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(said he) he is fullest on the propitiatory sacrifice.'

Johnson having thus in his mind the true Christian scheme, at once rational and consolatory, uniting justice and mercy in the DIVINITY, with the improvement of human nature, previous to his receiving the Holy Sacrament in his apartment, composed and fervently uttered this prayer:*

"Almighty and most merciful Father, I am now, as to human eyes it seems, about to commemorate, for the last time, the death of thy Son JESUS CHRIST, our Saviour and Redeemer. Grant, O LORD, that my whole hope and confidence may be in his merits, and thy mercy; enforce and accept my im. perfect repentance; make this commemoration available to the confirmation of my faith, the establishment of my hope, and the enlargement of my charity; and make the death of thy Son JESUS CHRIST effectual to my redemption. Have mercy upon me, and pardon the multitude of my offences. Bless my friends, have mercy upon all men. Support me, by thy Holy Spirit, in the days of weakness, and at the hour of death; and receive me at my death, to everlasting happiness, for the sake of JESUS CHRIST. Amen."

Having, as has been already mentioned, made his will on the 8th and 9th of December, and settled all his worldly affairs, he languished till Monday, the 13th of that month, when he expired, about seven o'clock in the evening, with so little apparent pain, that his attendants hardly perceived when his dissolution took place.

Of his last moments, my brother, Thomas David, has furnished me with the following particulars:

"The Doctor, from the time that he was certain his death was near, appeared to be perfectly resigned, was seldom or never fretful or out of temper, and often said to his faithful servant, who gave me this account, Attend, Francis, to the salvation of your soul, which is the object of greatest importance:' he also explained to him passages in the scripture, and seemed to have pleasure in talking upon religious subjects.

"On Monday, the 13th of December, the day on which he died, a Miss Morris, daughter to a particular friend of his, called, and said to Francis, that she begged to be per

a sensible man. You know his extreme zeal for orthodoxy. But did you ever hear whot he told me himself? That he had made it a rule not to admit Dr. Clarke's name in his Dictionary. This, however, wore off. At

some distance of time he advised with me what books he should read in defence of the Christian Religion. I recommended Clarke's Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion,' as the best of the kind: and I find in what is called his Prayers and Meditations,' that he was frequently employed in the latter part of his time in reading Clarke's Sermons." The Reverend Mr. Strahan took care to have it preserved, and has inserted it in "Prayers and Meditations," p. 216.

mitted to see the Doctor, that she might earnestly request him to give her his blessing. Francis went into his room, followed by the young lady, and delivered the message. The Doctor turned himself in the bed, and said, Gon bless you, my dear!' These were the last words he spoke. His difficulty of breathing increased till about seven o'clock in the evening, when Mr. Barber and Mrs. Desmoulins, who were sitting in the room, observing that the noise he made in breathing had ceased, went to the bed, and found he was dead."

About two days after his death, the following very agreeable account was commu nicated to Mr. Malone, in a letter by the Honourable John Byng, to whom I am much obliged for granting me permission to introduce it in my work.

"DEAR SIR,

"SINCE I saw you, I have had a long conversation with Cawston,† who sat up with Dr. Johnson, from nine o'clock on Sunday evening, till ten o'clock on Monday morning. And, from what I can gather from him, it should seem, that Dr. Johnson was perfectly composed, steady in hope, and resigned to death. At the interval of each hour, they assisted him to sit up in his bed, and move his legs, which were in much pain; when he regularly addressed himself to fervent prayer; and though, sometimes, his voice failed him, his sense never did, during that time. The only sustenance he received was cider and water. He said his mind was prepared, and the time to his dissolution seemed long. At six in the morning, he inquired the hour, and, on being informed, said that all went on regularly, and he felt he had but a few hours to live.

"At ten o'clock in the morning, he parted from Cawston, saying, 'You should not detain Mr. Windham's servant: I thank you; bear my remembrance to your master.' Cawston says, that no man could appear more collected, more devout, or less terrified at the thoughts of the approaching minute.

