that it quite grieved me. placent than he used to be. softened his mind, without

He is more mild and comHis sickness seems to have having at all weakened it.

I was struck with the mild radiance of this setting sun. (1783.)

470. "The Bas Bleu."

I went to see Dr. Johnson. He received me with the greatest kindness and affection; and as to the Bas Bleu, all the flattery I ever received from every body together would not make up the sum. He said,-but I seriously insist you do not tell any body, for I am ashamed of writing it even to you; - he said, there was no name in poetry that might not be glad to own it.(1) You cannot imagine how I stared: all this from Johnson, the parsimonious praiser! I told him I was quite delighted at his approbation: he answered quite characteristically, " And so you may; for I give you the opinion of a man who does not rate his judgment on these things very low, I can tell you. (April. 1784.)

471. Johnson's last Illness.

Poor dear Johnson! he is past all hope. I have, however, the comfort to hear that his dread of dying is in a great measure subsided; and now he says "the bitterness of death is past." He sent the other day for Sir Joshua Reynolds; and after much serious conversation told him he had three favours to beg of him, and he hoped he would not refuse a dying friend, be they what they would. Sir Joshua promised. The first was, that he would never paint on a Sunday; the second, that he would forgive him thirty pounds that he had lent him, as he wanted to leave them to a distressed family; the third was, that he would read the Bible whenever he had an opportunity, and that he

(1) [See antè, p. 123.]

would never omit it on a Sunday. There was no dif. ficulty but upon the first point; but at length Sir Joshua promised to gratify him in all. How delighted should I be to hear the dying discourse of this great and good man, especially now that faith has subdued his fears!

Mr. Pepys wrote me a very kind letter on the death of Johnson, thinking I should be impatient to hear something relating to his last hours. Dr. Brocklesby, his physician, was with him: he said to him a little before he died, "Doctor, you are a worthy man, and my friend, but I am afraid you are not a Christian! What can I do better for you than offer up, in your presence, a prayer to the great God, that you may become a Christian in my sense of the word?" Instantly he fell on his knees, and put up a fervent prayer: when he got up he caught hold of his hand with great eagerness, and cried, "Doctor! you do not say, Amen!" The doctor looked foolish; but after a pause, cried, Amen! Johnson said, "My dear doctor, believe a dying man, there is no salvation but in the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. Go home, write down my prayer, and every word I have said, and bring it me to-morrow." Brocklesby did so.

A friend desired he would make his will; and as Hume, in his last moments, had made an impious declaration of his opinions, he thought it might tend to counteract the poison, if Johnson would make a public confession of his faith in his will. He said he would, seized the pen with great earnestness, and asked, what was the usual form of beginning a will? His friend told him. After the usual forms he wrote, "I offer up my soul to the great and merciful God; I offer it full of pollution, but in full assurance that it will be cleansed in the blood of my Redeemer.” And for some time he wrote on with the same vigour and spirit as if he had been in perfect health. When he expressed some of

"If you,

his former dread of dying, Sir John said, Doctor, have these fears, what is to become of others?" "Oh! Sir," said he, "I have written piously, it is true; but I have lived too much like other men.' It was a consolation to him, however, in his last hours, that he had never written in derogation of religion or virtue. He talked of his death and funeral, at times, with great composure. On the Monday following, December the 13th, he fell into a sound sleep, and continued in that state for twelve hours, and then died without a groan.

No action of his life became him like the leaving it. His death makes a kind of era in literature: piety and goodness will not easily find a more able defender; and it is delightful to see him set, as it were, his dying seal to the professions of his life, and to the truth of Christianity.

472. Abbé Raynal. - Sabbath-breakers.

I now recollect, with melancholy pleasure, two little anecdotes of Dr. Johnson, indicating a zeal for religion which one cannot but admire, however characteristically rough. When the Abbé Raynal was introduced to him, upon the Abbé's advancing to shake his hand, the Doctor drew back, and put his hands behind him, and afterwards replied to the expostulation of a friend

66

Sir, I will not shake hands with an infidel!" At another time, I remember asking him, if he did not think the Dean of Derry a very agreeable man, to which he made no answer; and on my repeating my question, Child," said he, "I will not speak any thing in favour of a Sabbath-breaker, to please you, nor any one else."

66

PART XX.

ANECDOTES OF DR. JOHNSON,
BY BISHOP HORNE. (1)

473. Johnson, and his Writings.

WHEN a friend told Johnson that he was much blamed for having unveiled the weakness of Pope, 66 Sir," said he, “if one man undertake to write the life of another, he undertakes to exhibit his true and real character; but this can be done only by a faithful and accurate delineation of the particulars which discriminate that character."

The biographers of this great man seem conscientiously to have followed the rule thus laid down by him, and have very fairly communicated all they knew, whether to his advantage, or otherwise. Much concern, disquietude, and offence have been occasioned by this their conduct in the minds of many, who apprehend that the cause in which he stood forth will suffer by the infirmities of the advocate being thus exposed to the prying and malignant eye of the world.

But did these persons then ever suppose, or did they imagine that the world ever supposed, Dr. Johnson to have been a perfect character ? Alas! no: we all know how that matter stands, if we ever look into our own hearts, and duly watch the current of our own thoughts, works, words, and actions. Johnson was honest, and kept a faithful diary of these which is before the public. Let any man do the same for a

(1) [See antè, Vol. VIII. p. 427.]

fortnight, and publish it; and if, after that, he should find himself so disposed, let him cast a stone." At that hour when the failings of all shall be madɩ manıfest, the attention of each individual will be confined to his own.

It is not merely the name of Johnson that is to do service to any cause. It is his genius, his learning, his good sense, the strength of his reasonings, and the happiness of his illustrations. These all are precisely what they were; once good, and always good. His arguments in favour of self-denial do not lose their force because he fasted, nor those in favour of devotion because he said his prayers. Grant his failings were, if possible, still greater than these; will a man refuse to be guided by the sound opinion of a counsel, or resist the salutary prescription of a physician, because they who give them are not without their faults? A man may do so, but he will never be accounted a wise man for doing it.

Johnson, it is said, was superstitious. But who shall exactly ascertain to us what superstition is? The Romanist is charged with it by the Church of England man; the churchman by the presbyterian, the presbyterian by the independent, all by the deist, and the deist by the atheist. With some it is superstitious to pray; with others, to receive the sacrament; with others, to believe in God. In some minds it springs from the most amiable disposition in the world - a pious awe, and fear to have offended;" a wish rather to do too much than too little. Such a disposition one loves, and wishes always to find in a friend; and it cannot be disagreeable in the sight of Him who made us. It argues a sensibility of heart, a tenderness of conscience, and the fear of God. Let him who finds it not in himself beware, lest in flying from superstition he fall into irreligion and profaneness.