Grampian Club > Boswelliana

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. XVll
said gravely of Goethe, that he measures the Uterary
facility of his friends by the extent of their appreciation
of his idol, it is to a composite creation of the genius of
the master and of the sympathetic talent of the disciple
that is paid this singular homage. For it was assuredly
a certain analogy of character that fitted Boswell to be
the friendly devotee and intellectual servitor of Dr. John-
son, and the resemblances of style and manner which are
visible even in the fragments brought together in this
volume cannot be regarded as parodies or conscious imi-
tations, but rather as illustrations of the mental har-
mony which enabled the reporter to produce with such
signal fidelity, in the words of another, his own ideal of
all that was good and great.
"Elia," with his charming othersidedness, writes, in
one place, " I love to lose myself in other men's minds,"
and in another, "the habit of too constant intercourse
with spirits above you instead of raising you, keeps
you down ; too frequent doses of original thinking from
others restrains what lesser portion of that faculty you
may possess in your own. You get entangled in another
man's mind, even as you lose yourself in another man's
ground ; you are walking with a tall varlet, whose
strides outpace yours to lassitude." Both observations
are true, and instances are not wanting of the spirit
of reverence and the habit of waiting on the words
and thoughts of those who are regarded as the spokes-
men of authority, emasculating the self-reliance and