"This account, which is so much more agreeable than, and somewhat different from, yours, has given us the satisfaction of thinking that that great man died as he lived, full of resignation, strengthened in faith, and joyful in hope."

A few days before his death, he had asked Sir John Hawkins, as one of his executors, where he should be buried; and on being answered, "Doubtless in Westminster-Abbey," seemed to feel a satisfaction very natural to a poet; and indeed in my opinion very natural to every man of any imagination, who has no family sepulchre in which he can be laid with his fathers. Accordingly, upon Monday, December 20, his remains

Servant to the Right Honourable William Windham.

were deposited in that noble and renowned edifice; and over his grave was placed a large blue flag-stone, with this inscription: "SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. Obiit XIII die Decembris Anno Domini

M. DCC. LXXXIV. Etatis suæ LXXV."

His funeral was attended by a respectable number of his friends, particularly such of

the members of THE LITERARY CLUB as were then in town; and was also honoured with the presence of several of the Reverend Chapter of Westminster, Mr. Burke, Sir Joseph Banks. Mr. Windham, Mr. Langton, Sir Charles Bunbury, and Mr. Colman, bore his pall. His schoolfellow, Dr. Taylor, performed the mournful office of reading the burial service.

I trust I shall not be accused of affectation, when I declare, that I find myself unable to express all that I felt upon the loss of such a "Guide, Philosopher, and Friend." I shall, therefore, not say one word of my own, but adopt those of an eminent friend,+ which he uttered with an abrupt felicity, superior to all studied compositions:-"He has made a chasm, which not only nothing can fill up, but which nothing has a tendency to fill up.-Johnson is dead.-Let us go to the next best; there is nobody; no man can be said to put you in mind of Johnson."

As Johnson had abundant homage paid to him during his life, so no writer in this

On the subject of Johnson I may adopt the words of Sir John Harrington, concerning his venerable Tutor and Diocesan, Dr. John Still, Bishop of Bath and Wells; "who hath given me some helps, more hopes, all encouragements in my best studies: to whom I never came but I grew more religious; from whom I never went, but I parted better instructed. Of him, therefore, my acquaintance, my friend, my instructor, if I speak much, it were not to be marvelled if I speak frankly, it is not to be blamed; and though I speak partially, it were to be pardoned." Nuga Antique, vol. i. p. 136. There is one circumstance in Sir John's character of Bishop Still, which is peculiarly applicable to Johnson; "He became so famous a disputer, that the learnedest were even afraid to dispute with him: and he finding his own strength, could not stifle to warn them in their arguments to take heed to their answers, like a perfect fencer that will tell aforehand in which button he will give the venew, or like a cuuning chess-player that will appoint aforehand with which pawn and in what place he will give the mate." Ibid.

t [The late Right Hon. William Gerrard Hamilton, who had been intimately acquainted with Dr. Johnson near thirty years. He died in London, July 16, 1796, in his 69th or 70th year. M.]

Beside the Dedications to him by Dr. Goldsmith, the Reverend Dr. Franklin, and the Reverend Mr. Wilson, which I have mentioned according to their dates, there was one by a lady, of a versification of "Aningait and Ajut," and one by the ingenious Mr. Walker, of his "Rhetorical Grammar." I have introduced into this work several compliments paid to him in the writings of his contemporaries; but the number of them is so great, that we may fairly say that there was almost a general

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nation ever had such an accumulation of li terary honours after his death. A sermon upon that event was preached in St. Mary's church, Oxford, before the University, by the Reverend Mr. Agutter, of Magdalen College.§ The Lives, the Memoirs, the Essays, both in prose and verse, which have been published concerning him, would make many volumes. The numerous attacks too upon him, I consider as part of his consequence, upon the principle which he him. self so well knew and asserted. Many who trembled at his presence, were forward in assault, when they no longer apprehended danger. When one of his little pragmatical foes was invidiously snarling at his fame,

