graciously sent me into this world to work out my salvation, enable me to drive from me all such unquiet and perplexing thoughts as may mislead or hinder me in the practice of those duties which thou hast required. When I behold the works of thy hands, and consider the course of thy pro vidence, give me grace always to remember that thy thoughts are not my thoughts, nor thy ways my ways. And while it shall please thee to continue me in this world, where much is to be done and little to be known, teach me, by thy Holy Spirit, to withdraw my mind from unprofitable and dangerous inquiries, from difficulties vainly curious, and doubts impossible to be solved. me rejoice in the light which thou hast imparted; let me serve thee with active zeal and humble confidence, and wait with patient expectation for the time in which the soul which thou receivest shall be satisfied with knowledge. Grant this, O Lord, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen." Let And here I am enabled fully to refute a very unjust reflection, by Sir John Hawkins, both against Dr. Johnson and his faithful servant Mr. Francis Barber; as if both of them had been guilty of culpable neglect towards a person of the name of Heely, whom Sir John chooses to call a relation of Dr. Johnson's. The fact is, that Mr. Heely was not his rela tion he had indeed been married to one of his cousins, but she had died without having children, and he had married another woman; so that even the slight connection which there once had been by alliance was dissolved. Dr. Johnson, who had shown very great liberality to this man while his first wife was alive, as has appeared in a former part of this work [p. 183.], was humane and charitable enough to continue his bounty to him occasionally; but surely there was no strong call of duty upon him or upon his legatee to do more. The following letter, obligingly communicated to me by Mr. Andrew Strahan, will confirm what I have stated: JOHNSON TO HEELY, No. 5. in Pye-Street, Westminster. "Ashbourne, Aug. 12. 1784. "SIR, As necessity obliges you to call so soon again upon me, you should at least have told the smallest sum that will supply your present want : you cannot suppose that I have much to spare. Two guineas is as much as you ought to be behind with your creditor. If you wait on Mr. Strahan, in New-Street, Fetter-Lane, or, in his absence, on Mr. Andrew Strahan, show this, by which they are entreated to advance you two guineas, and to keep this as a voucher. I am, Sir, your humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." This surely is over-stated. There are many proofs that Johnson was slovenly in such matters, but no one ever thought it an imputation of so grave a nature as Boswell here represents it. CROKER. 2 The following circumstance, mutually to the honour of Johnson and the corporation of his native city, has been communicated to me by the Rev. Dr. Vyse from the town clerk: Indeed it is very necessary to keep in mind that Sir John Hawkins has unaccountably viewed Johnson's character and conduct in almost every particular with an unhappy prejudice. I shall add one instance only to those which I have thought it incumbent on me to point out. Talking of Mr. Garrick's having signified his willingness to let Johnson have the loan of any of his books to assist him in his edition of Shakspeare, Sir John says (p. 444.), “Mr. Garrick knew not what risk he ran by this offer. Johnson had so strange a forgetfulness of obligations of this sort, that few who lent him books ever saw them again." This surely conveys a most unfavourable insinuation, and has been so understood.! Sir John mentions the single case of a curious edition of Politian, which he tells us appeared to belong to Pembroke College, which probably has been considered by Johnson as his own for upwards of fifty years. Would it not be fairer to consider this as an inadvertence, and draw no general inference? The truth is, that Johnson was so attentive, that in one of his manuscripts in my possession he has marked in two columns books borrowed and books lent. In Sir John Hawkins's compilation there are, however, some passages concerning Johnson which have unquestionable merit. One of them I shall transcribe, in justice to a writer whom I have had too much occasion to censure, and to show my fairness as the biographer of my illustrious friend: "There was wanting in his conduct and behaviour that dignity which results from a regular and orderly course of action, and by an irresistible power commands esteem. He could not be said to be a staid man, nor so to have adjusted in his mind the balance of reason and passion, as to give occasion to say, what may be observed, of some men, that all they do is just, fit, and right." Yet a judicious friend well suggests, "It might, however, have been added, that