guard which he endeavoured always to keep over himself.' Taylor's
_Reynolds_, ii. 460. See _ante_, i. 94, 164, 201, and iv. 215.
[1208] _Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides_, 3d ed. p. 209. [_Post_, v.
211.] On the same subject, in his Letter to Mrs. Thrale, dated Nov. 29,
1783, he makes the following just observation:--'Life, to be worthy of a
rational being, must be always in progression; we must always purpose to
do more or better than in time past. The mind is enlarged and elevated
by mere purposes, though they end as they began [in the original,
_begin_], by airy contemplation. We compare and judge, though we do not
practise.' BOSWELL.
[1209] _Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides_, p. 374. [_Post_, v. 359.]
BOSWELL.
[1210] _Psalm_ xix. 13.
[1211] _Pr. and Med._ p.47. BOSWELL.
[1212] _Ib._ p. 68 BOSWELL
[1213] _Ib._ p. 84 BOSWELL
[1214] _Ib._ p. 120. BOSWELL.
[1215] Pr. and Med. p. 130. BOSWELL.
[1216] 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.
[1217] _St. John_, viii. 7.
[1218] _Pr. and Med._ p. 192. BOSWELL.
[1219] See _ante_, iii. 155.
[1220] Boswell, on Feb. 10, 1791, describing to Malone the progress of
his book, says:--'I have now before me p. 488 [of vol. ii.] in print;
and 923 pages of the copy [MS.] only is exhausted, and there remains 80,
besides the _death_; as to which I shall be concise, though solemn. Pray
how shall I wind up? Shall I give the _character_ from my _Tour_
somewhat enlarged?' Croker's _Boswell_, p. 829. Mr. Croker is clearly in
error in saying (_ib._ p. 800) that 'Mr. Boswell's absence and the
jealousy between him and some of Johnson's other friends prevented his
being able to give the particulars which he (Mr. Croker) has supplied in
the Appendix.' In this Appendix is Mr. Hoole's narrative which Boswell
had seen and used (_post_, p. 406).
[1221] _Psalm_ lxxxii. 7.
[1222] See Appendix E.
[1223] 'On being asked in his last illness what physician he had sent
for, "Dr. Heberden," replied he, "_ultimus Romanorum_, the last of the
learned physicians."' Seward's _Biographiana_, p. 601.
[1224] Mr. Green related that when some of Johnson's friends desired
that Dr. Warren should be called in, he said they might call in whom
they pleased; and when Warren was called, at his going away Johnson
said, 'You have come in at the eleventh hour, but you shall be paid the
same with your fellow-labourers. Francis, put into Dr. Warren's coach a
copy of the _English Poets_.' CROKER. Dr. Warren ten years later
attended Boswell in his last illness. _Letters of Boswell_, p. 355. He
was the great-grandfather of Col. Sir Charles Warren, G.C.M.G., F.R.S.,
Chief Commissioner of Police.
[1225] 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. Murphy (_Life_, p. 122) says that 'for many years, when Johnson
was not disposed to enter into the conversation going forward, whoever
sat near his chair might hear him repeating from Shakespeare [_Measure
for Measure_, act iii. sc. i]:--
"Ay, but to die and go we know not where;
To lie in cold obstruction and to rot;
This sensible warm motion to become
A kneaded clot; and the delighted spirit
To bathe in fiery floods."
And from Milton [_Paradise Lost_, ii. 146]:--
"Who would lose
Though full of pain this intellectual being?"'
Johnson, the year before, at a time when he thought that he must submit
to the surgeon's knife (_ante_, p. 240), wrote to Mrs. Thrale:--'You
would not have me for fear of pain perish in putrescence. I shall, I
hope, with trust in eternal mercy lay hold of the possibility of life
which yet remains.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 312. Hawkins records (_Life_,
p. 588) that one day Johnson said to his doctor:--'How many men in a
year die through the timidity of those whom they consult for health! I
want length of life, and you fear giving me pain, which I care not for.'
Another day, 'when Mr. Cruikshank scarified his leg, he cried out,
"Deeper, deeper. I will abide the consequence; you are afraid of your
reputation, but that is nothing to me." To those about him, he said,
"You all pretend to love me, but you do not love me so well as I myself
do." '_Ib_. p. 592. Windham (_Diary_, p. 32) says that he reproached
Heberden with being _timidorum timidissimus_. Throughout he acted up to
what he had said:--'I will be conquered, I will not capitulate.'
_Ante_, P. 374.
[1226] Macbeth, act v. sc. 3.
[1227] Satires, x. 356. Paraphrased by Johnson in The Vanity of Human
Wishes, at the lines beginning:--
'Pour forth thy fervours for a healthful mind,
Obedient passions and a will resigned.'
[1228] Johnson, three days after his stroke of palsy (ante, p. 230),
wrote:--'When I waked, I found Dr. Brocklesby sitting by me. He fell to
repeating Juvenal's ninth satire; but I let him see that the province
was mine.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 274.
[1229] Johnson, on his way to Scotland, 'changed horses,' he wrote, 'at
Darlington, where Mr. Cornelius Harrison, a cousin-german of mine, was
perpetual curate. He was the only one of my relations who ever rose in
fortune above penury, or in character above neglect.' _Piozzi Letters_,
i. 105. Malone, in a note to later editions, shews that Johnson shortly
before his death was trying to discover some of his poor relations.
[1230] Mr. Windham records (_Diary_, p. 28) that the day before Johnson
made his will 'he recommended Frank to him as to one who had will and
power to protect him.' He continues, 'Having obtained my assent to this,
he proposed that Frank should be called in; and desiring me to take him
by the hand in token of the promise, repeated before him the
recommendation he had just made of him, and the promise I had given to
attend to it.
