274. Education.

Being asked by Dr. Lawrence, what he thought the best system of education, he replied, "School in school hours, and home instruction in the intervals."

He once expressed these sentiments :— "I have seldom met with a man whose colloquial ability exceeded that of Mallet. I was but once in Hume's company, and then his only attempt at merriment consisted in his display of a drawing too indecently gross to have delighted, even in a brothel. Colman never produced a luckier thing than his first Ode in imitation of Gray (1) ; a considerable part of it may be numbered among those felicities which no man has twice attained."

276. Johnson's Talk.

One who had long known Johnson said of him, “In general you may tell what the man to whom you are speaking will say next: this you can never do of Johnson: his images, his allusions, his great powers of ridicule, throw the appearance of novelty upon the most common conversation."

277. Mr. Thrale's Death-bed.

He attended Mr. Thrale in his last moments, and stayed in the room praying, as is imagined, till he had drawn his last breath. "His servants, said he, "would have waited upon him in this awful period, and why not his friend?"

278. The Thrales. — Leave-taking.

The death of Mr. Thrale dissolved the friendship between him and Johnson; but it abated not in the latter that care for the interests of those whom his (1) ["Odes to Obscurity and Oblivion." See antè, Vol. V. p. 275.]

friend had left behind him, which he thought himself bound to cherish, as a living principle of gratitude. The favours he had received from Mr. Thrale were to be repaid by the exercise of kind offices towards his relict and her children; and these, circumstanced as Johnson was, could only be prudent counsels, friendly admonition to the one, and preceptive instruction to the others, both which he was ever ready to interpose. Nevertheless, it was observed by myself, and other of Johnson's friends, that, soon after the decease of Mr. Thrale, his visits to Streatham became less and less frequent, and that he studiously avoided the mention of the place or family. It seems that between him and the widow there was a formal taking of leave, for I find in his diary the following note: April 5th, 1783. "I took leave of Mrs. Thrale. I was much moved. I had some expostulations with her. She said that she was likewise affected. I commended the Thrales with great good-will to God. May my petitions have been heard!"

279. Johnson's Charity.

Almost throughout his life, poverty and distressed circumstances seemed to be the strongest of all recommendations to his favour. When asked by one of his most intimate friends, how he could bear to be surrounded by such necessitous and undeserving people as he had about him, his answer was, "If I did not assist them no one else would, and they must be lost for want."

280. Rapidity of Composition.

"I wrote," said Johnson, "the first seventy lines in the Vanity of Human Wishes,' in the course of one morning, in that small house beyond the church at Hampstead. The whole number was composed before I committed a single couplet to writing. The same method I pursued in regard to the Prologue on opening

Drury Lane Theatre. I did not afterwards change more than a word in it, and that was done at the remonstrance of Garrick. I did not think his criticism just, but it was necessary that he should be satisfied with what he was to utter."

Gesticular mimicry and buffoonery Johnson hated, and would often huff Garrick for exercising it in his presence; but of the talent of humour he had an almost enviable portion. To describe the nature of this faculty, as he was wont to display it in his hours of mirth and relaxation, I must say that it was ever of that arch and dry kind, which lies concealed under the appearance of gravity, and which acquiesces in an error for the purpose of refuting it.

282. Invitations to Dinner.

Invitations to dine with those whom he liked he so seldom declined, that to a friend of his, he said, " I never but once, upon a resolution to employ myself in study, balked an invitation out to dinner, and then I stayed at home and did nothing."

283. Asperity of Manners.

There was more asperity in Johnson's manner of expression than in his natural disposition; for I have heard that, in many instances, and in some with tears in his eyes, he has apologised to those whom he had offended by contradiction or roughness of behaviour.

284. Reynolds's Portrait of Johnson.

The picture of him by Sir Joshua Reynolds, which was painted for Mr. Beauclerk, and is now Mr. Langton's, and scraped in mezzotinto by Doughty, is extremely like him: there is in it that appearance of a labouring working mind, of an indolent reposing body,

which he had to a very great degree. Indeed, the common operations of dressing, shaving, &c. were a toil to him: he held the care of the body very cheap. He used to say, that a man who rode out for an appetite consulted but little the dignity of human nature.

285. Johnson's last Illness.

A few days after the remnant of the Ivy-lane Club had dined with him, [Feb. 1784.] Dr. Johnson sent for me, and informed me that he had discovered in himself the symptoms of a dropsy; and, indeed, his very much increased bulk, and the swollen appearance of his legs, seemed to indicate no less. He told me, that he was desirous of making a will, and requested me to be one of his executors: upon my consenting, he gave me to understand that he meant to make a provision for his servant, Frank, of about 70l. a year for his life, and concerted with me a plan for investing a sum sufficient for the purpose: at the same time he opened to me the state of his circumstances, and the amount of what he had to dispose of.

In a visit which I made him in a few days, in consequence of a very pressing request to see me, I found him labouring under great dejection of mind. He bade me draw near him, and said he wanted to enter into a serious conversation with me; and, upon my expressing a willingness to join in it, he, with a look that cut me to the heart, told me that he had the prospect of death before him, and that he dreaded to meet his Saviour. (1) I could not but be astonished at such a declaration, and advised him, as I had done once before, to reflect on the course of his life, and the services he had rendered to the cause of religion and virtue, as well by his example as his writings; to which he answered, that he had

(1) This, and other expressions of the like kind, which he uttered to me, should put to silence the idle reports that he dreaded annihilation. H.

written as a philosopher, but had not lived like one. In the estimation of his offences, he reasoned thus: " Every man knows his own sins, and also what grace he has resisted. But, to those of others, and the circumstances under which they were committed, he is a stranger: he is, therefore, to look on himself as the greatest sinner that he knows of."(1) At the conclusion of this argument, which he strongly enforced, he uttered this passionate exclamation, "Shall I, who have been a teacher of others, myself be a castaway?"

Much to the same purpose passed between us in this and other conversations that I had with him; in all which I could not but wonder, as much at the freedom with which he opened his mind, and the compunction he seemed to feel for the errors of his past life, as I did at his making choice of me for his confessor, knowing full well how meanly qualified I was for such an office.

It was on a Thursday (2) that I had this conversation with him; and here, let not the supercilious lip of scorn protrude itself, while I relate that, he declared his intention to devote the whole of the next day to fasting, humiliation, and such other devotional exercises as became a man in his situation. On the Saturday following I made him a visit, and, upon entering his room, observed in his countenance such a serenity, as indicated that some remarkable crisis of his disorder had produced a change in his feelings. He told me that, pursuant to the resolution he had mentioned, he had spent the preceding day in an abstraction from all worldly concerns; that, to prevent interruption, he had,

(1) I find the above sentiment in "Law's Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life," a book which Johnson was very conversant with, and often commended.- H.

(2) It appears from Johnson's own letters, that the event itself took place on Thursday, 19th February. See antè, Vol. VIII. p. 255. — C.