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That it is done I thought fit that you should know. What care will be taken of us, who can tell? May God pardon and bless us for Jesus Christ's sake.

I am, &c.

SAM. JOHNSON.

My readers are now, at last, to behold Samuel Johnson preparing him. self for that doom, from which the most exalted powers afford no exemption to mau. Death had always been to him an object of terror; so that, though by no means happy, be still clung to life with an eagerness at which many wondered. At any time when he was ill, he was very much pleased to be told that he looked better.

His own state of his views of futurity will appear truly rational: and may, perhaps, impress the unthinking with seriousness.

You know, says he, I never thought confidence with respect to futurity, any part of the character of a brave, a wise, or a good man. Bravery has no place where it can avail nothing; wisdom impresses strongly the consciousness of those faults, of which it is, perhaps, itself an aggravation; and goodness, always wishing to be better, and deputing every deficience to criminal negligence, and every fault to voluntary corruption, never dares to suppose the condition of forgiveness fulfilled, nor what is wanting in the crime supplied by penitence.

This is the state of the best; but what must be the condition of him whose heart will not suffer him to rank himself among the best, or among the good? Such must be his dread of the approaching trial, as will leave him little attention to the opinion of those whom he is leaving for ever; and the serenity that is not felt, it can be no virtue to feign.

His great fear of death and the strange dark manner in which Sir John Hawkins imparts the uneasiness which he expressed on account of offences with which he charged himself, may give occasion to injurious suspicions, us if there had been something of more than ordinary criminality weighing upon his conscience. On that account, therefore, as well as from the regard to truth which he inculcated, I am to mention, (with all possible respect and delicacy, however,) that his conduct, after he came to London, and had associated with Savage and others, was not so strictly virtuous, in one respect, as when he was a It was well known, that his amorous inclinations were younger man. uncommonly strong and impetuous. He owned to many of his friends, that he used to take women of the town to taverns, and hear them relate their history-In short, it must not be concealed, that, like other many good and pious men, among whom we may place the apostle Paul upón his own authority, Jobuson was not free from propensities which were ever warring against the law of his mind,—and that in his combate with them, he was sometimes overcome.

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Here let the profane and licentions pause: let them not thoughtlessly say that Johnson was an hypocrite, or that his principles were not firm, because his practice was not uniformly conformable to what he professed.

Let the question be considered independent of moral and religious associations; and no man will deny that thousauds in many instances, act against conviction. Is a prodigal, for example, an hypocrite, when he owns he is satisfied that his extravagance will bring him to ruin and misery? We are sure he believes it; but immediate inclination, strengthened by indulgence, prevails over that belief in influencing his conduct. Why then shall credit be refused to the sincerity of those who acknowledge their persuasion of moral and religious duty yet sometimes fail of living as it requires? I heard Dr. Johnson once observe, There is something noble in telling the truth though it condemus one's self. And one who said in his presence, he had no notion of people being in earnest in their good professions, whose practice was not suitable to them, was thus reprimanded by him :-Sir, are you so grossly ignorant of human nature as not to know that a man may be very sincere in good principles, with out having good practice.

But let no man encourage or soothe himself in presumptuous sin, from knowing that Johnson was sometimes hurried into indulgences which he thought criminal. I have exhibited this circumstance as a shade in so great a character, both from my sacred love of truth, and to shew that he was not so weakly scrupulous as he has been represented by those who imagine that the sins, of which a deep sense was upon his mind, were merely such little venial trifles as pouring milk into his tea on Good-Friday. His understanding will be defended by my statement, if his consistency of conduct be in some degree impaired. But that wise man would, for momentary gratifications, deliberately subject himself to suffer such uneasiness as we find was experienced by Johnson in reviewing his conduct as compared with his notion of the ethics of the gospel? Let the following passages be kept in remembrance: O, God, giver and preserver of all life, by whose power I was created, and by whose providence I am sustained, look down upon me with tenderness and mercy; grant that I may not have been created to be finally destroyed; that I may not be preserved to add wickedness to wickedness. -O, Lord, let me not sink into total depravity; look down upon me, and rescue me at last from the captivity of sin.-Almighty and most merciful Father, who hast continued my life from year to year, grant that by longer life I may become less desirous of sinful pleasures, and more careful of eternal happiness.-Let not my years be multiplied to increase my guilt; but as my age advances let me become more pure in my thoughts, more regular in my desires, and more obedient to thy laws. Forgive, O merciful Lord, whatever I have done contrary to thy laws. Give me such a sense of my wickedness as may produce true contrition and effectual repentance; so that when I shall be called into

another state, I may be received among the sinners to whom sorrow and reformation have obtained pardon, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.

Such was the distress of mind, such the penitence of Johnson, in his hours of privacy, and in his devout approaches to his Maker. His sincerity, therefore, must appear to every candid mind unquestionable.

It is of essential consequence to keep in view, that there was in this excellent man's conduct no false principle of commutation, no deliberate indulgence in sin, in consideration of a counterbalance of duty. His offending, and his repenting, were distinct and separate: and when we consider his almost unexampled attention to truth, his inflexible integrity, his constant piety, who will dare to cast a stone at him? Besides, let it never be forgotten, that he cannot be charged with any offence indicating badness of heart, any thing dishonest, base, or malignant; but, that, on the contrary, he was charitable in an extraordinary degree: so that even in one of his own rigid judgments of himself, (Easter-eve, 1781,) while he says, I have corrected no external habits; he is obliged to own, I hope that since my last communion I have advanced, by pious reflections, in my submission to God, and my benevolence to inan.