Whose moral writings, exactly conformable to the precepts of Christianity,

Gave ardour to Virtue and confidence to Truth." As no inconsiderable circumstance or his fame, we must reckon the extraordinary zeal of the artists to extend and perpetuate his image. I can enumerate a bust by Mr. Nollekens, and the many casts which are made from it; several pictures by Sir Joshua Reynolds, from one of which, in the possession of the Duke of Dorset, Mr. Humphry executed a beautiful miniture in enamel: one by Mrs. Frances Reynolds, Sir Joshua's sister: one by Mr. Zoffanij; and one by Mr. Opie; and the followSir Joshua, for the Proprietors' edition of his folio Dicing engravings of his portrait: 1. One by Cooke, from tionary.-2. One from ditto, by ditto, for their quarto edition.-3. One from Opie, by Heath, for Harrison's edition of his dictionary.-4. One from Nollekens' bust of him, by Bartolozzi, for Fielding's quarto edition of his Dictionary.-5. One small, from Harding, by Trot ter, for his "Beauties."-6. One small from Sir Joshua, by Trotter, for his "Lives of the Poets."-7. One small, from Sir Joshua, by Hall, for "The Rambler."-8.One small, from an original drawing, in the possession of Mr. John Simco, etched by Trotter, for another edition of his "Lives of the Poets."-9. One small, no painter's name, etched by Taylor, for his Johnsoniana.-10. One folio whole-length, with his oak-stick, as described in Boswell's "Tour," drawn and etched by. Trotter.11.One large mezzotinto, from Sir Joshua, by Doughty. -12. One large Roman head, from Sir Joshua, by Marchi.-13. Öne octavo, holding a book to his eye, from Sir Joshua, by Hall, for his works.-14. One small, from a drawing from the life, and engraved by Trotter, for his Life published by Kearsley.-15. One large, from Opie, by Mr. Townley, (brother of Mr. Townley, of the Commons,) an ingenious artist, who resided some time at Berlin, and has the honour of being engraver to his Majesty the King of Prussia. This is one of the finest mezzotintos that ever was executed; and what renders it of extraordinary value, the plate was destroyed after four or five impressions only were taken off. One of them is in the possession of Sir William Scott. Mr. Townley has lately been prevailed with to execute and publish another of the same, that it may be more gene rally circulated among the admirers of Dr. Johnson16. One large, from Sir Joshua's first picture of him, by Heath, for this work, in quarto.-17. One octavo, by Baker, for the octavo edition.-18. And one for "La vater's Essay's on Physiognomy," in which Johnson's countenance is analysed upon the principles of that fanciful writer.-There are also several seals with his head cut on them, particularly a very fine one by that eminenent artist, Edward Burch, Esq.R.A. in the possession of the younger Dr. Charles Burney.

Let me add, as a proof of the popularity of his character, that there are copper pieces struck at Birming ham, with his head impressed on them, which pass cur rent as half-pence there, and in the neighbouring parts of the country.

It is not yet published-In a letter to me, Mr Agutter says, My sermon before the University was more engaged with Dr. Johnson's moral than his intellec tual character. It particularly examined his fear of death, and suggested several reasons for the apprehensions of the good, and the indifference of the infidel in their last hours; this was illustrated by contrasting the death of Dr. Johnson and Mr. Hume: the text was Job xxi. 2.—ð.“

at Sir Joshua Reynold's table, the Reverend Dr. Parr exclaimed, with his usual bold animation, “Ay, now that the old lion is dead, every ass thinks he may kick at him."

A monument for him, in WestminsterAbbey, was resolved upon soon after his death, and was supported by a most respectable contribution; but the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's having come to a resolution of admitting monuments there, upon a liberal and magnificent plan, that cathedral was afterwards fixed on as the place in which a cenotaph should be erected to his memory; and in the cathedral of his native city of Lichfield, a smaller one is to be erected. To compose this epitaph, could not but excite the warmest competition of genius.+ If laudari a laudato viro be

[This monument has been since erected. It consists of a medallion, with a tablet beneath, on which is this inscription:

"The friends of SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D.
A native of Lichfield,
Erected this Monument,
As a tribute of respect

To the memory of a man of extensive learning,
A distinguished moral writer, and a sincere Christian.
He died Dec. 13, 1784, aged 75." M.]

