Grampian Club > Boswelliana

MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 191
neighbour, a generous companion, and an unfailing friend. He
exercised an abundant hospitality. Angry at times he was
easily reconciled, and hastened to forgive. His religious views,
long unfixed, were never wholly obscured ; he passed through
the ordeals of credulity and scepticism, and at length returning
to his old moorings, determined to know nothing but a Saviour
crucified. In his Will, prepared within the retirement of his
closet, he made this record of his trust, — "I resign my soul to
God, my almighty and most merciful Father, trusting that it
will be redeemed by the awful and mysterious sacrifice of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and admitted to eternal felicity in heaven."
Dr. Johnson, who knew his weaknesses, commended his piety,
and Sir William Forbes, another enlightened judge of human
character, has borne concerning him this testimony : —
"I have known few men who possessed a stronger sense of
piety, or more fervent devotion (tinctured no doubt with some
little share of superstition, which had probably been in some
degree fostered by his habits of intimacy with Dr. Johnson),
perhaps not always sufficient to regulate his imagination or
direct his conduct, yet still genuine, and founded both in his
understanding and his heart."*
Of Boswell's personal aspects, the full length portrait by Lang-
ton, engraved for this volume, is understood to convey a correct
representation. Eather above the middle height, and inclined to
corpulency, he walked with a stately gait, and in his costume
observed the latest fashion. He had a large head, and wore a
powdered wig ; his prominent but well set features beamed with
perpetual good humour. " It was impossible," remarked a
contemporary, " to look in his face without being moved by the
* " Life of James Beattie, LL.D.," by Sir William Forbes, of
Pitsligo, Bart., Edinb. 1807, 3 vols., vol. iii., p. 378.