Even in literary criticism, this balance and specificity is such a pleasure. It's one of the things I love about Samuel Johnson's essays. (Contrast with what pe

Even in literary criticism, this balance and specificity is such a pleasure. It's one of the things I love about Samuel Johnson's essays. (Contrast with what people are saying in the article about failing literary magazines.) I just started reading Boswell's biography, and the introduction to the Everyman's Library edition makes the same point: > Part of this comes from a literal-mindedness that won't mistake one fault for another or all others. This worked even when his dominant feeling was not of fondness (as for Smart) but of dislike (as for Sterne). Boswell reports Goldsmith toadying up to Johnson, in a conversation on Sterne, by saying 'And a very dull fellow': Johnson replied 'Why, no, sir.' Fact.