such men are often merely just, and rigidly correct, while their hearts are cold and unfeeling: and that Johnson's virtues were of a much higher tone than those of the staid orderly man here described." We now behold Johnson for the last time in his native city, for which he ever retained a warm affection, and which by a sudden apostrophe, under the word Lich, he introduces with reverence into his immortal work, "The English Dictionary: "Salve magna parens!" While here, he felt a revival of all the tenderness of filial affection, an instance of which appeared in his ordering the grave "Mr. Simpson has now before him a record of the respect and veneration which the corporation of Lichfield, in the year 1767, had for the merits and learning of Dr. Johnson. His father built the corner house in the market-place, the two fronts of which, towards Market and Broad-market Street, stood upon waste land of the corporation, under 3 forty years' lease, which was then expired. On the 15th of August, 1767, at a common-hall of the bailiffs and etizens, it stones and inscription over Elizabeth Blaney (see p. 5.) to be substantially and carefully renewed. To Mr. Henry White', a young clergyman, with whom he now formed an intimacy, so as to talk to him with great freedom, he mentioned that he could not in general accuse himself of having been an undutiful son. "Once, indeed," said he, "I was disobedient: I refused to attend my father to Uttoxeter market. Pride was the source of that refusal, and the remembrance of it was painful. A few years ago I desired to atone for this fault. I went to Uttoxeter in very bad weather, and stood for a considerable time bare-headed in the rain, on the spot where my father's stall used to stand. In contrition I stood, and I hope the penance was expiatory." "I told him," says Miss Seward, "in one of my latest visits to him, of a wonderful learned pig which I had seen at Nottingham; and which did all that we have observed exhibited by dogs and horses. The subject amused him. Then,' said he, the pigs are a race unjustly calumniated. Pig has, it seems, not We been wanting to man, but man to pig. do not allow time for his education; we kill him at a year old.' Mr. Henry White, who was present, observed that if this instance had happened in or before Pope's time, he would not have been justified in instancing the swine as the lowest degree of grovelling instinct. Dr. Johnson seemed pleased with the observation, while the person who made it proceeded to remark, that great torture must have been employed, ere the indocility of the animal could have been subdued. Certainly,' said the Doctor; but,' turning to me, 'how old is your pig?' I told him, three years old. Then,' said he, 'the pig has no cause to complain; he would have been killed the first year if he had not been educated, and protracted existence is a good recompence for very considerable degrees of torture.' As Johnson had now very faint hopes of recovery, and as Mrs. Thrale was no longer devoted to him, it might have been supposed was ordered (and that without any solicitation), that a lease should be granted to Samuel Johnson, Doctor of Laws, of the encroachments at his house, for the term of ninety-nine years, at the old rent, which was five shillings: of which, as town clerk, Mr. Simpson had the honour and pleasure of informing him, and that he was desired to accept it without paying any fine on the occasion; which lease was afterwards granted, and the doctor died possessed of this property." — BOSWELL. I disbelieve that Johnson's father built the house, and I am satisfied the lease was only of the encroachment, made by a shop window jutting out into the street. CROKER. 1 Sacrist and one of the vicars of Lichfield Cathedral, 1831. MARKLAND. 2 This story is told in more detail in Warner's "Tour through the Northern Counties of England." 1802.- CROKER. 3 Mr. Burke suggested to me, as applicable to Johnson, what Cicero, in his Cato Major," says of Appius: " Intentum enim animum, tanquam arcum, habebat, nec languescens succumbebat senectuti; " [His mind was strung like a bow, nor did he yield to the languor of old age]; repeating at the same time, the following noble words in the same passage: Ita enim senectus honesta est, si seipsa defendit, si jus suum retinet, si nemini emancipata est, si usque ad extre that he would naturally have chosen to remain in the comfortable house of his beloved wife's daughter, and end his life where he began it. But there was in him an animated and lofty spirit 3; and however complicated diseases might depress ordinary mortals, all who saw him beheld and acknowledged the invictum animum Catonis. Such was his intellectual ardour even at this time, that he said to one friend, "Sir, I look upon every day to be lost in which I do not make a new acquaintance; and