Question

Q1. Read the given passage 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 clearess 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.​

Answer 1

Answer:

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

Answer 2

Answer:

I am taking free points