Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustration. See 52246-h.htm or 52246-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/52246/52246-h/52246-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/52246/52246-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/boswellbiographe00mallrich Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=). Text enclosed by plus signs is in Copperplate hand-written text. [oe] represents the oe-ligature. A carat character is used to denote superscription. In the text multiple superscripted characters are enclosed by curly brackets (example: 27^{th}). In the Index numerals following a carat character are superscripted and refer to the footnote from the page reference where the reference is only found in the footnote (example: 178^16). BOSWELL THE BIOGRAPHER [Illustration: +_April 27^{th}. 1753_+ +_Emery Walker Ph. So._+ +_James Boswell_+ +_from a drawing by George Dance R.A._+] BOSWELL THE BIOGRAPHER by GEORGE MALLORY With a Portrait by George Dance, R.A. London Smith, Elder & Co., 15 Waterloo Place 1912 [All rights reserved] PREFACE The responsibility for upwards of 300 pages in print is a burden which my unaccustomed conscience cannot easily bear, and by accepting it I lose for ever the unassailable dignity of private criticism. In these circumstances I approach my readers in an apologetic frame of mind. I shall not apologise for writing a dull book by explaining in what manner it is interesting. I had thought of doing something of the sort, but at the present moment that course presents insuperable difficulties. An explanation, if not apology, is however necessary; for this volume is in one sense a compromise. It is less than a biography and more than an essay. It aims at being not a complete Life of Boswell, but an explanation of his character. This purpose may not seem to require so long a treatment as mine. Certainly it would have been easier to say, and easier to read, all that I have said about Boswell's psychology in far fewer words. But my design was to prove my case. Boswell has been so much a subject of controversy that, were I merely to state my views, I should convince, if anyone is to be convinced by me, only those who had observed the same facts as myself--the facts upon which those views are based. By bringing forward the evidence without stint I have hoped to establish my opinions on a firmer base.