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I may not be preserved to add wickedness to guarded as I have stated it, than from knowing wickedness.'-(Prayers and Med. p. 47.) 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.

'O LORD, let me not sink into total depravity; look down upon me, and rescue me at last from the captivity of sin.'-(P. 68.)

'Almighty and most merciful Father, who hath 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.'-(P. 84.)

'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.' -(P. 120.)

'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.'-(P. 130.)

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.

1

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, anything 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 man.'

2

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,

1 Dr. Johnson related, with very earnest approbation, a story of a gentleman who, in an impulse of passion, overcame the virtue of a young woman. When she said to him, 'I am afraid we have done wrong,' he answered, 'Yes, we have done wrong; for I would not debauch her mind.'-BosWELL.

* Prayers and Meditations, p. 192.- BOSWELL.

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

To

'Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,
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?'

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.

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

'Orandum est, ut sit mens sana in corpore sano,'

1 This bold experiment Sir John Hawkins has related in such a manner as to suggest a charge against Johnson of intentionally hastening his end; a charge so very inconsistent with his character in every respect, that it is injurious even to refute it, as Sir John has thought it necessary to do. It is evident that what Johnson did in hopes of relief, indicated an extraordinary eagerness to retard his dissolution.-BOSWELL

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 showed 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 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'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 given : 'IN THE NAME OF GOD. AMEN. I, SAMUEL

1 The author in a former page has shown the injustice of Sir John Hawkins's charge against Johnson, with respect to a person of the name of Heely, whom he has inaccurately represented as a relation of Johnson's.-That Johnson was anxious to discover whether any of his relations were living, is evinced by the following letter, written not long before he made his will:

'TO THE REV. DR. VYSE, IN LAMBETH.

'BOLT COURT, FLEET STREET, Nov. 29, 1784.

'SIR,-I am desirous to know whether Charles

Scrimshaw, of Woodsease (I think), in your father's neighbourhood, be now living; what is his condition, and where he may be found. If you can conveniently make an inquiry about him, and can do it without delay, it will be an act of great kindness to me, he being very nearly related to me. I beg [you] to pardon this trouble.-I am, sir, your most humble servant, 'SAM. JOHNSON.'

In conformity to the wish expressed in the preceding letter, an inquiry was made, but no descendants of

Charles Scrimshaw or of his sisters were discovered to be living. Dr. Vyse informs me that Dr. Johnson told him, he was disappointed in the inquiries he had made after his relations.' There is therefore no ground whatsoever for supposing that he was unmindful of them, or neglected them.-MALONE.

JOHNSON, 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 by 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, hands of Dr. Percy, Bishop of Dromore; ona brewers; one hundred and fifty pounds in the thousand pounds, Three per cent. Annuities in the public funds; and one hundred pounds now lying by me in ready money: all these beforementioned sums and property I leave, I say, to Sir Joshua 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 Churchyard, the sum of two hundred pounds; to Mrs. White, my female 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 household furniture, I leave to the before-mentioned 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 manner as benefit. And I appoint the aforesaid Sir Joshua they shall judge most fit and available to his Reynolds, Sir John Hawkins, and Dr. William Scott, sole executors of this my last will and testament, hereby revoking all former wills and testaments whatever. In witness whereof, I hereunto subscribe my name, and affix my seal, this eighth day of December 1784.

'SAM. JOHNSON (L.S.). 'Signed, sealed, published, declared, and delivered, by the said testator, as his last will and testament, in the presence of us, the word two being first inserted in the opposite page.

'GEORGE STRAHAN. 'JOHN DESMOULINS.'

'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 and 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 same; and the money arising from such sale I give and bequeath as follows-viz., to Thomas and Benjamin, the sons 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 said 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 granddaughters. I give and bequeath to the Rev. Mr. Rogers, of Berkeley, near Froom, in the county of Somerset, the sum of one hundred pounds, requesting him to apply the same towards the maintenance of Elizabeth Herne, a lunatic. I also give and bequeath to my godchildren, the son and daughter of Mauritius Lowe, painter, each of them one hundred pounds of my stock in the Three per cent. Consolidated Annuities, to be applied and disposed of by and at the discretion of my executors, in the education or settlement in the world of them my said legatees. Also I give and bequeath to Sir John Hawkins, one of my executors, the Annales Ecclesiastici of Baronius, and Holinshed's and Stowe's Chronicles, and also an octavo Common Prayer Book. To Bennet Langton, Esq., I give and bequeath my Polyglot Bible. To Sir Joshua Reynolds, my great French Dictionary by Martiniere, and my own copy of my folio English Dictionary of the last revision. To Dr. William Scott, one of my executors, the Dictionnaire de Commerce, and Lectius's edition of the Greek Poets. To Mr. Windham, Poetæ Græci Heroici per Henricum Stephanum. To the Rev. Mr. Strahan, Vicar of Islington, in Middlesex, Mill's Greek Testament, Beza's Greek Testament, by Stephens, all my Latin Bibles, and my Greek Bible, by Wechelius. To Dr. Heberden, Dr. Brocklesby, Dr. Butter, and Mr. Cruikshank, the surgeon who attended me, Mr. Holder, my apothecary, Gerard Hamilton, Esq., Mrs. Gardiner, of Snow Hill, Mrs. Frances Reynolds, Mr. Hoole, and the Reverend Mr. Hoole, his son, each a book at their election, to keep as a token of remembrance. I also give and bequeath to Mr. John Desmoulins, two hundred pounds Consolidated Three per cent. Annuities; and to Mr. Sastres, the Italian master, the sum of five pounds, to be laid out in books of piety for his own use. And whereas the said Bennet Langton hath agreed, in consideration of the sum of seven hundred and fifty pounds, mentioned in my will to be in his hands, to grant and secure an annuity of seventy pounds, payable during the life of me and my servant Francis Barber, and the life of the survivor of us, to Mr. George Stubbs, in trust for us; my mind and will is, that in case of my decease before the said agreement shall be perfected, the said sum of seven hundred and fifty pounds, and the bond for securing the said sum, shall go to the said Francis Barber; and I hereby give and bequeath to him the same, in lieu of the bequest in his favour, contained in my said will. And I hereby empower my executors to deduct and retain all expenses that shall or may be incurred in the execution of my said will, or of this codicil thereto, out of such estate and effects as I shall die possessed of. All the rest, residue, and remainder of my estate and

