Grampian Club > Boswelliana

190 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL.
he was the best fitted for the task. Like the astronomer who
points his telescope to the heavens in a darkened room, he
concentrated his mental energies on the objects of his reverence,
and with photographic accuracy depicted all that he surveyed.
In proportion as he failed to develop his own intellectual
nature, he succeeded in delineating the intellectual character of
others. A mirror true and transparent lay under the opaque
cloud, and reflected outward what a healthier intellect had
appropriated and transfused. If in respect of mental pheno-
mena the figure is admissible — the reflective faculty which is
ordinarily concave and thereby receptive, was in the mind of
Boswell convex and radiating outwards. The cords which
fettered his understanding braced his perception and nerved his
memory. He showed strength in weakness. The dry rod
budded. The grey ruin was mantled by the green ivy.
The fool prates unconscious of his folly; the maniac is
happy in his chain, Boswell was conscious of his weakness,
— hence his habitual melancholy. To Mr. Temple he early
spoke of madness existing in his family, and afterwards
described himself as partially insane. In his journal he
compares his head to a tavern usurped by low punch drinkers,
whom he could not displace. Such an unhappy consciousness
might have led to reckless perversity, or hopeless inaptitude.
In Boswell it stimulated to untiring effort, life-long energy.
His vanity and vacillation and rashness were attendant on a
distempered brain — his literary achievements were the result of
a successful conflict with constitutional disorder.
Boswell lived at a period when social excesses, especially in
North Britain, prevailed greatly. Into these excesses he fell,
but he freely acknowledged his errors, and sincerely repented.
Ambitious of personal honour, he nevertheless promoted sedu-
lously the interests of others. A fervid patriot, he was an obliging