I am conscious that this is the most difficult and dangerous part of my biographical work, and I cannot but be very anxious concerning it. I trust that I have got through it, preserving at once my regard to truth, -to my friend,-and to the interests of virtue and religion. Nor can I apprehend that more harm can ensue from the knowledge of the irregularities of Johnson, guarded as I have stated it, than from knowing that Addison and Parnell were intemperate in the use of wine; which he himself, in his Lives of those celebrated writers and pious men, has not forborne to record.

It is not my intention to give a very minute detail of the particulars of Johnson's remaining days, of whom it was now evident, that the crisis was fast approaching, when he must “ die like men, and fall like one of the Princes." Yet it will be instructive, as well as gratifying to the curiosity of my readers, to record a few circumstances, on the authenticity of which they may perfectly rely, as I have been at the utmost pains to obtain an accurate account of his last illness, from the best authority.

Dr. Heberden, Dr. Brocklesby, Dr. Warren, and Dr. Butter, physicians, generously attended him, without accepting any fees, as did Mr. Cruikshank, surgeon; and all that could be done from professional skill and ability, was tried, to prolong a life so truly valuable. He himself, indeed, having, on account of his very bad constitution, been perpetually applying himself to medical inquiries, united his own efforts with those of the gentlemen who attended him; and imagining that the dropsical collection of water which oppressed him might be drawn off by making incisions in his body, he, with his usual resolute defiance of pain, cut deep, when he thought that his surgeon had done it too tenderly.

About eight or ten days before his death, when Dr. Brocklesby paid him his morning visit, he seemed very low and desponding, and said, I

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have been as a dying man all night. He then emphatically broke out in the words of Shakspeare.

Cans't thou not minister to a mind diseas'd;
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow;

Raze out the written troubles of the brain;

And, with some sweet oblivious antidote,

Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff,

Which weighs upon the heart?

To which Dr. Brocklesby readily answered, from the same great poet :

-therein the patient

Must minister to himself.

Johnson expressed himself much satisfied with the application.

On another day, after this, when talking on the subject of prayer, Dr. Brocklesby repeated from Juvenal,

Orandum est, ut sit mens sana in corpore sano,

and so on to the end of the tenth satire; but in running it quickly over, he happened, in the line,

Qui spatium vitæ extremum inter munera ponat,

to pronounce supremum 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 other 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 a favourite servant, and being answered that it must depend on the circumstances of the master; and, that in the case of a nobleman, fifty pounds a-year was considered as an adequate reward for many years faithful service;— Then, (said Johnson,) shall I not be nobilissimus, for I mean to leave Frank seventy pounds a-year, and I desire you to tell him so. It is strange, however, to think, that Johnson was not free from 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 I think it probable that his kind resolution would not have been fulfilled. After inaking 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.

The consideration of numerous papers of which he was possessed, seems to have struck Johnson's mind, with a sudden anxiety, and 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; instead of which, he, in a precipitate manner, burnt large masses of them, with little regard, as I apprehend, to discrimination. Not that I suppose we have thus been deprived of any compositions which he had ever intended for the public eye; but from what escaped the flatnes, I judged 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 quarto volumes, containing a full, fair, and most particular account of his own life, from his earliest recollection. I owned to him, that having accidentally seen them, I had read a great deal in them; and apologizing for that liberty I had taken, asked him if I could help it. He placidly answered, Why, Sir, I do not think you could have helped it. I said that I had, for once in my life, left half an inclination to commit theft. It had come into my mind to carry off those two volumes, and never see him more. Upon my enquiring how this would have affected him, Sir (said he,) I believe I should have gone mad.

During his last illness, Johnson experienced the steady and kind attachment of his numerous friends. Mr. Hoole has drawn up a narrative what passed in the visits which he paid him during that time, from the 10th of November to the 13th of December, the day of his death, inclusive, and has favoured me with a perusal of it, with permission to make extracts, which I have done. Nobody was more attentive to him than Mr. Langton, to whom he tenderly said, Te teneam moriens deficiente munu. And I think (it highly to the honour of Mr. Windham, that his important occupations as an active statesman did not prevent him from paying assidious respect to the dying sages whom he revered. Mr. Langton informs me, that one day be found Mr. Burke and four or five more friends sitting with Johnson. Mr. Burke said to him, I am afraid, Sir, such a number of us may be oppressive to you.-No, Sir, (said Johnson,) it is not so; and I must be in a wretched state indeed, when your company would not be a delight to me. Mr. Burke, in a tremulous voice, expressive of being tenderly affected, replied, My dear Sir, you have always been too good to me. Immediately afterwards he went away. This was the last circumstance in the acquaintance of these two eminent men.

The following particulars of his conversation within a few days of his death, I give on the authority of Mr. John Nichols :

He said, that the Parliamentary Debates were the only part of his writings which then gave him any compunction: but that at the time he

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