1) Read the passages given below and answer the questions that follow:-
Had Dr Johnson written his own life, in conformity with the opinion which
he has given, that every man's life may be best written by himself, had he
employed in the preservation of his own history, that clearness of narration
and elegance of language in which he has embalmed so many eminent
persons, the world would probably have had the most perfect example of
biography that was ever exhibited.
Wherever narrative is necessary to explain, connect, and supply, I furnish it
to the best of my abilities, but in the chronological series of Johnson's life,
which I trace as distinctly as I can, year by year, I produce, wherever it is in
my power, his own minutes, letters, or conversation, being convinced that
this mode is more lively, and will make my readers better acquainted with
him, than even most of those were who actually knew him, but could know
him only partially, whereas there is here an accumulation of intelligence
from various points, by which his character is more fully understood and
illustrated.
Indeed I cannot conceive a more perfect mode of writing any man's life,
than not only relating all the most important events of it in their order, but
interweaving what he privately wrote, and said, and thought. Had his other
friends been as diligent and ardent as I was, he might have been almost
entirely preserved. As it is, I will venture to say that he will be seen in this
work more completely than any man who has ever yet lived.
And he will be seen as he really was, for I profess to write, not his
panegyric, which must be all praise, but his life; which, great and good as he
was, must not be supposed to be entirely perfect. To be as he was, is indeed
subject of panegyric enough to any man in this state of being; but in every
picture there should be shade as well as light, and when I delineate him
without reserve, I do what he himself recommended, both by his precept and
his example, as quoted below.
"If the biographer writes from personal knowledge, and makes haste to
gratify the public curiosity, there is danger lest his interest, his fear, his
gratitude, or his tenderness, overpower his fidelity, and tempt him to
conceal, if not to invent."
(a) On the basis of your reading of the Passage, answer the following
questions briefly.
() What was Dr Johnson's opinion on autobiographies? (ii) According to the
author, what would have happened if Dr Johnson had written his
autobiography? (iii) How does the author intend to acquaint his readers
completely with Dr Johnson's life? (iv) What does the author seem most
proud of, as mentioned in the Passage?
(v) In the quotation given in the last paragraph of the Passage, what is Dr
Johnson concerned about? (vi) What method of writing Dr Johnson's
Answers
Answer:
panegyric enough to any man in this state of being; but in every
picture there should be shade as well as light, and when I delineate him
without reserve, I do what he himself recommended, both by his precept and
his example, as quoted below.
"If the biographer writes from personal knowledge, and makes haste to
gratify the public curiosity, there is danger lest his interest, his fear, his
gratitude, or his tenderness, overpower his fidelity, and tempt him to
conceal, if not to invent."
(a) On the basis of your reading of the Passage, answer the following
questions briefly.
() What was Dr Johnson's opinion on autobiographies? (ii) According to the
author, what would have happened if Dr Johnson had written his
autobiography? (iii) How does the author intend to acquaint his readers
completely with Dr Johnson's life? (iv) What does the author seem most
proud of, as mentioned in the Passage?
(v) In the quotation given in the last paragraph of the Passage, what is Dr
Johnson concerned about? (vi) What method of writing Dr Johnson's