About eight or ten days before his death, when Dr. Brocklesby paid him 1784. his morning visit, he seemed very low and desponding, and said, “ I have Ærat. 77. been as a dying man all night.” He then emphatically broke out, in the words of Shakspeare, To which Dr. Brocklesby readily antwered from the same great poet : therein the patient 66 Must minister unto himself." Johnson expressed himself much fatisfied with the application. On another day after this, when talking on the subject of prayer, Dr. Brocklesby repeated from Juvenal, « Orandum est ut fit mens fana in corpore sano," and so on to the end of the tenth satire; but in running it quickly over ei he happened in the line Qai spatium vitæ extremum inter munera ponat," to pronounce fupremum for extremum ; at which Johnson's critical ear instantly took offence, and discoursing vehemently on the unmetrical effect of such a lapse, he shewed himself as full as ever of the spirit of the grammarian. Having no near relations, it had been for some time Johnson's intention to make a liberal provision for his faithful servant, Mr. Francis Barber, whom he looked upon as particularly under his protection, and whom he had all along treated truly as an humble friend. Having asked Dr. Brocklesby what . would be a proper annuity to bequeath to a favourite servant, and being answered that it must depend on the circumstances of the master; and that in the cale of a nobleman fifty pounds a year was considered as an adequate reward for many years faithful service, “ Then (said Johnson) shall I be nobilifsimis, for I mean to leave Frank seventy pounds a year, and I desire you to tell him fo.” It is strange, however, to think, that Johnson was not free from 4 D 2 that 1784. Atat. 75. that general weakness of being averse to execute a will, so that he delayed it from time to time; and had it not been for Sir John Hawkins's repeatedly urging it, I think it is probable that his kind resolution would not have been fulfilled. After making one which, as Sir John Hawkins informs us,, extended no further than the promised annuity, Johnson's final disposition of his property was established by a Will and Codicil, of which copies are subjoined ? The a ; 2 “ In The Name of God. AMEN. I Samuel Jonnson, being in full possession of my faculties, but fearing this night may put an end to my life, do ordain this my last Will and Testament. I bequeath to God a soul polluted with many sins, but I hope purified by JESUS CHRIST.-I leave seven hundred and fifty pounds in the hands of Bennet Langton, Esq. three hundred pounds in the hands of Mr. Barclay and Mr. Perkins, brewers; one hundred and fifty pounds in the hands of Dr. Percy, Bishop of Dromore; one thousand pounds, three per cent. annuities, in the publick funds; and one hundred pounds now lying by me in ready money: all these before-mentioned sums and property I leave, I say, to Sir Jofhua Reynolds, Sir John Hawkins, and Dr. William Scott, of Doctors Commons, in trust, for the following uses :That is to say, to pay to the representatives of the late William Innys, bookseller, in St. Paul's Church-yard, the sum of two hundred pounds; to Mrs. White, my femnale servant, one hundred pounds stock in the three per cent. annuities aforesaid. The rest of the aforesaid sums of money: and property, together with my books, plate, and house-hold furniture, I leave to the beforementioned Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir John Hawkins, and Dr. William Scott, also in trust, to be applied, after paying my debts, to the use of Francis Barber, my man-servant, a negro, in such a manner as they shall judge most fit and available to his benefit. And I appoint the aforesaid Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir John Hawkins, and Dr. William Scott, fole executors of this my last will and testament, hereby revoking all former wills and testaments whaterer. In witness whereof I hereunto subscribe my name, and affix my seal, this eighth day of December, 1784. “ SAM. JOHNSON, (L. S.) " GEORGE STRAHAN. “ BY way of Codicil to my last Will and Testament, I SAMUEL Johnson, give, devise, and bequeath, my messuage or tenement, situate at Lichfield, in the county of Stafford, with the appurtenances, in the tenure or occupation of Mrs. Bond, of Lichfield aforesaid, or of Mr. Hinchman, her under-tenant, to my executors in trust, to sell and dispose of the fame ; and the money arising from such fale I give and bequeath as follows, viz. to Thomas and Benjamin the fons of Fisher Johnson, Late of Leicester, and - Whiting, daughter of Thomas Johnson, late of Coventry, and the grand-daughter of the said Thomas Johnson, one full and equal fourth part each; but in case there shall be more grand-daughters than one of the faid Thomas Johnson, living at the time of my decease, I give and bequeath the part or share of that one to, and equally between such grand-daughters. I give and bequeath to the Reverend M, The consideration of the numerous papers of which he was poffeffed, 1784. feems to have to have struck Johnson's mind with a sudden anxiety, and