One of the highlights of Johnson's novel is that monitoring the lives of people would create a good detail of contemporary experience. It's very different from that of the romance, whose writers Johnson describes as people who "retire to his closet, let loose his invention, and heat his mind with incredibilities". The dichotomy between these two forms of writing is what Johnson saw as the chief difference between the novel and the romance. As a result, in order to write in a completely different way, the novelist must not "retire to his closet".

Johnson, Samuel. The Rambler, 31 March 1750. University of Pennsylvania Department of English, http://www.english.upenn.edu/~mgamer/Etexts/johnson.rambler.html

Johnson repeats phrases by the Roman poet Horace in order to heighten himself as a learned author and worthy critic. Horace was a Roman literary critic who exemplified the poet as the center of the social order. The work was highly influential, and through the beginning of the 18th century, quotes from his seminal work Ars Poetica were quoted, most notably in The Spectator and The Rambler. Johnson begins every one of rambler periodicals with a quote from Ars Poetica, which was also done by Addison for The Spectator. In this literary climate, and because of the reverence put towards classical writers during the Enlightenment period, Johnson used this in order to elevate his own position as a critic.

Source: “Ars Poetica by Horace.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, 13 Oct. 2009, www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/69381/ars-poetica .

Johnson choice of words shows his belief that with novels, he can produce people solely with good qualities. His insistence that his version of the novel will introduce people to life properly cannot be true since he also states, later in the passage he criticizes the tendency to "mingle good and bad qualities in their principal personages, that they are both equally conspicuous." However, the fact that people have dual emotions was not believed as much as the belief in shapable, unfurnished minds ties into this contradiction. This model for novels, however, does not introduce people properly to the bad parts of the world or the fact that no one is fully good or bad. However, he is a product of the thoughts of the time, which believed that the mind could be furnished to be anything.

Johnson, Samuel. The Rambler, 31 March 1750. University of Pennsylvania Department of English, http://www.english.upenn.edu/~mgamer/Etexts/johnson.rambler.html

Johnson's word choice shows that he also does not believe that people are naturally disposed to rationality. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, partial means "Unduly favouring or predisposed to favour one party or side in an argument." Johnson would view bias as one of the principal enemies of the rationality exalted in the age of the Enlightenment, and Johnson would view someone who lacked the ability to be rational as also unable to be truly moral.

"partial, adj. and n." OED Online, Oxford University Press, December 2019, www.oed.com/view/Entry/138227 . Accessed 11 February 2020.

Johnson's word choice shows his belief that there are no innate morals in any person. His belief that without the proper moral training evident in proper novels, people would be prone to "every false" suggestion shows that he believes that people can be made to think or do anything without moral instruction. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a past definition of suggestion is the prompting to incite evil by the devil. Choosing to use this word shows that without the proper guide, Johnson's view of people was that they could become very wicked and evil.

"suggestion, n." OED Online, Oxford University Press, December 2019, www.oed.com/view/Entry/193668 . Accessed 11 February 2020.

Johnson's word choice shows his interpretation of the workings of the mind as initially unfurnished. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a currently obsolete definition of idle would be "empty, vacant, void", which is exactly how Johnson viewed the minds of those who were not learned.

"idle, adj. and n." OED Online, Oxford University Press, December 2019, www.oed.com/view/Entry/91064 . Accessed 11 February 2020.

Johnson's use of the word "ignorant" further shows his belief in the theories of the unfurnished mind at the time. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word "ignorant" means that Johnson is referring to people who are "destitute of knowledge" and "unlearned". This furthers Johnson's opinion of novels as "lectures of conduct", where these people would be able to learn new things. However, it is a slight contradiction that he includes ignorant people in the group than can be helped by novel reading. Those destitute of knowledge would not really benefit from Johnson's preferred interpretation of the novel as a form of moral instruction. Johnson's interpretation of knowledge must be that it is drawn from morality in order for this to be true.

"ignorant, adj. and n." OED Online, Oxford University Press, December 2019, www.oed.com/view/Entry/91234 . Accessed 11 February 2020.

I found this interesting, especially since when we referred to the aristocracy in class, we talked about the rise of the middle class and aristocratic anxieties towards the education and "pop culture" of the middle class. The perfect example of the anxiety above is in Shamela, where Fielding challenges the idea that a poor-born girl can choose not to marry a richer man. It is interesting to see how at the time, the aristocracy's wealth was also climbing, and how at the same time we are discussing the middle class, the aristocracy are still in their "golden age".

Johnson's choice of words shows him contradicting himself on what he believes a novel should be. Later in the passage, he states that a novelist's responsibility is to "select objects, and to cull from the mass of mankind, those individuals upon which the attention ought most to be employ'd." As a result, he is again shying away from the writer to employ more realism in their work by taking a middle ground. Although he prides the novel in its ability to display the real world and people who live in it, Johnson only would support a novel that would have characters that act as a paragon of his moral standards.

