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

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,"2 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 3, 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.

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

Mr. Boswell has omitted to notice the line, for the sake of which Dr. Brocklesby probably introduced the quotation, "Fortem posce animum et mortis terrore carentem!" The whole passage is thus paraphrased by Dryden :

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 subjoined.

"In the name of God. Amen. 1, Samuel 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, brewers; one hundred and fifty pounds in the hands of Dr. Percy, bishop of Dromore; one thousand pounds, three per cent. annuities in the public 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 Joshua Reynolds, Sir John Hawkins, and Dr. William Scott, of Doctors' ComThat is to mons, in trust, for the following uses: 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 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,

represented as a relation of Johnson's. (See p. 789.) 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:

"JOHNSON TO THE REV. DR. VYSE,
"In Lambeth.

"Bolt Court, Nov. 29. 1784. "SIR,-I am desirous to know whether Charles Scrimshaw, of Woodscase (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 any 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, &c., 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.

a

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 descendauts." 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 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 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. Mrs. Lucy Porter was nuch displeased that nothing was left to her; ut besides what I have now stated, she should ave considered that she had left nothing to Johnson by her will, which was made during is lifetime, 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.1

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 intrusted 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 2, 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 apologising 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." 3

In many of them he had written little notes: sometimes nder memorials of his departed wife; as, "This was dear etty's book: " sometimes occasional remarks of different orts. Mr. Lysons, of Clifford's Inn, has favoured me with e two following: "In Holy Rules and Helps to Devotion, Bryan Duppa, Lord Bishop of Winton, Preces quidam detur diligenter tractasse; spero non inauditus.' In The osicrusian infallible Axiomata, by John Heydon, Gent.,' refixed to which are some verses addressed to the author, gned Ambr. Waters, A. M. Coll. Ex. Oxon., • These atin verses were written to Hobbes by Bathurst, upon his reatise on Human Nature, and have no relation to the ok. - An odd fraud.'"- BoSWELL. If, as has been stated, had about 5000 volumes, they did not produce one shilling volume. Mr. Windham bought Markland's Statius, and rote in the first page, "Fuit e libris clarissimi Samuelis hnson." It now, by the favour of Mr. Jesse, who bought at Mr. Windham's sale, belongs to me.- CROKER.

There can be little doubt that these two quarto volumes ere of the same kind as, if they were not actually transcripts various little diaries, some of which fell into the hands of r. Strahan and others; the strong expression that he would ve "gone mad" had they been purloined, confirms my lief that Dr. Johnson never could have intended that these aries should have been published. I am confident that they ere given to Dr. Strahan inadvertently, if indeed they Ere given at all, for which we have no evidence but r. Strahan's very obscure, contradictory, and improbable atement and I cannot but suspect that it was by accint only they escaped destruction on the 1st of December. ce ante, p. 792. — Croker.

3 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 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 penituisse quam non erâsse." The agitation into which Johnson was thrown by this incident probably made him hastily burn those precious records, which must ever be regretted. BOSWELL. I cannot tell what Hawkins's apology to Johnson may have been, but the excuses which he alleges in his book are contemptible, and prove the animus furandi; but it is not certain that the volume which Hawkins took was one of these two quartos; and it is certain that a destruction of papers took place a day or two before that event. Johnson had really some reason for "distrusting mankind," when, of two dear friends, he found one half inclined to commit a theft, and another actually committing it. Bishop Sanderson was referred to because he was an eminent

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 Mr. Burke, in a tremulous a delight to me.' 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."

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 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 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

casuist, and treated of cases of conscience. There can be no doubt that Barber detected and reported, as was his duty, Hawkins's attempt to purloin the volume; and hence, I sup. pose, arose Hawkins's malevolence against both Johnson and Barber, and his endeavour to set up Heeley as a rival to the latter. Antè, p. 183. n. 1., and p. 789. — CROKER.

This Journal has been since printed at length in the European Magazine for September, 1799. As it is too long to be inserted here, I have placed it in the Appendix. It will be read with interest. CROKER.

