A belief has circulated, almost as widely as Johnson's writings, of his hurried and slovenly manner of composition. He has been represented by Boswell himself, as sending his papers to the press, and never afterwards even perusing them. With regard to the Rambler, this opinion is directly opposed to fact. The labour which he bestowed on its revision, betokened the most anxious zeal for its utility.[22] He almost _re-wrote_ it. A comparison of the original folio Rambler, with the copies now in circulation, would prove the nearly literal accuracy of this assertion. Mr. Chalmers, in his British Essayists, and Dr. Drake in his Essays on the Rambler, have given specimens.[23] It may perhaps be equally satisfactory to state that the alterations exceeded six thousand. Wherever Johnson laboured, amendment and excellence must have ensued. And on the Rambler no labour was misapplied; for its usefulness is universal. There is scarcely a situation in life for the regulation of which some right rule may not thence be drawn. It does not glitter to the vulgar eye, but it is a deep mine, where, if we must labour, yet our labours are rewarded with the richest ore. A varied knowledge of character is the first requisite for a teacher of moral prudence.[24] This was among Johnson's most early attainments, for his was not that mere "lip-wisdom which wants experience.[25]" He was not the recluse scholar, unacquainted with the world and its ways, but he could from actual survey describe, with equal fidelity, those who sparkled in the highest order of society, and those who struggled with distress in the lower walks of life. His study was peculiarly man: and his comprehensive and generalizing mind led him to analyze the primary elements of human nature, rather than nicely to pourtray the shades of mixed character. Mrs. Piozzi's assignments have perhaps little better foundation in fact than the sage conjectures of the Rumford club,[26] who fondly imagined themselves to be the only _Ridicules_ in the world. "Not only every man," observes the Rambler, "has in the mighty mass of the world great numbers in the same condition with himself, to whom his mistakes and miscarriages, escapes and expedients, would be of immediate and apparent use; but there is such an uniformity in the state of man, considered apart from adventitious and separable decorations and disguises, that there is scarce any possibility of good or ill but is common to human kind." Whether his view of our condition on earth was too gloomy or not, may be agitated as a question without any impeachment of his sincere desire to correct our faults, and to soothe our sorrows. For although other philosophers have deplored human weaknesses and errors, and other satirists have derided human follies, yet few have sympathized with the wretched and the guilty with the same warm-hearted benevolence as Johnson. He was indeed himself, as he has described another,