Johnson, Samuel. The Rambler, 31 March 1750. University of Pennsylvania Department of English, http://www.english.upenn.edu/~mgamer/Etexts/johnson.rambler.html

Johnson mentions "not being approved" as unimportant in order to show what he thought was the exalted state of authors. Johnson states later in the passage that the novels of the day have the power to "take possession of the memory by a kind of violence, and produce effects almost without the intervention of the will." Because of this, Johnson believed the ideal author would be a person who was at a higher moral status, whose virtues should be displayed in their novels for people to follow by example.

Johnson, Samuel. The Rambler, 31 March 1750. University of Pennsylvania Department of English, http://www.english.upenn.edu/~mgamer/Etexts/johnson.rambler.html

Johnson's use of the word "danger" represents his scorn for much of the conformity of the common people. This could be seen by his allusion to the "shoemaker" later in the sentence, which is explained in another annotation. The danger he feels is not that people in the lower class are more interested in reading, but that more people will be more apt to criticize bad authors than ever before, which is unlike the Horatian values towards poets that was held by many of the time period.

Johnson, Samuel. The Rambler, 31 March 1750. University of Pennsylvania Department of English, http://www.english.upenn.edu/~mgamer/Etexts/johnson.rambler.html

Johnson's contradicts his promotion of realism in writing novels through this opinion of who should be portrayed in novels. Later in the same article, he states that it is "not a sufficient vindication of a character, that it is drawn as it appears, for many characters ought never to be drawn." As a result, Johnson is saying that even though he prizes authors who portray the world as accurately as possible, he states that there are many characters that should not be depicted in novels, even though they exist in reality. The choice of his portrayal of realism in novels shows what really matters and what he believes should exist, which is molded by the sensibilities of the time period.

Johnson, Samuel. The Rambler, 31 March 1750. University of Pennsylvania Department of English, http://www.english.upenn.edu/~mgamer/Etexts/johnson.rambler.html

Johnson's word choice exemplifies the difference between the novel and the romance of the past. The use of the word indulgence continues his past discussion of the romance, which he said was full of "machines" to drive the story, like "giants to snatch away a lady from the nuptial rites, nor knights to bring her back from captivity; it can neither bewilder its personages in desarts, nor lodge them in imaginary castles." He makes this difference because of the fact that the new novel is grounded in the real world, which means that the author of a novel can not use any of these devices. As a result, Johnson views it as "indulgence" since they are used to drive the plot by "easy means".

Johnson, Samuel. The Rambler, 31 March 1750. University of Pennsylvania Department of English, http://www.english.upenn.edu/~mgamer/Etexts/johnson.rambler.html

Johnson uses the word "impressions" in order to highlight a philosophical definition popular at the time. In Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature, Hume defines impressions as things that are innately taken from outer senses and inner passions. These impressions are more vivacious than thoughts and ideas, and all thoughts and ideas are built out of our impressions of the world. Johnson would have thought of impressions as the precursors to rational thought and he would dislike the notion of acting on impressions alone. The fact that Johnson uses the word "susceptible" in order to describe acting on these impressions that he saw them as a kind of disease that impeded people from thinking rationally.

Hume, David. A Treatise on Human Nature, Clarendon Press, 1896. Google Books, https://books.google.com/books?id=5zGpC6mL-MUC&pg=PR17&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q&f=false

Johnson’s choice to include this phrase shows his belief that novels should only be written by people who are learned and able to give moral instruction. This view can also be seen by Addison, who stated that, especially for the women, the novel could serve as a form of moral instruction. The word choice of “lectures of conduct” showed the faith that thinkers of the time had in novels as a way to fill the minds of people. However, Johnson's and Addison's goals of proper moral instruction also show their will to contribute to maintaining the status quo of the period. Addison states the one of the main purposes of his writing would be to "lead [young women] through all the becoming Duties of Virginity, Marriage, and Widowhood". As a result, the prescription of womanly duties by people like Johnson and Addison would lead to difference between what female readers should have the right to do and what the authors believe is right for them to do.

Addison, Joseph, and Richard Steele. The Spectator. Edited by Henry Morley, 1891. Project Gutenberg https://www.gutenberg.org/files/12030/12030-h/SV1/Spectator1.html#section4

Since the novels of the era stray from the common form of romance at the time, the good novelist to Johnson would be someone who goes out and experiences the way people talk to each other. This idea is built off the work of the Spectator by Addison and Steele. In The Spectator Volume 1 No. 4, Addison states that a good author would be "He who comes into Assemblies only to gratify his Curiosity." Johnson's opinion of a good novelist is similar to that of Addison, as the novel is about the daily lives of normal, middle class people.

