1764. Etat. 55. refolve aright, and to keep my refolutions, for JESUS CHRIST's fake. Amen.' Such a tenderness of confcience, fuch a fervent defire of improvement, will rarely be found. It is, furely, not decent in those who are hardened in indifference to spiritual improvement, to treat this pious anxiety of Johnson with contempt. About this time he was afflicted with a very fevere return of the hypochondriack disorder, which was ever lurking about him. He was fo ill, as, notwithstanding his remarkable love of company, to be entirely averse to society, the most fatal symptom of that malady. Dr. Adams told me, that, as an old friend, he was admitted to vifit him, and that he found him in a deplorable ftate, fighing, groaning, talking to himself, and restlessly walking from room to room. He then used this emphatical expreffion of the mifery which he felt: "I would confent to have a limb amputated to recover my fpirits." Talking to himself was, indeed, one of his fingularities ever fince I knew him. I was certain that he was frequently uttering pious ejaculations, for fragments of the Lord's Prayer have been distinctly overheard. His friend Mr. Thomas Davies, of whom Churchill says, "That Davies hath a very pretty wife:" when Dr. Johnson muttered " lead us not into temptation," used with waggish and gallant humour to whisper Mrs. Davies, " You, my dear, are the cause of this." He had another particularity, of which none of his friends ever ventured to ask an explanation. It appeared to me fome fuperftitious habit, which he had contracted early, and from which he had never called upon his reason to dif-entangle him. This was his anxious care to go out or in at a door or paffage, by a certain number of steps from a certain point, or at least so as that either his right or his left foot, (I am not certain which,) should constantly make the first actual movement when he came close to the door or paffage. Thus I conjecture: for I have, upon innumerable occafions, obferved him fuddenly stop, and then seem to count his steps with a deep earnestness; and when he had neglected or gone wrong in this fort of magical movement, I have seen him go back again, put himself in a proper posture to begin the ceremony, and, having gone through it, break from his abftraction, walk brifkly on, and join his companion. A ftrange inftance of fomething of this nature, even when on horseback, happened when he was in the Prayers and Meditations, p. 58. 1764. ife of Sky'. Sir Joshua Reynolds has obferved him to go a good way about, rather than cross a particular alley in Leicester-fields; but this Sir Joshua tat. 55. imputed to his having had fome difagreeable recollection associated with it. That the most minute fingularities which belonged to him, and made very obfervable parts of his appearance and manner, may not be omitted, it is requifite to mention, that while talking or even musing as he fat in his chair, he commonly fhook his head in a tremulous manner, moving his body backwards and forwards, and rubbing his left knee in the fame direction, with the palm of his hand. In the intervals of articulating he made various founds with his mouth, fometimes as if ruminating, or what is called chewing the cud, fometimes giving a half whistle, fometimes making his tongue play backwards from the roof of his mouth, as if cucking like a hen, and sometimes protruding it against his upper gums in Font, as if pronouncing quickly under his breath, too, too, too: all this accompanied fometimes with a thoughtful look, but more frequently with a smile. I am fully aware how very obvious an occafon I here give for the fneering jocularity of fuch as have no relifh of an exact likenefs; which, to render complete, he who draws it must not disdain the flighteft ftrokes. But if witlings fhould be inclined to attack this account, let them have the candour to quote what I have offered in my defence. He was for fome time in the fummer at Easton Maudit, Northamptonshire, on a visit to the Reverend Dr. Percy, now Bishop of Dromore. Whatever diffatisfaction he felt at what he considered as a flow progrefs in intellectual improvement, we find that his heart was tender, and his affections warm, as appears from the following very kind letter: TO JOSHUA REYNOLDS, Efq. in Leicester-Fields, London. DEAR SIR, "I DID not hear of your sickness till I heard likewise of your recoand therefore escaped that part of your pain, which every man must feel, to whom you are known as you are known to me. very, "Having had no particular account of your diforder, I know not in what ftate it has left you. If the amusement of my company can exhilarate the languor of a flow recovery, I will not delay a day to come to you; for I know not how I can fo effectually promote my own pleasure as by pleasing Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, 3d edit. p. 316. M m you, 1764. Etat. 55. 1765. you, or my own interest as by preserving you, in whom, if I should lose you, I should lofe almost the only man whom I call a friend. Pray let me hear of you from yourself, or from dear Mifs Reynolds. Make my compliments to Mr. Mudge. I am, dear Sir, "Your most affectionate "At the Rev. Mr. Percy's, at Easton c "And moft humble fervant, "SAM. JOHNSON." Early in the year 1765 he paid a fhort vifit to the University of Cambridge, with his friend Mr. Beauclerk. There is a lively picturesque account of his behaviour on this vifit, in the Gertleman's Magazine for March 1785, being an extract of a letter from the late Dr. John Sharp. The two following fentences are very characteristical: "He drank his large potations of tea with me, interrupted by many an indignant contradiction, and many a noble fentiment."