We have felt constrained to protest against Lord Rosebery's somewhat
hasty adoption of the conventional views in regard to Johnson; this is but a very small blot on a really great speech. The larger part of the address is a most charming analysis of the relations between Boswell and Johnson. This analysis, we do not hesitate to say, puts those relations more vividly than they have ever been put before. If Lord Rose- bery does not miss any of the humour of the human situation created by so strange a friendship, he also shows all its kindliness and pathos. The truth is, Johnson was a childless man, but yet one brimming over with domestic affection and domestic instincts, and here was Boswell ready to play in some measure the part of a devoted son. Can we wonder that Johnson and Boswell soon formed ties of real affection? After all, though we may laugh at Boswell, he must have been a very attractive person, a sort of human squirrel full of brightness and quick ways, and able to make his habit of poking into every hole and corner of his friends' minds seem not an impertinence or intrusion, but something to be tolerated and appreciated, just like a pet squirrel's incursions into one's pockets.
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