2 Mr. Langton survived Johnson several years. He died at Southampton, December 18. 1801, aged sixty-five. — MALONE. Hannah More writes, March 8. 1784. "I am sure you will honour Mr. Langton when I tell you that he is come to town on purpose to stay with Dr. Johnson during his

edition, unless he could add notes, and so alter then as to make them new works; which his stated health forbade him to think of. I may posi live,' said he, or rather breathe, three days, perhaps three weeks; but find myself daily ma gradually weaker.'

"He said at another time, three or four day

only before his death, speaking of the little fear had of undergoing a chirurgical operation! would give one of these legs for a year more of lif I mean of comfortable life, not such as that which I now suffer;'- and lamented much his inabili to read during his hours of restlessness. I me formerly,' he added, 'when sleepless in bed, to ru like a Turk.'

gined.

"Whilst confined by his last illness, it was regular practice to have the church service rem to him by some attentive and friendly divine. Th Rev. Mr. Hoole performed this kind office in presence for the last time, when, by his own desi no more than the Litany was read; in which h responses were in the deep and sonorous var which Mr. Boswell has occasionally noticed, ana with the most profound devotion that can be in His hearing not being quite perfect, dr more than once interrupted Mr. Hoole w 'Louder, my dear Sir, louder, I entreat you you pray in vain!'—and, when the service va ended, he, with great earnestness, turned round à an excellent lady who was present, saying, I th you, Madam, very heartily, for your kindnes joining me in this solemn exercise. Live well conjure you; and you will not feel the compunction at the last which I now feel.' So truly bui were the thoughts which this great and good entertained of his own approaches to religi perfection.

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

lating Thuanus. He often talked to me on the "He seriously entertained the thought of tru subject; and once, in particular, when I was re his sovereign, by a Life of Spenser (which be su wishing that he would favour the world, and g that he would readily have done had he been able

added, I have been thinking again, Sir, of Th to obtain any new materials for the purpose anus; it would not be the laborious task whi you have supposed it. I should have no trou but that of dictation, which would be perform as speedily as an amanuensis could write.'"

On the same undoubted authority I give a few articles which should have been insert in chronological order, but which, now tha

illness. He has taken a little lodging in Fleet Street, in to be near to devote himself to him."- CROKER, IND 3 There is a slight error in Mr. Nichols's account pears by the following communication to me from the Mr. Hoole himself, now (1831) rector of Poplar : —

My mother was with us when I read prayers to Dr Jo son, on Wednesday, December 8.; but not for the inst as it is stated by Mr. Nichols, for I attended him aga Friday, the 10th. I must here mention an incident ** shows how ready Johnson was to make amends for y incivility. When I called upon him, the morn had pressed me rather roughly to read louder, he said. 'I peevish yesterday; you must forgive me: when you are and as sick as I am, perhaps you may be peevish too. I ha heard him make many apologies of this kind."-CR

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

The late Reverend Mr. Samuel Badcock 2

having been introduced to Dr. Johnson by Mr. Nichols, some years before his death, thus expressed himself in a letter to that gentle

man:

"How much I am obliged to you for the favour you did me in introducing me to Dr. Johnson! Tantùm 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

1 Hugh Kelly, the dramatic author, who died in Gough Square in 1777, æt. 38. Kelly's first introduction to Johnson was not likely to have pleased a person of "predominant vanity." After having sat a short time, he got up to take his leave, saying, that he feared a longer visit might be trouble

some.

"Not in the least, Sir," Johnson is said to have re. plied; "I had forgotten that you were in the room." — CROKER.

2 Chiefly known as a Monthly Reviewer, and for a controversy with Dr. Priestley, whose friend and admirer he had previously been. His assistance to Dr. White, in a celebrated Bampton Lecture, was also the subject of a smart controversy between that divine and Dr. Parr. He had been bred a dissenter, but conformed to the established church, and was -ordained in 1787. He died soon after in May, 1788, æt. 41.CROKER.

