The Life of Samuel Johnson

In 1750, Johnson begins another of his most famous projects: founding the periodical The Rambler. His essays for the magazine are wide-ranging in subject matter and philosophical in tone, presenting Johnson as a “majestick teacher of moral and religious wisdom” (143). Johnson models The Rambler on such previous publications as The Tatler and The Spectator, which were very popular with the public but had ceased publication by this time. Johnson publishes The Rambler every Tuesday and Friday until 1752. He writes most of the essays himself except for a handful which he commissions from other authors, usually writing “in haste as the moment pressed, without even being read over by him before they were printed” (145).

Boswell muses on the anomaly between this speed of composition and the thoughtful, considered tone of the essays. He explains that Johnson made rough notes before writing the essays, and he shares several of these to give the reader some insight into Johnson’s working methods. Boswell sees The Rambler as a major part of Johnson’s career, filled with “astonishing force and vivacity of mind” (152) and combining moral “instruction” and “noble sentiment” with “amusement” and wit.

The discussion of The Rambler leads Boswell to embark on a defense of Johnson’s

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