Dickens, Thackeray, and many others, lived and wrote in the nineteenth century, and are great Victorians. Hardy is partly Victorian and partly Georgian. Kipling and Barrie belong to the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. We live now in the first half of the twentieth century. {188} CHAPTER XXVII BOSWELL'S LIFE OF JOHNSON A man called James Boswell, who lived in the eighteenth century, chose as his hero a celebrated personage whose name was Samuel Johnson. Boswell was willing, indeed eager and determined, to go about with Johnson from place to place, to listen to what he said, and then to make notes of Johnson's conversation. Boswell was a devoted friend, and Johnson was worthy of his friendship, for he was a truly great man. Boswell spared no pains to learn everything that he could of Johnson's youth, of his family and friends, of his work and character. In this way, James Boswell prepared himself to write the life of Dr. Johnson. Boswell's _Life of Johnson_ is certainly one of the greatest biographies ever written. Many people think that it is the greatest of all biographies, because it tells us with truth, fidelity and fullness what manner of man Dr. Johnson was. There are many odd things about Boswell's _Life of Johnson_. One of the oddest is that Johnson did not like Scotland, or the people of Scotland, but Boswell was a Scot. Johnson, who was outspoken in an extraordinary degree, and somewhat rough, rather what we call a bear of a man, was often rude to Boswell, who, perhaps, was not a {189} little tiresome. But Boswell never minded what happened, or what was said, as long as he could be in Johnson's company. Samuel Johnson's parents were very poor. He was not even a strong boy, and was often ill. One of the reasons why we admire Johnson is that he contended bravely with poverty and ill-health all his life. He never put money first, or perhaps he might have been rich, in which case, possibly, we might never have heard of him. He does not seem to have thought it any particular hardship to suffer from ill-health. He does not talk, or write, of being ill. What he did put first in his life was scholarship, work, friendship, companionship, and living in accordance with high principles. How do we know all this, and how can we be certain that it is true? We know because we find Johnson's character in Boswell's _Life_. No one can read this _Life of Johnson_ by Boswell without being certain that Boswell took great pains to write what was true, and that he succeeded.