In manners and speech something of the brutalism which was at the root of the English character at the time began to colour the refinement of the preceding age.

Dilettantism gave way to learning and speculation; in the place of Bolingbroke came Adam Smith; in the place of Addison, Johnson.
In a way it is the solidest and sanest time in English letters.

Yet in the midst of its urbanity and order forces were gathering for its destruction.

The ballad-mongers were busy; Blake was drawing and rhyming; Burns was giving songs and lays to his country-side.

In the distance--Johnson could not hear them--sounded, like the horns of elf-land faintly blowing, the trumpet calls of romance.
If the whole story of Dr.Johnson's life were the story of his published books it would be very difficult to understand his pre-eminent and symbolic position in literary history.