...consistencies and come to know something about the characteristic, distinctive, or peculiar. But if Johnson thought "that there has rarely passed a life of which...judicious and faithful narrative would not be useful" (Rambler 60), he also knew that "the greater part of mankind 'have no character at all/ have little...

...Johnson argued that the life of the ordinary person best reveals the vicissitudes of human nature: 'There has rarely passed a life of which a judicious and faithful narrative would not be useful.' He continued, 'We are all prompted by the same motives, all deceived by the same 5 Rousseau, Confessions,...

...reminded here of a quote of Samuel Johnson, who was himself the subject of a very famous biography : there has rarely passed a life of which a judicious...be of immediate and apparent use; but there is such a uniformity in the state of man . . . that there is scarce any possibility of good or ill, but is...

...minds, by recognizing them as our own, or considering them as naturally incident to our state of life. For, not only every man has, in the mighty mass of...be of immediate and apparent use; but there is such a uniformity in the state of man, considered apart from adventitious and separable decorations and...

...selecting and placing every ingredient, all to add up to the portrait they want. SELECTING THE SUBJECT "There has rarely passed a life of which a judicious and faithful narrative would not be useful," wrote Samuel Johnson. 3 I have to say right here, as undemocratic as it may sound, that I don't agree...

...only every man has, io the nughty mass of the world, great numbers in the same condition wuh hnnself, to whom his mistakes and miscarriages, escapes and expedients, would be of nnmediate and apparent use; but there is such a uniformity in the state of man. considered apart from...

...fourth argument for the grounding of a discourse on the particular could be called a political argument: "I have often thought that there has rarely passed...which a judicious and faithful narrative would not be useful...there is such an uniformity in the state of man, considered apart from adventitious and separable...

...Representation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995). 41. Samuel Johnson, Rambler, no. 60: "l have often thought that there has rarely passed a...judicious and faithful Narrative would not be useful." ln Tillotson, et al., Eighteenth-Century Literature, 986. easy enough to get legitimately; it was easier...

...accurately and configure intelligibly, imaginatively, sympathetically, and usefully the life of another: "I have often thought that there has rarely passed...judicious and faithful narrative would not be useful" (Rambler 60, in, ^10). To imagine Johnson in conversation, in addition to reading his writings on this...

...idea can be found earlier, as in Dr. Samuel Johnson's ([1750] 1953, p. 133) comment in The Rambler: "I have often thought that there has rarely passed...judicious and faithful narrative would not be useful." 31. 1 also found few descriptions of the physical appearance of the autobiographers unless they differed...