Homage to Samuel Johnson

The title of this blog is one of the papers the man better known as Dr Johnson wrote essays in, perhaps even edited.

(Yesterday I stumbled upon the quote which says the trouble with facts is that there are far too many of them. But then, this is easily found out if you have an itch.)

Samuel Johnson is celebrated as the first creator of an English dictionary, famous for its definitons: for example oat is defined as a plant used to support horses and, in Scotland - people.

But it is quite unfortunate that very few people nowadays read Johnson. Perhaps this is the result of his neo-classical works, but he wrote such darling essays.

The quality of these can be ascertained best by checking one of today's compendiums we sadly need, like de Botton's How Proust Can Change Your Life. The highbrow writing of old days that can be illustrated by listing causes of malady (1. the frailty of our bodies; 2. the inconstancy of love; 3. the insincerity of social life; 4. the compromise of friendship; 5. the deadening effect of routine and habits) is replaced by idiotic summarizing and feeble quips.

I therefore invite the gentle visitor (I am reluctant to use the word reader) to open On Bashfulness, a 4 page masterpiece by S. Johnson. This should not waste too much time if I am wrong that the text lost its lustre.

What follows is the main idea so do not proceed if you, like me, like your soup untouched. Please leave a comment.

The bashful can perhaps be helped just as much as a negro suffering from the cold in the Arctic. Some advice can be given though but as any good medicine - the taste is sour. The principal cause of bashfulness is too grand an opinion of oneself. If you pay attention of just how much attention you give to others - you will soon realize they take no heed of you. Therefore the world is not suspended on your next syllable.
"After all, the worst we can fear - and the best we can hope for - is to fill a vacant hour with prattle and be forgotten."