Dr. Johnson’s Blunders
Considering that Doctor Johnson was himself a severe verbal critic, it might be expected that his own writings would be correct. But he wrote: “Every monumental inscription should be in Latin; for that being a dead language it will always live.” Another Johnsonian lapsus is palpable in the lines—
“Nor yet perceived the vital spirit fled,
But still fought on, nor knew that he was dead.”
It would puzzle the reader to understand how a warrior could continue fighting after he was dead.