Samuel Johnson, Biography

These are notes taken from  Samuel Johnson's biography, but the one by John Wain 1974, so this is not the official Boswell biography.

Image credits: Samuel Johnson by Joshua Reynolds, the first picture in 1775 and the second in 1772. The third picture had to wait until about 2010, but comfortably inhabits the internet hall of fame as a meme, seen here in the original macro image series formula, and usually placed after a screenshot of some crazy comment or question already posted online (filed as "dafuq" as in "wtf did I just read").

• On the Episode of Dr. Swinfin and the Latin Document (AKA 1700's HIPAA) - Johnson calls on a Dr. Swinfin to help with his depression, but because of his enviable command of language, he wrote out his symptoms in Latin, to which Swinfin was so impressed, he showed all his friends. p59
• On Living Cheaply - he only made social calls on 'clean shirt days' p80
• On Psalmanazar the Faker - this was a friend of his, and this guy is so crazy, I need to write it out: He (Psalm.) got taken into another man's plot, to be 'converted' to Christianity by baptism, but pretending ot be Formosan it made the other guy look good as a clergyman. It worked, and the clergyman got his chaplaincy, and Psalmanazar stayed in London, as a Formosan, while he completely fabricated a book about his birthplace (published 1704). But wait - in the process he created a fake Formosan language, and made up all the letters, and was send to Oxford to teach it to young men who would go as missionaries. He would burn a candle all night in his window so people thought he was studying non-stop. p121 (no update given on what happened to those poor missionaries)
• Samuel Johnson started his Dictionary at a time when England was not yet as powerful as an empire. They didn't have all the academies and learned men and public money and private patronage. They had an agreement between seven different booksellers and the genius of S.J. The biography's author calls this an example of the 'enlightened behavior' the free market is sometimes capable of. p130
• The most polite letter ever - actually he was a very polite person in general, but this I'd like to copy, for the edification of any reader; this was written to a gentleman who asked how he could get a copy of the Dictionary when it came out, and despite his being a total stranger, Johnson wrote this response: Sire, If you imagine that by delaying my answer I intended to show any neglect of the notice with which you have favored me, you will neither think justly of yourself nor of me. Your civilities were offered with too much elegance not to engage attention, and I have too much pleasure in pleasing men like you, not to feel very sensibly the distinction which you have bestowed upon me. ... p200-201
• On what I will call the Evolution of Authority; he's working with a professor at Oxford to help him write lectures, this one is about kingship, called "The King and his Coronation Oath" - In that age of prejudice and ignorance, when the civil institutions were yet few, and the securities of legal obligation very weak, both because offenses against the law were often unpunished, and because the law itself could be but little known, it was necessary to invest the king with some thing of a sacred character that might secure obedience by reverence, and more effectually preserve his person from danger and violation. For this reason it was necessary to interpose the clerical authority that the crown being imposed by a holy hand might communicate some sanctity to him that wore it. And, accordingly, the inauguration of a king is by our ancient historians termed consecration; and the writings, both fabulous and historical, of the Middle Ages connect with royalty some supernatural powers. p272
• And then, he's writing about the American colonists (and he's kind of against them I think), but I might just call it 'Being Human' - No man has a right to any good without partaking of the evil by which that good is necessarily produced; no man has a right to security by another's danger, nor to plenty by another's labor, but as he gives something of his own which he who meets the danger, or undergoes the labour, but as he gives something of his own which he who meets the danger, or undergoes the labour considers as equivalent; no man has a right to the security of government without bearing his share of inconveniences. ... If by forsaking our native country we could carry away all its happiness and leave its evils behind, what human being would not wish for exile? p272
• "A decent provision of the poor is a true test of a civilization." p280
• Forsooth!
• They used to wear an ink horn dangling from the lapel, for writing on the go. p357