The review is devoted to the analysis of the monograph, which examines the place and role of the educator S. Johnson in the spiritual life of British society in the second half of the 18th century. The reviewer shows that the author of the monograph was able to convincingly prove that the intellectual heritage of the compiler of the “Dictionary of the English Language”, a moralist and literary critic, most fully reflected the trend towards self-identification that dominated contemporary English culture. The reviewer’s attention is focused on considering how this problem was solved.