to another, when talking of his illness, "I will be conquered; I will not capitulate." And such was his love of London, so high a relish had he of its magnificent extent and variety of intellectual entertainment, that he languished when absent from it, his mind having become quite luxurious from the long habit of enjoying the metropolis; and, therefore, although at Lichfield, surrounded with friends who loved and revered him, and for whom he had a very sincere affection, he still found that such conversation as London affords could be found nowhere else. These feelings, joined probably to some flattering hopes of aid from the eminent physicians and surgeons in London, who kindly and generously attended him without accepting fees, made him resolve to return to the capital. From Lichfield he came to Birmingham, where he passed a few days with his worthy old schoolfellow, Mr. Hector, who thus writes to me. "He was very solicitous with me to recollect some of our most early transactions, and transmit them to him, for I perceived nothing gave him greater pleasure than calling to mind those days of our innocence. I complied with his request, and he only received them a few days before his death. I have transcribed for your inspection exactly the minutes I wrote to him." This paper having been found in his repositories after his death, Sir John Hawkins has inserted it entire, and I have made occasional use of it and other communications from Mr. Hector 5 in the course of this work. I have mum vitæ spiritum vindicet jus suum;" [Old age is honourable if it defends itself; if it maintains its rights; if it does not surrender itself; if to the last breath of life it vindicates its rights.] BOSWELL. 4 [The stubborn mind of Cato.] Atrocem animum Catonis are Horace's words, and it may be doubted whether atroz is used by any other original writer in the same sense. Stubborn is perhaps the most correct translation of this epithet. MALONE. 5 It is a most agreeable circumstance attending the publication of this work, that Mr. Hector has survived his illustrious schoolfellow so many years; that he still retains his health and spirits; and has gratified me with the following acknowledgment: "I thank you, most sincerely thank you, for the great and long-continued entertainment your Life of Dr. Johnson has afforded me, and others of my particular friends.' Mr. Hector, besides setting me right as to the verses on a Sprig of Myrtle (see ante, p. 24. n. 1.), has favoured me with two English odes, written by Dr. Johnson at an early period of his life, which will appear in my edition of his poems. BosWELL. This early and worthy friend of Johnson died at Birmingham, 2d of September, 1794.MALONE. 3 E 4 both visited and corresponded with him since Dr. Johnson's death, and by my inquiries concerning a great variety of particulars, have obtained additional information. I followed the same mode with the Reverend Dr. Taylor, in whose presence I wrote down a good deal of what he could tell; and he, at my request, signed his name, to give it authenticity. It is very rare to find any person who is able to give a distinct account of the life even of one whom he has known intimately, without questions being put to them. My friend Dr. Kippis has told me, that on this account it is a practice with him to draw out a biographical catechism. Johnson then proceeded to Oxford, where he was again kindly received by Dr. Adams', who was pleased to give me the following account in one of his letters (Feb. 17th, 1785): "His last visit was, I believe, to my house, which he left, after a stay of four or five days. We had much serious talk together, for which I ought to be the better as long as I live. You will re member some discourse which we had in the sum mer upon the subject of prayer, and the difficulty of this sort of composition. He reminded me of this, and of my having wished him to try his hand, and to give us a specimen of his style and manner Dr. Adams had not then received accurate information on this subject: for it has since appeared that various prayers had been composed by him at different periods, which, intermingled with pious resolutions and some short | notes of his life, were entitled by him “Prayers and Meditations," and have, in pursuance of his earnest requisition, in the hopes of doing good, been published, with a judicious wellwritten preface, by the Reverend Mr. Strahan, to whom he delivered them. This admirable collection, to which I have frequently referred in the course of this work, evinces, beyond all his compositions for the public, and all the eulogies of his friends and admirers, the sincere It proves with virtue and piety of Johnson. unquestionable authenticity, that, amidst all his constitutional infirmities, his earnestness to conform his practice to the precepts of Christianity was unceasing, and that he habitually endeavoured to refer every transaction of his life to the will of the Supreme Being.s 1 This amiable and excellent man survived Dr. Johnson about four years, having died in January, 1789, at Gloucester, aged 82. A very just character of Dr. Adams may be found in the Gent. Mag. for 1789, vol. lix. p. 214. - MALONE. 