Addison, Joseph, and Richard Steele. The Spectator. Edited by Henry Morley, 1891. Project Gutenberg https://www.gutenberg.org/files/12030/12030-h/SV1/Spectator1.html#section4

Johnson points out that past works of romance were only read by scholars and the upper class. In the paragraph, he draws a dichotomy between the upper class scholar familiar with the romances of the past and the common man. This dichotomy is made with the reference to the shoemaker made later in the sentence. This "malice" is typified by Henry Fielding. His work Shamela shows that anxiety that many of the wealthy had of new stories of the middle class. As seen in the Enlightenmens gallery, the cover of Shamela shows that Richardson's depiction of her was a "misrepresentation", and that she was not as innocence as she pretended to be. The fact that Pamela was in the working class showed Fielding's anxiety over the working class and his dissatisfaction that people of a lower standing than him could celebrate a book that was made for them. http://enlightenmens.lmc.gatech.edu/items/show/360

Johnson highlights the youth as one of the most important recipients of novels in his era. Previously in the passage, he that for the youth "caution, is required in every thing which is laid before them, to secure them from unjust prejudices, perverse opinions, and incongruous combinations of images." Johnson believed in the potential of the novel reform the youth more than many other of his contemporaries. In the Enlightenmens gallery, the cartoon displays the danger that novels were actually corrupting the mind and distracting people for their everyday work. Johnson disagreed with this view, was he says they are the chief beneficiaries of the novel done right. http://enlightenmens.lmc.gatech.edu/items/show/404

Johnson's word choice exemplifies his firm belief in the popular "tabula rasa" theory promulgated by John Locke. As seen in the Enlightenmens Gallery, much of the introductory part of John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding is based around Locke's proof that there are "no innate speculative principles in the mind." This idea of all ideas coming from sensation and reflection would support Johnson's claim of the mind being "unfurnished," as the empiricist understanding of the mind would mean that the only way that people learned what to do is by sensing things from their surroundings. http://enlightenmens.lmc.gatech.edu/items/show/116

Johnson includes this as a reference to the rapidly changing cultural shifts of the time. The "social revolution" occurring during the time period led to many quickly developing social trends. In the Enlightenmens Gallery, the etching depicts many of the hairstyles popular at the time, which shows the preference towards more socially acceptable, much more elaborate hairstyles. Johnson would have been cognizant of this wild trend towards elaboration in his society, and would have seen how the trend for everyone to be fashionable could effect the novel. Based on his preference of novels being with "little indulgence" would cause him to believe that the drive to make plots more socially acceptable would be counterproductive to them being used as tools for moral instruction. http://enlightenmens.lmc.gatech.edu/items/show/354

With this, Johnson alludes to other novels that were popular at the time, such as Pamela and Clarissa by Samuel Richardson. An engraving from a later edition of Pamela as seen in the Enlightenmens Gallery. The engraving shows Pamela and her parents going to Sunday Service, which would likely be a very common sight in Eighteenth century England. The accentuation of commonplace sights like these in novels would highlight the fact that they are made to depict everyday people. Pamela herself is a maid in the house of a wealthy man, the archetype of which many people would be familiar with. http://enlightenmens.lmc.gatech.edu/items/show/427

Through this, Johnson is saying that not all people can or should be novelists. Later in the passage, Johnson discusses that authors should have the ability to "distinguish those parts of nature, which are most proper for imitation" in order to make sure that readers are learning the right moral lessons. Johnson's pinpointing of preferred authors as "learned" would likely mean reading the theories of Locke. Locke's foremost theory was that the mind was an empty container, and that a person's mindset is made by "letting in" certain ideas. That's why a good novelist to Johnson would be someone who knows the proper ideas to have and would write that book to let the ideas into a person's head.

http://enlightenmens.lmc.gatech.edu/items/show/12

The following is a reference from Pliny's Natural History. Apelles was a Greek painter who painted in the view of the public. When a shoemaker walked by and stated that the shoe was drawn incorrectly, Apelles rectified it, but when the shoemaker started to criticize the leg in the painting, Apelles stated that a shoemaker must not go beyond his sandal. Johnson is contrasting the novel to all other literary forms, as the novel levels the amount of expertise needed to understand the plots of the stories of the novel. As a result, instead of works only facing criticism from scholars, it will also face criticism from "the common reader", who knows the common life the best.

Smith, William. “Apelles.” A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, Perseus Digital Library, www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0104:entry.

One chiefly historical definition of ruin from the Oxford English Dictionary is the "To dishonour (a woman) by seducing and then abandoning her."

"ruin, v." OED Online, Oxford University Press, December 2019, www.oed.com/view/Entry/168690. Accessed 7 February 2020.