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76
BOSWELL'S LETTERS
appears to have treated him as though he
were what the world took him for and that
;
Francis, who saw these underlined manuscripts,
and yet persisted in the conventional
view of Boswell, was not a Mid-Victorian prig
but a common imbecile. It is true that he
has been stupid enough to mangle and emasculate
the letters that he was employed to
publish ; an officious prude unquestionably
he was, but no fool, much less an idiot.
To discuss the character of Boswell has
ever been a delicate, not to say dangerous,
undertaking ; but at least we may affirm that
those who, judging him from the " Life of
Johnson," are dissatisfied with the ordinary,
unfavourable view, will not be put out of
countenance by these letters. To be sure
they will not be disappointed of the "
popular
Bozzy," ridiculous, vain, and a little vulgar,
something of a snob, of a sycophant even,
with an undignified zeal for notoriety and an
imperfect moral sense but beside him ;
they
will find another Boswell, the friend of Hume
and Johnson, with his passion for excellence,
generous nature, good understanding, and
genius for observation a man by no means
to be despised. They will see how this man
expresses thoughts and feelings, often sufficiently
commonplace, in words so astonishingly
appropriate that we are amazed by