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1 Upon these testamentary deeds it is proper to make a few observations.

His express declaration with his dying breath as a Christian, as it had been often practised in such solemn writings, was of real consequence from this great man; for 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 will 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 Churchyard, proceeded from a very worthy motive. He told Sir John Hawkins that, his father having become a bankrupt, Mr. Innys had assisted 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 of Francis Barber at a sum little short of fifteen hundred pounds, including an annuity of seventy pounds to be paid to him by Mr. Langton, in consideration of seven hundred and fifty pounds which Johnson had lent to that gentleman. Sir John seems not a little angry at this bequest, and mutters 'a caveat against ostentatious bounty and favour to negroes.' But surely, 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 many 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 author 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
shown others such proofs of his regard, that it was
not necessary to crowd his will with their names.
Lucy Porter was much displeased that nothing was
left to her; but besides what I have now stated, she
should have considered that she had left nothing to

Mrs.

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 flames, 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 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 the 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, felt 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 inquiring how this would have affected him, 'Sir,' said he, ‘I believe I should have gone mad.'1

During his last illness, Johnson experienced the steady and kind attachment of his numerous friends. Mr. Hoole has drawn up a narrative of 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 manu. 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 assiduous respect to the dying sage whom he revered. Mr. Langton informs me, that one day he 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 very 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.

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The following particulars of his conversation within a few days of his death, I give on the

Johnson by her will, which was made during his life- authority of Mr. John Nichols : 2— 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 sold by Mr. Christie for two hundred and forty-seven pounds nine shillings; many people being desirous to have a book which had belonged to 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 sorts. Mrs. Lysons, of Clifford's Inn, has favoured me with the two following:

In Holy Rules and Helps to Devotions, by Bryan Duppa, Lord Bishop of Winton, Preces quidam videtur diligenter tractasse; spero non inauditus.'

In The Rosicrucian infallible Axiomata, by John Heydon, Gent., prefixed to which are some verses addressed to the author, 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.'—Bos

WELL.

Francis Barber, Dr. Johnson's principal legatee, died in the infirmary at Stafford, after undergoing a painful operation, Feb. 13, 1801.-MALONE.

1 One of these volumes, Sir John Hawkins informs us, he put into his pocket; for which the excuse he states is, that he meant to preserve it from falling into the hands of a person whom he describes so as to make it sufficiently clear who is meant [Mr. George Steevens], 'having strong reasons,' said he, to suspect that this man might find and make an ill use of the book.' Why

'He said that the Parliamentary Debates were

Sir John should suppose that the gentleman alluded to would act in this manner, he has not thought fit to explain. But what he did was not approved of by Johnson; who, upon being acquainted of it without delay by a friend, expressed great indignation, and warmly insisted on the book being delivered up; and afterwards, in the supposition of his missing it, without knowing by whom it had been taken, he said, 'Sir, I should have gone out of the world distrusting half mankind.' Sir John next day wrote a letter to Johnson, assigning reasons for his conduct; upon which Johnson observed to Mr. Langton, Bishop Sanderson could not have dictated a better letter. I could almost say, Melius est sic poenituisse quam non errasse.' The agitation into which Johnson was thrown by this incident, probably made him hastily burn those precious records, which must ever be regretted.-BOSWELL. 1 Mr. Langton, whose name so often occurs in these volumes, survived Johnson several years. He died at Southampton, Dec. 18, 1801.-MALONE.