2 It appears, however, that in the interval between these two visits to Oxford, and indeed within a few days of the last, Johnson had made some preparatory notes towards this purpose. In Mr. Anderdon's MSS. I found the following Prayer generally recommendatory; "To understand their prayers; "Under dread of death; "Prayer commonly considered as a stated and temporary duty-performed and forgotten -without any effect on the following day. "Prayer - a vow. - Taylor. "SCEPTICISM CAUSED BY "1. Indifference about opinions. "2. Supposition that things disputed are disputable. 5. Complaint of the obscurity of Scripture. "6. Contempt of fathers and of authority. "7. Absurd method of learning objections first. "10. False honour, false shame. "11. Omission of prayer and religious exercises. Oct. 31. 1784." The first part of these notes seems to be a classification of prayers; the two latter, hints for the discourse on prayer which he intended to prefix. The chief value of this sketch is as an additional proof that the prayers published by Dr. Strahan was not the methodised system of prayers which Dr. Adams and Johnson had talked of, and for which, it seems, he had made the foregoing preparatory scheme.-CROKER. There are some errors in the foregoing statement relative to the Prayers and Meditations, which, — considering the effect of that publication on Dr. Johnson's character, and Boswell's zealous claims to accuracy in all such matters — are rather strange. Indeed, it seems as if Boswell had read either too hastily, or not at all, the preface to Dr. Strahan's book. In the first place, the collection was not made, as Mr. Boswell seems to suppose, by Dr. Johnson himself; nor did he give it the designation of“ Prayers and Meditations; nor do the original papers bear any appearance of being intended for the press quite the contrary! Dr. Strahan's preface is not so clear on this point as it ought to have been; but even from it we learn that whatever Johnson's intentions may have been, as to revising and collecting for publication his own prayers, or (as the extract just quoted rather proves) compos ing a system of prayer; he in fact did nothing of the kind, ter at most placed (inter moriendum) a confused mass of papers in Dr. Strahan's hands; and from the inspection of the papers themselves it is quite evident that Dr. Strahan thought proper to weave into one work materials that were never intended to come together, and were not and never could have been intended for publication. This consideration is important, be cause (as has been before observed, but cannot be too eiten repeated) the prayers are mixed up with notices and memoranda of Dr. Johnson's conduct and thoughts (called by Dr. Strahan," Meditations "), which affecting and edifying as they may be when read as the secret effusions of a good man's conscience- would have a very different character if they could be supposed to be left behind him ostentatiously prepared for publication. Mr. Courtenay in his "Review of Dr. Johnson's character," plainly expressed his disbelief of Dr. Strahan's statement, and the following letter from Dr. Adams to the Gentleman's Magazine sufficiently indicates his opinion of the publication. "Oxford, 22d Oct. 1785. "MR. URBAN,-In your last month's review of books, you have asserted, that the publication of Dr. Johnson's Prayers and Meditations' appears to have been at the instance of Dr. Adams, Master of Pembroke College, Oxford. This, I think, is more than you are warranted by the editor's preface to say; and is so far from being true, that Dr. Adams nerer saw a line of these compositions before they appeared sa print, nor ever heard from Dr. Johnson, or the editor, that any such existed. Had he been consulted about the publication, he would certainly have given his voice against it: and he therefore hopes that you will clear him, in as public a manner as you can, from being any way accessory to it. WM. ADAMS."-COURTENAY. Dr. Strahan's conduct in this whole affair seems to me to have been disingenuous and even culpable in the highest degree. CROKER. 1 "London, Nov. 17. 