By James V. Schall, S.J., The Catholic Thing - Whenever things look particularly bleak, I turn to Samuel Johnson. In The Idler for 21 October 1758, he wrote: “It has been the endeavor of all those whom the world reverenced for superior wisdom to persuade man to be acquainted with himself, to learn his own powers and his own weakness, to observe by what evils he is most dangerously beset, and by what temptations most easily overcome.”