Ætat. 75, . as Mr. Rogers, of Berkley, near Froome, in the county of Somerset, the sum of one hundred . said Executors, in truft for the said Francis Barber, his Executors and Administrators. Witness my hand and seal this ninth day of December, 178.4. « Sam. JOHNSON, (L. S.) a “ Signed, sealed, published, declared, and delivered by the said Samuel Johnson, as, and for a Codicil to his last Will and Testament, in the presence of us, who, in his presence, and John COPLEY. Upon 1784. . JOHNSON. as they were in great confusion, it is much to be lamented that he had not entrusted some faithful and discreet person with the care and selection of them; Ælat. 75 Upon these testamentary deeds it is proper to make a few obfervations. His express declaration with his dying breath of his faith as a Christian, as it had been often practised in such solemn writings, was of real consequence from this great man, as the conviction of a mind equally acute and strong might well overbalance the doubts of others who were his contemporaries. The expression polluted may to some convey an impression of more than ordinary contamination ; but that is not warranted by its genuine meaning, as appears from “ The Rambler," No. 42. The same word is used in the wilt of Dr. Sanderson, Bishop of Lincoln. who was piety itself. His legacy of two hundred pounds to the representatives of Mr. Innys, bookseller in St. Paul's Church-yard, was the effect of a very worthy motive. He told Sir John Hawkins, that his father having become bankrupt, Mr. Innys had aflisted him with money or credit to continue his business. “. This (said he) I consider as an obligation on me to be grateful to his descendants.” The amount of his property proved to be considerably more than he had supposed it to be. Sir John Hawkins estimates the bequest to Francis Barber at a sum little sort of fifteen hundred pounds, including an annuity of seventy pounds to be paid to him by Mr. Langton, in confideration of seven hundred and fifty pounds, which Johnson had lent to that gentleman. Sir John seems not a little angry at this bequeft, and mutters “a caveat against oftentatious bounty and favour to negroes.” But furcly when a man has money entirely of his own acquisition, especially when he has no near relations, he may, without blame, dispose of it as he pleases, and with great propriety to a faithful servant. Mr. Barber, by the recommendation of his master, retired to Lichfield, where he might pass the rest of his days in comfort. It has been objected that Johnson has omitted inany of his best friends when leaving books to several as tokens of his last remembrance. The names of Dr. Adams, Dr. Taylor, Dr. Burney, Mr. Hector, Mr. Murphy, the Authour of this work, and others who were intimate with him, are not to be found in his Will. This may be accounted for by considering, that as he was very near his dissolution at the time, he probably mentioned such as happened to occur to him and that he may have recollected, that he had formerly shewn others such proofs of his regard, that it was not necessary to crowd his Will with their names. Mrs. Lucy Porter was much displeased that nothing was left to her ; but besides what I have now stated, she should have con. sidered, that he had left nothing to Johnson by her Will, which was made during his life-time, as appeared at her decease. His enumerating several persons in one group, and leaving them “ each a book at their election," might possibly have given occasion to a curious question as to the order of choice, had they not luckily fixed on different books. His library, though by no means handsome in its appearance, was fold by Mr. Christie for two hundred and forty-seven pounds, nine shillings, many people being desirous to have a book which had belonged to Dr. Johnson. In many of them he had written little notes, sometimes tender memorials of his departed wife; as, “ This was dear Tetty's book :" sometimes occasional remarks of different forts. Mr. Lyfons, of Clifford's Inn, has favoured me with the two following: In “ Holy Rules and Helps to Devotion, by Bryan Duppa, Lord Bishop of Winton," pero Preces quidam videtur diligenter trattasse ; Spero non inauditus.” them; instead of which, he, in a precipitate manner, burnt masses of them, 1784. as I should apprehend, with little regard to discrimination. Not that I Ætat. 75. fuppose we have thus been deprived of any compositions which he had ever intended for the publick eye; but, from what escaped the Aames, I judge that many curious circumstances relating both to himself and other literary characters have perished. Two very valuable articles, I am sure, we have lost, which were two ” In “The Rosicrucian infallible Axiomata, by John Heydon, Gent.” Prefixed to which are fome verses addressed to the authour, signed Ambr. Waters, A. M. Coll. Ex. Oxon. “ These Latin verses were written to Hobbes by Bathurst, upon his Treatise on Human Nature, and have no relation to the book. An odd fraud.” 3 One of those volumes, Sir John Hawkins informs us he put into his pocket; for which the ; Mr. 66 |