[1231] Johnson wrote five years earlier to Mrs. Thrale about her
husband's will:--'Do not let those fears prevail which you know to be
unreasonable; a will brings the end of life no nearer.' _Piozzi
Letters_, ii. 72.
[1232] 'IN THE NAME OF GOD. AMEN. I, 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 with 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
publick 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
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
Church-yard, the sum of two hundred pounds; to Mrs. White, my female
servant, one hundred pounds stock in the three _per cent_. annuitites
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 the use of Francis Barber, my man-servant, a
negro, in such a manner as they shall judge most fit and available to
his benefit. And I appoint the aforesaid Sir Joshua 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, scaled, 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
Litchfield, in the county of Stafford, with the appertenances, in the
tenure or 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 [F-1], 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 grand-daughters. I give and
bequeath to the Rev. Mr. Rogers, of Berkley, 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 lunatick [F-2]. I also
give and bequeath to my god-children, the son and daughter of Mauritius
Lowe [F-3], 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 [F-4],
Poetae Graeci 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 [F-5], 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 [F-6], two hundred pounds consolidated
three _per cent_, annuities: and to Mr. Sastres, the Italian
master [F-7], 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 expences 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 effects, I give and
bequeath to my said Executors, in trust for the said Francis Barber, his
Executors and Administrators. Witness my hand and seal, this ninth day
of December, 1784.
'SAM. JOHNSON, (L. S.)
'Signed, sealed, published, declared,
and delivered, by the
said Samuel Johnson, as, and
for a Codicil to his last Will and
Testament, in the presence of
us, who, in his presence, and at
his request, and also in the
presence of each other, have
hereto subscribed our names as
witnesses.
'JOHN COPLEY.
'WILLIAM GIBSON.
'HENRY COLE.'
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[F-8]. The same word is used in the will of Dr. Sanderson, Bishop of
Lincoln [F-9], who was piety itself.
His legacy of two hundred pounds to the representatives of Mr. Innys,
bookseller, in St. Paul's Church-yard [F-10], 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 [F-11].'
The amount of his property proved to be considerably more than he had
supposed it to be. Sir John Hawkins estimates the bequest to 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 [F-12].' 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 [F-13], Dr. Burney, Mr. Hector, Mr.
Murphy, the Authour 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 shewn others such proofs of his
regard, that it was not necessary to crowd his Will with their names.
Mrs. 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 Johnson by her Will, which was made during his
life-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 [F-14]; 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. Mr.
Lysons, of Clifford's Inn, has favoured me with the two following:
In _Holy Rules and Helps to Devotion_, by Bryan Duppa, Lord Bishop of
Winton, '_Preces quidam (? quidem) videtur diligenter tractasse; spero
non inauditus (? inauditas).'_
In _The Rosicrucian infallible Axiomata_, by John Heydon, Gent.,
prefixed to which are some verses addressed to the authour, 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_.'--BOSWELL. [Note: See Appendix F for notes on
this footnote.]
[1233] 'He burned,' writes Mrs. Piozzi, 'many letters in the last week,
I am told, and those written by his mother drew from him a flood of
tears. Mr. Sastres saw him cast a melancholy look upon their ashes,
which he took up and examined to see if a word was still
legible.'--_Piozzi Letters_, ii. 383.
[1234] Boswell in his _Hebrides_ (_post_, v. 53) says that Johnson,
starting northwards on his tour, left in a drawer in Boswell's house
'one volume of a pretty full and curious _Diary of his Life_, of which I
have,' he continues, 'a few fragments.' The other volume, we may
conjecture, Johnson took with him, for Boswell had seen both, and
apparently seen them only once. He mentions (_ante_, i. 27) that these
'few fragments' had been transferred to him by the residuary legatee
(Francis Barber). One large fragment, which was published after Barber's
death, he could never have seen, for he never quotes from it (_ante_, i.
35, note 1).
[1235] 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; '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 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. According to Mr. Croker,
Steevens was the man whom Hawkins said that he suspected. Porson, in his
witty _Panegyrical Epistle on Hawkins v. Johnson_ (_Gent. Mag._ 1787,
pp. 751-3, and _Porson Tracts_, p. 341), says:--'I shall attempt a
translation [of _Melius est_, &c.] for the benefit of your mere English
readers:--_There is more joy over a sinner that repenteth than over a
just person that needeth no repentance_. And we know from an authority
not to be disputed (Hawkins's _Life_, p. 406) that _Johnson was a great
lover of penitents_.
"God put it in the mind to take it hence,
That thou might'st win the more thy [Johnson's] love,
Pleading so wisely in excuse of it."
[1236] _Henry IV_, act iv. sc. 5.
[1237] 'Tibullus addressed Cynthia in this manner:--
"_Te spectem, suprema, mihi cum venerit hora,
Te teneam moriens deficiente mamu.
Lib. i. El. I. 73.
Before my closing eyes dear Cynthia stand,
Held weakly by my fainting, trembling hand."'
Johnson's Works, iv. 35.
[1238] Windham was scarcely a statesman as yet, though for a few months
of the year before he had been Chief Secretary for Ireland (_ante_, p
200). He was in Parliament, but he had never spoken. His _Diary_ shews
that he had no 'important occupations.' On Dec. 12, for instance, he
records (p. 30):--'Came down about ten; read reviews, wrote to Mrs.
Siddons, and then went to the ice; came home only in time to dress and
go to my mother's to dinner.' See _ante_, p. 356, for his interest
in balloons.
[1239] 'My father,' writes Miss Burney, 'saw him once while I was away,
and carried Mr. Burke with him, who was desirous of paying his respects
to him once more in person. He rallied a little while they were there;
and Mr. Burke, when they left him, said to my father:--"His work is
almost done, and well has he done it."' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii.
