"Now that the old lion is dead . . . . "

A friend forwarded an article that has appeared in a once noble Catholic publication that no longer deserves to be named, impugning the late Fr. Richard John Neuhaus. Upon reading it, a passage from Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson came rushing to mind. Writing of the aftermath of Johnson's death, Boswell said: 

Many who trembled at his presence were forward in assault when they no longer apprehended danger. When one of his little pragmatical foes was invidiously snarling at his fame, at Sir Joshua's Reynolds' table, the Revd. Dr. Parr exclaimed with his usual bold animation, "Aye, now that the old lion is dead every ass thinks that he may kick at him."