Johnson eminently represents the persistence of classical dogma. He belongs to the older traditional, school of criticism and as its authority is being undermined by the rising romantic school, need is felt to assert its principles and to justify it.
Dr. Johnson is the spokesman of the classical school, he asserts effectively its doctrines, and hence Logouts and Cazamian call his classicism, “Doctrinal Classicism.”He was well-steeped in the writers of antiquity which had formed his reading since earliest times, and so his classicism is based on habit, upon the impression of the youth.
A respect for tradition is inmate in him; he has, “a fear of, or contempt for, all innovations, and his criticism everywhere reflects his search for stability and discipline order.” He throws all the force of his vigorous and towering personality in the defense of tradition, order, discipline and authority and it is largely owing to his sovereign influence that the reign of classicism is prolonged and the new spirit is kept down, though it continues to work beneath the surface. He was the literary dictator of his age and his influence did much to determine and shape critical theory of the age.