of a professed scholar.

Boswell foresaw the danger, and he justified his method of reporting
conversations. 'It may be objected by some persons, as it has been by
one of my friends, that he who has the power of thus exhibiting an exact
transcript of conversations is not a desirable member of society. I
repeat the answer which I made to that friend:--'Few, very few, need be
afraid that their sayings will be recorded. Can it be imagined that I
would take the trouble to gather what grows on every hedge, because I
have collected such fruits as the _Nonpareil_ and the _Bon Chretien_? On
the other hand, how useful is such a faculty, if well exercised! To it
we owe all those interesting apophthegms and _memorabilia_ of the
ancients, which Plutarch, Xenophon, and Valerius Maximus, have
transmitted to us. To it we owe all those instructive and entertaining
collections which the French have made under the title of _Ana_, affixed
to some celebrated name. To it we owe the Table-Talk of Selden, the
_Conversation_ between Ben Jonson and Drummond of Hawthornden, Spence's
_Anecdotes_ of Pope, and other valuable remains in our own language. How
delighted should we have been, if thus introduced into the company of
Shakespeare and of Dryden, of whom we know scarcely anything but their
admirable writings! What pleasure would it have given us, to have known
their petty habits, their characteristick manners, their modes of
composition, and their genuine opinion of preceding writers and of their
contemporaries!'

The world in consideration of what it has gained, and the recollection
of what we should have acquired had such a reporter been found for the
talk of other great men, has long since forgiven Boswell, and forgotten
also his baiting the doctor with questions on all points, his rebuffs
and his puttings down--'there is your _want_, sir; I will not be put to
the question;' his watching 'every dawning of communication from that
illuminated mind;' his eyes goggling with eagerness, the mouth dropt
open to catch every syllable, his ear almost on the shoulder of the
doctor, and the final burst of 'what do you do there, sir,--go to the
table, sir,--come back to your place, sir.'

And these conversations which he reported in his short-hand, yet 'so as
to keep the substance and language of discourse?' How far did he
Johnsonize the form or matter? The remark by Burke to Mackintosh, that
Johnson w