1784. "DEAR SIR, I did not reach Oxford until Friday morning, and then I sent Francis to see the balloon fly, but could not go myself. I staid at Oxford till Tuesday, and then came in the common vehicle easily to London. I am as I was, and having seen Dr. Brocklesby, am to ply the squills; but, whatever be their efficacy, this world must soon pass away. Let us think seriously on our duty. I send my kindest respects to dear Mrs. Careless: let me have the prayers of both. We have all lived long, and must soon part. God have mercy on us, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. I am, &c., SAM. JOHNSON." His correspondence with me, after his letter on the subject of my settling in London, shall now, so far as is proper, be produced in one series. July 26. he wrote to me from Ashbourne: "On the 14th, I came to Lichfield, and found every body glad enough to see me. On the 20th I came hither, and found a house half-built, of very uncomfortable appearance; but my own room has not been altered. That a man worn with diseases, in his seventy-second or third year, should condemn part of his remaining life to pass among ruins and rubbish, and that no inconsiderable part, appears to me very strange. I know that your kindness makes you impatient to know the state of my health, in which I cannot boast of much improvement. I came through the journey without much inconvenience, but when I attempt selfmotion I find my legs weak, and my breath very short: this day I have been much disordered. I have no company; the doctor [Taylor] is busy in his fields, and goes to bed at nine, and his whole system is so different from mine, that we seem formed for different elements; I have, therefore, all my amusement to seek within myself." Having written to him in bad spirits a letter filled with dejection and fretfulness', and at the same time expressing anxious apprehensions concerning him, on account of a dream which had disturbed me; his answer was chiefly in terms of reproach, for a supposed charge of "affecting discontent, and indulging the vanity of complaint." It, however, proceeded : 1 Dr. Johnson and others of Mr. Boswell's friends used to disbelieve and therefore ridicule his mental inquietudes-that "Jemmy Boswell" should be afflicted with melancholy, was what none of his acquaintance could imagine; and as he seemed sometimes to make a parade of these miseries, they thought he was aping Dr. Johnson, who was admitted to be I "Write to me often, and write like a man. consider your fidelity and tenderness as a great part of the comforts which are yet left me, and sincerely wish we could be nearer to each other. My dear friend, life is very short and very uncertain; let us spend it as well as we can. My worthy neighbour, Allen, is dead. Love me as well as you can. Pay my respects to dear Mrs. Boswell. Nothing ailed me at that time; let your superstition at last have an end." Feeling very soon that the manner in which he had written might hurt me, he, two days afterwards (July 28.), wrote to me again, giving me an account of his sufferings; after which he thus proceeds: "Before this letter you will have had one which I hope you will not take amiss; for it contains only truth, and that truth kindly intended. Spartam quam nactus es orna; make the most and best of your lot, and compare yourself not with the few that are above you, but with the multitudes which are below you. Go steadily forwards with lawful business or honest diversions. 'Be,' as Temple says of the Dutchmen, well when you are not ill, and pleased when you are not angry.' This may seem but an ill return for your tenderness; but I mean it well, for I love you with great ardour and sincerity. Pay my respects to dear Mrs. Boswell, and teach the young ones to love me. JOHNSON TO BOSWELL. "Lichfield, Nov. 5. 1784. "DEAR SIR,I have this summer sometimes amended, and sometimes relapsed, but, upon the whole, have lost ground very much. My legs are extremely weak, and my breath very short, and the water is now increasing upon me. In this uncomfortable state your letters used to relieve; what is the reason that I have them no longer? Are you sick, or are you sullen? Whatever be the reason, if it be less than necessity, drive it away; and of the short life that we have, make the best use for yourself and for your friends. . I am sometimes afraid that your omission to write has some real cause, and shall be glad to know that you are not sick, and that nothing ill has befallen dear Mrs. Boswell, or any of your family. I am, &c., SAM, JOHNSON." Yes it was not a little painful to me to find that in a paragraph of this letter, which I have omized, he still persevered in arraigning me as before, which was strange in him who had so much experience of what I suffered. I, however, write to him two as kind letters as I eeld; the last of which came too late to be read by him for his illness increased more rapidly upon him than I had apprehended; but I had the consolation of being informed that he spoke of me on his death-bed with affection, and I look forward with humble hope of renewing our friendship in a better world. I now relieve the readers of this work from any farther personal notice of