+ The Reverend Dr. Parr on being requested to undertake it, thus expressed himself in a letter to William Seward, Esq.

"I leave this mighty task to some hardier and some abler writer. The variety and splendour of Johnson's attainments, the peculiarities of his character, his private virtues, and his literary publications, fill me with confusion and dismay, when I reflect upon the confined and difficult species of composition, in which alone they can be expressed with propriety, upon his monument."

But I understand that this great scholar, and warm admirer of Johnson, has yielded to repeated solicitations, and executed the very difficult undertaking.

[Dr. Johnson's Monument, consisting of a Colossal Figure leaning against a column (but not very strongly resembling him,) has, since the death of our author, been placed in St. Paul's Cathedral, having been first opened The Epitaph was writto public view, Feb. 23, 1796. ten by the Rev. Dr. Parr, and is as follows:

A

SAMVELI. JOHNSON

GRAMMATICO. ET. CRITICO SCRIPTORVM. ANGLICORVM. LITTERATE.

PERITO

POETAE. LVMINIBVS. SENTENTIARVM

ET. PONDERIBVS. VERBORVM. ADMIRABILI
MAGISTRO. VIRTVTIS. GRAVISSIMO
HOMINI. OPTITO. ET. SINGVLARIS.
EXEMPLI

QVI VIXIT ANN LXXV MENS 11. · DIEB.
XIII
DECESSIT IDIB DECEMBR ANN CHRIST.
clǝ. Iǝce LXXXIIII

SEPVLT IN AED SANCT PETR. WESTMO-
NASTERIENS.

XIII KALIANVAR ANN CHRIST clɔ·lɔcc.LXXXV
AMICI.ET. SODALES. LITTERARII

PECVNIA. CONLATA

H.M. FACIVND. CVRAVER.

On a scroll in his hand are the following words.
ΕΝΜΑΚΑΡΕΣ ΣΙΠΟΝΩΝ ΑΝΤΑΙΟΣΙΗΑΜΟΙΒΗ.

On one side of the monument, FACIEBAT JOHANNES
BACON, SCVLPTOR, ANN. CHRIST. M.DCC.LXXXV.

The subscription for this monument, which cost eleven hundred guineas, was begun by the LITERARY CLUB, and completed by the aid of Dr. Johnson's other friends and admirers. M.]

|

praise which is highly estimable, I should not forgive myself were I to omit the following sepulchral verses on the author of THE ENGLISH DICTIONARY, written by the Right Honourable Henry Flood :+

"No need of Latin or of Greek to grace

Our JOHNSON's memory, or inscribe his grave; His native language claims this mournful space, To pay the immortality he gave."

The character of SAMUEL JOHNSON has, I trust, been so developed in the course of this work, that they who have honoured it with a perusal, may be considered as well acquainted with him. As, however, it may be expected that I should collect into one view the capital and distinguishing features of this extraordinary man, I shall endeavour to acquit myself of that part of my biographical undertaking.§ however difficult it may be to do that which many of my readers will do better for themselves.

His figure was large and well formed, and his countenance of the cast of an ancient statue; yet his appearance was rendered strange and somewhat uncouth, by convulsive cramps, by the scars of that distemper which it was once imagined the royal touch could cure, and by a slovenly mode of dress. He had the use only of one eye; yet so much does mind govern and even supply the deficiency of organs, that his visual perceptions, as far as they extended, were unSo morbid commonly quick and accurate.

was his temperament that he never knew the natural joy of a free and vigorous use of his limbs: when he walked, it was like the struggling gait of one in fetters; when he rode, he had no command or direction of his horse, but was carried as if in a balloon. That with his constitution and habits of life he should have lived seventy-five years, is a proof that an inherent vivida vis is a powerful preservative of the human frame.