3 The son of Mr. La Trobe has published (in the Christian Observer for January, 1828), " in order," as he says, "that the tradition may not be lost," what he calls a corroboration of some remarks, which appeared in that work for the October and November preceding, on the last days of Dr. Johnson. Mr. La Trobe's statement tends, as far as it is entitled to credit, to confirm the opinion already, it is hoped, universally entertained, that Johnson's death was truly christian. But Mr. La Trobe had little to tell, and of that little unfortunately the prominent facts are indisputably erroneous. Mr. La Trobe states, that "Dr. Johnson had during his last illness sent every day to know when his father, who was then out of town, would come back. The moment he arrived he went o the doctor's house, but found him speechless, though sensible. Mr. La Trobe addressed to him some religious exortation, which Johnson showed by pressing his hand, and other signs, that he understood, and was thankful for. He expired the next morning, and Mr. La Trobe always regretted not having been able to attend Dr. Johnson sooner,

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."

Let me

It is to the mutual credit of Johnson and divines of different communions, that although he was a steady Church of England man, there was, nevertheless, much agreeable intercourse between him and them. particularly name the late Mr. La Trobe3 and Mr. Hutton, of the Moravian profession. His intimacy with the English Benedictines at Paris has been mentioned; and as an additional proof of the charity in which he lived with good men of the Romish church, I am happy in this opportunity of recording his friendship with the Rev. Thomas Hussey, D.D., his Catholic Majesty's chaplain of embassy at the court of London, that very respectable man, eminent not only for his powerful eloquence as a preacher, but for his various abilities and acquisitions. Nay, though Johnson loved a Presbyterian the least of all, this did not prevent his having a long and uninterrupted social connection with the Rev. Dr. James Fordyce, who, since his death, hath gratefully celebrated him in a warm strain of devotional composition.

Amidst the melancholy clouds which hung over the dying Johnson, his characteristical manner showed itself on different occasions.

that he was better, his answer was, "No, Sir; When Dr. Warren, in his usual style, hoped you cannot conceive with what acceleration I advance towards death."

A man whom he had never seen before was

employed one night to sit up with him. Being asked next morning how he liked his attendant, his answer was, "Not at all, Sir; the fellow's

according to his wish." The reader will see that the inference suggested by this statement is, that Dr. Johnson wished for the spiritual assistance of Mr. La Trobe, in addition (or it might even be inferred, in preference) to that of his near and dear friends, Mr. Hoole and Dr. Strahan, clergymen of the established church: and it may be seen that the anony mous (and why anonymous ?) writer of a letter published among Hannah More's, v. i. p. 379., repeats the tale of Mr. La Trobe's conversation having had a beneficial effect on Dr. Johnson's mind. Now the facts of the case essentially contradict Mr. La Trobe's account, and any inferences which might be deducible from it. Dr. Johnson, as will be seen in the Diaries of Sir J. Hawkins and Mr. Windham, was not speechless the day before his death, nor did he die next morning (which seems mentioned as the reason why Mr. La Trobe's visit was not repeated), but in the evening. And, which is quite conclusive, it appears from Mr. Hoole's Diary, that Mr. La Trobe's visit to Dr. Johnson's residence (and his son admits there was but one) took place about eleven o'clock in the forenoon of the 10th, three days before Dr. Johnson's death; that Mr. La Trobe did not even see him; and that it was in the course of that very day that Mr. Hoole read prayers to him and a small congregation of friends. And I must add, that some further particulars stated, with the same view, in the anonymous letter - which the editor of Hannah More's ought not to have admitted without better authentication are certainly and manifestly false. So little can anecdotes at second hand be trusted. CROKER, 1831-47.

4 No doubt the gentleman who is so conspicuous in Mr. Cumberland's Memoirs. He was subsequently first master of the Roman Catholic college at Maynooth, and titular Bishop of Waterford in Ireland, in which latter capacity he published, in 1797, a pastoral charge, which excited a good deal of observation. CROKER.