its author; who, if he should be thought to have obtruded himself too much upon their attention, requests them to consider the peculiar plan of his biographical undertaking. Soon after Johnson's return to the metropolis, both the asthma and dropsy became more violent and distressful. He had for some time kept a journal in Latin of the state of his illness, and the remedies which he used, under the title of Egri Ephemeris, which he began on the 6th of July, but continued it no longer than the 8th of November; finding, I suppose, that it was a mournful and unavailing register. It is in my possession; and is written with great care and accuracy. Still his love of literature did not fail. A very few days before his death he transmitted to his friend, Mr. John Nichols, a list of the authors of the Universal History, mentioning their several shares in that work. It has, according to his direction, been deposited in the British Museum, and is printed in the Gentleman's Magazine for December, 1784. As the letter accompanying this list (which fully supports the above observation) was written but a week before Dr. Johnson's death, the reader may not be displeased to find it here preserved: 1 It is truly wonderful to consider the extent and constancy of Johnson's literary ardour, notwithstanding the melancholy which clouded and embittered his existence. Besides the numerous and various works which he executed, he had, at different times, formed schemes of a great many more, of which the following catalogue [see Appendix] was given by him to Mr. Langton, and by that gentleman presented to his Majesty. BOSWELL. This catalogue, as Mr. Boswell calls it, is, by Dr. Johnson himself, intitled" DESIGNS," and is written in a few pages of a small duodecimo note-book bound in rough calf. It seems, from the hand, that it was written early in life: from the marginal dates it appears that some portions were added in 1752 and 1753. In the first page of this little volume, his late Majesty King George III. wrote with his own hand: "Original Manuscripts of Dr. Samuel Johnson, presented by his friend, — Langton, Esq. April 16th, 1785. G. R."-CROKER. History of the Romans: by Mr. Bower.- BOSWELL. — Bishop Warburton, in a letter to Jortin, in 1749, speaks with great contempt of this work as "miserable trash," and "the infamous rhapsody called the Universal History." Nich. Anec, vol. ii. p. 173. But Mr. Gibbon's more favourable opinion of this work will, as Mr. Markland observes, claim The History of the Mauritanians. The History of the Chinese. Dissertation on the Peopling of America. Independency of the Arabs. The Cosmogony, and a small part of the History immediately following; by Mr. Sale. To the birth of Abraham; chiefly by Mr. Shelvock. History of the Jews, Gauls, and Spaniards; by Mr. Psalmanazar. Xenophon's Retreat; by the same. History of the Persians and the Constantinopolitan Empire; by Dr. Campbell. History of the Romans; by Mr. Bower. During his sleepless nights he amused himself by translating into Latin verse, from the Greek, many of the epigrams in the "Anthologia." These translations, with some other poems by him in Latin, he gave to his friend Mr. Langton, who, having added a few notes, sold them to the booksellers for a small sum to be given to some of Johnson's relations, which was accordingly done; and they are printed in the collection of his works. A very erroneous notion had circulated as to Johnson's deficiency in the knowledge of the Greek language, partly owing to the modesty' with which, from knowing how much there was as much attention as the "decrees" of Warburton, who has not improperly been termed by the former the dictator and tyrant of the world of literature." Gibbon speaks of the "excellence of the first part of the Universal History generally admitted." The History of the Macedonians, be also observes," is executed with much erudition, taste, ad judgment. This history would be invaluable were all parts of the same merit."- Miscel, Works, v. 411. 498. Some curious facts relating to this work, and especially those parts of it committed to himself, will be found in Psalmanazar's Memoirs, p. 291.- CROKER. 3 On the subject of Dr. Johnson's skill in Greek, I have great pleasure in quoting an anecdote told by my late fricad. Mr. Gifford, in his Life of Ford: "My friend the late Lord Grosvenor had a house at Salt Hill, where I usually spent a part of the summer, and t became acquainted with that great and good man, Jacr Bryant. Here the conversation turned one morning on a Greek criticism by Dr. Johnson in some volume lying on the table, which I ventured (for I was then young) to deem incorrect, and pointed it out to him. I could not help thinking that he was something of my opinion, but he was cautious and reserved. But, Sir,' said I, willing to overcome his |