十八世紀英國的啟蒙時代包含了許多制度及思想起始，進而形成了 現代社會的基礎。這時代的中心思想，以英國文學研究中最耳熟能詳 的，也就是「賽彌爾•強森時代」。此時的賽彌爾•強森創作的英國語 文字典及他一系列的文學評論——「英國詩人傳」，在文學評論及詞典 編篡歷史上留下了深遠的影響。除此之外，強森還創作了一系列的自我 提昇論文，後來這些論文也備為推崇並大量的印刷地集結成冊且影響深 遠的有《漫步者》及《閒人》。從他的作品當中以及其友人所作的強森 傳記中，我們可以由激勵強森對於道德上的、自我提昇、教育方面以及 影響這些觀點結構的社會政治體系議題之創作來源及思維，來重建強森 創作的觀點。

The British Enlightenment of the eighteenth-century contains the origins of many of the institutions and ideas that constitute the basis of the modern world. The heart of this era is known in English studies as “The Age of Johnson.” At this time Samuel Johnson wrote his great dictionary of the English language, and his huge series of literary criticism “Lives of the English Poets,”----which are seminal works in the history of lexicography and criticism. In addition, Johnson wrote a large series of essays on selfimprovement that were later collected in the extremely popular and influential (and now mostly forgotten) volumes of The Rambler and The Idler. From his writings in these works, and his views as reconstructed in the biographies of Johnson written by his friends, we can reconstruct the origins and thinking which motivated his equally influential writings on morality, self-improvement, and education, and the socio-political issues that influenced the formation of these views.