—" Several perfons got into his company the last evening at Trinity, where, about twelve, he began to be very great; ftripped poor Mrs. Macaulay to the very skin, then her for his toaft, and drank her in two bumpers." gave The strictness of his felf-examination and fcrupulous Chriftian humility, appear in his pious meditation on Easter-day this year." I purpose again to partake of the beffed facrament; yet when I confider how vainly I have hitherto refolved at this annual commemoration of my Saviour's death, to regulate my life by his laws, I am almoft afraid to renew my refolutions "." No man was more gratefully fenfible of any kindness done to him than Johnfo. There is a little circumstance in his diary this year, which fhews him in a very amiable light. ‹ July 2. I paid Mr. Simpfon3 ten guineas, which he had formerly lent me in my neceffity, and for which Tetty expreffed her gratitude." "July 8. I lent Mr. Simpfon ten guineas more." Here he had a pleafing opportunity of doing the fame kindness to an old friend, which he had formerly received from him. Indeed his liberality as to money was very remarkable. The next article in his diary is, "July 16, I received feventy-five pounds. Lent Mr. Davies twenty-five." 2 Prayers and Meditations, p. 61. 3 Jofeph Simpfon, Efq. mentioned in p. 188. He wrote a tragedy entitled "The Patriot ;" in which Dr. Johnson having made fome corrections, advantage was taken of this circumstance after his death, and the piece falfely published under his name. He appears this year to have been feized with a temporary fit of ambition, 1765. for he had thoughts both of studying law and of engaging in politicks. His Ætat. 56. "Prayer before the Study of LAW" is truly admirable : "Sept. 26, 1765. "Almighty God, the giver of wisdom, without whofe help refolutions are vain, without whose bleffing study is ineffectual; enable me, if it be thy will, to attain fuch knowledge as may qualify me to direct the doubtful, and instruct the ignorant; to prevent wrongs and terminate contentions; and grant that I may use that knowledge which I fhall attain, to thy glory and my own falvation, for JESUS CHRIST's fake. Amen+." His prayer in the view of becoming a politician is entitled, "Engaging in POLITICKS with Hn," no doubt his friend, the Right Honourable William Gerard Hamilton, for whom, during a long acquaintance, he had a great esteem, and to whofe conversation he once paid this high compliment: "I am very unwilling to be left alone, Sir, and therefore I go with my company down the first pair of stairs, in some hopes that they may, perhaps, return again. I go with you, Sir, as far as the street-door." In what particular department he intended to engage does not appear, nor can Mr. Hamilton explain. His prayer is in general terms. Enlighten my understanding with knowledge of right, and govern my will by thy laws, that no deceit may mislead me, nor temptation corrupt me; that I may always endeavour to do good, and hinder evil"." There is nothing upon the fubject in his diary. This year was diftinguished by his being introduced into the family of Mr. Thrale, one of the moft eminent brewers in England, and Member of Parliament for the borough of Southwark. Foreigners are not a little amazed when they hear of brewers, distillers, and men in fimilar departments of trade, held forth as perfons of confiderable confequence. In this great commercial country it is natural that a fituation which produces much wealth fhould be confidered as very refpectable; and, no doubt, honeft industry is entitled to efteem. But, perhaps, the too rapid advance of men of low extraction tends to leffen the value of that diftinction by birth and gentility, which has ever been found beneficial to the grand fcheme of fubordination. Johnfon used to give this account of the rife of Mr. Thrale's father: "He worked at fix fhillings a week for twenty years in the great brewery, which afterwards was his own. The proprietor of it had an only daughter, who was married to a Prayers and Meditations, p. 66. 5 Ibid. p. 67. Mm 2 nobleman, 1765. Etat. 56. nobleman. It was not fit that a peer should continue the business. On the old man's death, therefore, the brewery was to be fold. To find a purchafer for fo large a property was a difficult matter; and, after fome time, it was fuggefted, that it would be adviseable to treat with Thrale, a sensible, active, honeft man, who had been long employed in the house, and to transfer the whole to him for thirty thousand pounds, fecurity being taken upon the property. This was accordingly fettled. In eleven years Thrale paid the purchase-money. He acquired a large fortune, and lived to be Member of Parliament for Southwark. But what was most remarkable was the liberality with which he used his riches. He gave his fon and daughters the best education. The esteem which his good conduct procured him from the nobleman who had married his master's daughter, made him be treated with much attention; and his fon, both at school and at the University of Oxford, affociated with young men of the first rank. His allowance from his father, after he left college, was fplendid; no less than a thousand a year. This, in a man who had rifen as old Thrale did, was a very extraordinary inftance of generofity. He ufed to fay, If this young dog does not find fo much after I am gone as he expects, let him remember that he has had a great deal in my own time." The fon, though in affluent circumstances, had good sense enough to carry on his father's trade, which was of fuch extent, that I remember he once told me, he would not quit it for an annuity of ten thousand a year; "Not (faid he,) that I get ten thousand a year by it, but it is an eftate to a family.". Having left daughters only, the property was fold for the immenfe fum of one hundred and thirty thousand pounds; a magnificent proof of what may be done by fair trade in no long period of time. There may be fome who think that a new fyftem of gentility might be established, upon principles totally different from what have hitherto prevailed. Our present heraldry, it may be faid, is fuited to the barbarous times in which it had its origin. It is chiefly founded upon ferocious merit, upon military excellence. Why, in civilised times, we may be asked, should there not be rank and honours, upon principles, which, independent of long cuftom, are certainly not lefs worthy, and which, when once allowed to be connected with elevation and precedency, would obtain the fame dignity in our imagination? Why should not the knowledge, the skill, the expertnefs, the affiduity, and the fpirited hazards of trade and commerce, when crowned with fuccefs, be entitled to give thofe flattering diftinctions by which mankind are fo univerfally captivated Such |