Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Life of Johnson

"Indeed I cannot conceive a more perfect mode of writing any man's life, than not only relating all the most important events of it in their order, but interweaving what he privately wrote, and said, and thought; by which mankind are enabled as it were to see him live, and to 'live o'er each scene' with him, as he actually advanced through the several stages of his life. Had his other friends been as diligent and ardent as I was, he might have been almost entirely preserved. As it is, I will venture to say that he will be seen in this work more completely than any man who has ever yet lived.
And he will be seen as he really was; for I profess to write, not his panegyrick, which must be all praise, but his Life; which, great and good as he was, must not be supposed to be entirely perfect. To be as he was, is indeed subject of panegyrick enough to any man in this state of being; but in every picture there should be shade as well as light, and when I delineate him without reserve, I do what he himself recommended, both by his precept and his example."
(Life of Johnson by James Boswell)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Best bio ever...

Cousin J.

conde-duque said...

Thanks for the comment, John G-P.

Anonymous said...

Simetría.
Me recomiendan su blog,entro hoy por primera vez y coincide la entrada con el libro que estoy terminando en estos momentos.
Editorial Acantilado.
2000 maravillosas páginas.
Boswell y Johnson. Dos tipos peculiares,todo hay que decirlo

conde-duque said...

Me alegro de la coincidencia. Póngase un nombre cualquiera, don Anónimo, así perseverará en su ser con el paso del tiempo...
no sé ni lo que digo