During the latter half of his life he gathered about him a coterie of the most intellectual men of the day, nearly all of whom belonged to the literary society known as the Club. Burke, Goldsmith, Gibbon, Garrick, Reynolds, and Boswell were among his intimates.
THE MAN
1. To see Johnson, the thinker and the man, read Boswell's "Life," II, 100 ff., and then take up the following questions:
2. What attitude did Johnson maintain toward religious questions?
3. Quote Goldsmith on his roughness of manner.
4. What was Johnson's opinion of the married state?
5. Would you judge him to have been of a harsh or tender disposition?
6. See Frances Burney's account of his sociability. II, 339 ff.
7. In what respect was the Doctor a typical Anglo-Saxon? VIII, 259.
8. What distinguishes Boswell from most biographers? II, 100.