2 On the same undoubted authority I give a few articles, which should have been inserted in chronological order; but which, now that they are before me, I should be sorry to omit :

'In 1736, Dr. Johnson had a particular inclination to have been engaged as an assistant to the Reverend Mr. Budworth, then head master of the Grammar School at Brewood, in Staffordshire, "an excellent person, who possessed every talent of a perfect instructor of youth, in a degree which (to use the words of one of the brightest ornaments of literature, the Reverend Dr. Hurd, Bishop of Worcester) has been rarely found in any of that profession since the days

the only part of his writings which then gave him any compunction; but that at the time he wrote them, he had no conception he was imposing upon the world, though they were frequently written from very slender materials, and often from none at all-the mere coinage of his own imagination. He never wrote any part of his works with equal velocity. Three columns of the Magazine in an hour was no uncommon effort, which was faster than most persons could have transcribed that quantity.

'Of his friend Cave he always spoke with great affection. "Yet," said he, "Cave (who

of Quintilian." Mr. Budworth, "who was less known in his lifetime, from that obscure situation to which the caprice of fortune oft condemns the most accomplished characters, than his highest merit deserved," had been bred under Mr. Blackwell, at Market Bosworth, where Johnson was some time an usher; which might naturally lead to the application. Mr. Budworth was certainly no stranger to the learning or abilities of Johnson, as he more than once lamented his having been under the necessity of declining the engagement, from an apprehension that the paralytic affection, under which our great Philologist laboured through life, might become the object of imitation or of ridicule among his pupils.' Captain Budworth, his grandson, has confirmed to me this anecdote.

Among the early associates of Johnson at St. Jolin's Gate was Samuel Boyse, well known by his ingenious productions, and not less noted for his imprudence. It was not unusual for Boyse to be a customer to the pawnbroker. On one of these occasions, Dr. Johnson collected a sum of money to redeem his friend's clothes, which in two days after were pawned again. "The sum," said Johnson, collected by sixpences, at a time when to me sixpence was a serious consideration."

was

'Speaking one day of a person for whom he had a real friendship, but in whom vanity was somewhat too predominant, he observed, that "Kelly was so fond of displaying on his sideboard the plate which he possessed, that he added to it his spurs. For my part," said he, "I never was master of a pair of spurs but once, and they are now at the bottom of the ocean. By the carelessness of Boswell's servant, they were dropped from the end of the boat, on our return from the Isle of Skye."'

The late Reverend Mr. Samuel Badcock, having been introduced to Dr. Johnson by Mr. Nichols, some years before his death, thus expressed himself in a letter to that gentleman :

How much I am obliged to you for the favour you did me in introducing me to Dr. Johnson! Tantum vidi Virgilium. But to have seen him, and to have received a testimony of respect from him, was enough. I recollect all the conversation, and shall never forget one of his expressions. Speaking of Dr. Priestley (whose writings, I saw, he estimated at a low rate), he said, "You have proved him as deficient in probity as he is in learning." I called him an "Index-scholar;' but he was not willing to allow him a claim even to that merit. He said, that he borrowed from those who had been borrowers themselves, and did not know that the mistakes he adopted had been answered by others." I often think of our short but precious visit to this great man. I shall consider it as a kind of an era in my life.'- BOSWELL.

never looked out of his window but with a view to the Gentleman's Magazine) was a penurious paymaster; he would contract for lines by the hundred, and expect the long hundred; but he was a good man, and always delighted to have his friends at his table."

'When talking of a regular edition of his own works, he said that he had power (from the booksellers) to print such an edition, if his health admitted it; but had no power to assign over any edition, unless he could add notes, and so alter them as to make them new works, which his state of health forbade him to think of. "I may possibly live," said he, or rather breathe, three days, or perhaps three weeks; but find myself daily and gradually weaker."

66

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'Whilst confined by his last illness, it was his regular practice to have the church-service read to him by some attentive and friendly divine. The Rev. Mr. Hoole performed this kind office in my presence for the last time, when, by his own desire, no more than the litany was read; in which his responses were in the deep and gonorous voice which Mr. Boswell has occasionally noticed, and with the most profound devotion that can be imagined. His hearing not being quite perfect, he more than once interrupted Mr. Hoole, with "Louder, my dear sir; louder, I entreat you, or you pray in vain!"and when the service was ended, he, with great earnestness, turned round to an excellent lady who was present, saying, "I thank you, madam, very heartily, for your kindness in joining me in this solemn exercise. Live well, I conjure you; and you will not feel the compunction at the last, which I now feel.' So truly humble were the thoughts which this great and good man entertained of his own approaches to religious perfection.

'He was earnestly invited to publish a volume of Devotional Exercises; but this (though he' listened to the proposal with much complacency, and a large sum of money was offered for it) he declined, from motives of the sincerest modesty.

'He seriously entertained the thought of translating Thuanus. He often talked to me on the subject, and once in particular, when I was rather wishing that he would favour the world, and gratify his sovereign, by a Life of Spencer (which he said that he would readily have done, had he been able to obtain any new materials for the purpose), he added, "I have been thinking again, sir, of Thuanus: it would not be the laborious task which you have sup

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