To prevent any misconception on this subject, Mr. Malone, by whom these lines were obligingly communicated, requests me to add the following remark:

"In justice to the late Mr. Flood, now himself wanting, and highly meriting, an epitaph from his country, to which his transcendent talents did the highest honour, as well as the most important service; it should be observed, that these lines were by no means intended as a regular monumental inscription for Dr. Johnson. Had he undertaken to write an appropriate and discriminative epitaph for that excellent and extraordinary man, those who knew Mr. Flood's vigour of mind, will have no doubt that he would have produced one worthy of his illustrious subject. But the fact was merely this: In Dec. 1789, after a large subscription had been made for Dr. Johnson's monument, to which Mr. Flood liberally contributed, Mr. Malone happened to call on him at his house, in Berner's-street, and the conversation turning on the proposed monument, Mr Malone maintained that the epitaph, by whomsoever it should be written, ought to be in Latin. Mr. Flood thought differently. The next morning, in the postscript to a note on another subject, he mentioned that he continued of the same opinion as on the preceding day, and subjoined the lines above given.”

§ As I do not see any reason to give a different character of my illustrious friend now, from what I formerly gave, the greatest part of the sketch of him in my "Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides," is here adopted.

Man is, in general, made up of contradic- | when provoked by obtrusive ignorance, or tory qualities; and these will ever shew presuming petulance; and allowance must themselves in strange succession, where a be made for his uttering hasty and satirical consistency in appearance at least, if not sallies even against his best friends. And, reality, has not been attained by long habits surely, when it is considered, that, “amidst of philosophical discipline. In proportion sickness and sorrow," he exerted his facul to the native vigour of the mind, the con- ties in so many works for the benefit of mantradictory qualities will be the more promi- kind, and particularly that he achieved the nent, and more difficult to be adjusted'; and, great and admirable DICTIONARY of our therefore, we are not to wonder, that John- language, we must be astonished at his reson exhibited an eminent example of this re- solution. The solemn text, "of him to mark which I have made upon human nature. whom much is given, much will be requir At different times, he seemed a different ed," seems to have been ever present to his man, in some respects; not, however, in any mind, in a rigorous sense, and to have made great or essential article, upon which he him dissatisfied with his labours and acts of had fully employed his mind, and settled goodness, however comparatively great; so certain principles of duty, but only in his that the unavoidable consciousness of his manners, and in the display of argument superiority was, in that respect, a cause of and fancy in his talk. He was prone to disquiet. He suffered so much from this, superstition, but not to credulity. Though and from the gloom which perpetually haunthis imagination might incline him to a be- ed him, and made solitude frightful, that it lief of the marvellous and the mysterious, may be said of him, "If in this life only he his vigorous reason examined the evidence had hope, he was of all men most miserable.” with jealousy. He was a sincere and zeal- He loved praise, when it was brought to ous Christian, of high Church-of-England him; but was too proud to seek for it. He and monarchical principles, which he would was somewhat susceptible of flattery. As not tamely suffer to be questioned; and had, he was general and unconfined in his studies, perhaps, at an early period, narrowed his he cannot be considered as master of any one mind somewhat too much, both as to religion particular science; but he had accumulated and politics. His being impressed with the a vast and various collection of learning and danger of extreme latitude in either, though knowledge, which was so arranged in his he was of a very independent spirit, occa- mind, as to be ever in readiness to be brought sioned his appearing somewhat unfavourable forth. But his superiority over other learnto the prevalence of that noble freedom of ed men consisted chiefly in what may be sentiment which is the best possession of called the art of thinking, the art of using man. Nor can it be denied, that he had his mind; a certain continual power of seizmany prejudices; which, however, frequent- ing the useful substance of all that he knew, ly suggested many of his pointed sayings, and exhibiting it in a clear and forcible manthat rather shew a playfulness of fancy than ner; so that knowledge, which we often see to any settled malignity. He was steady and be no better than lumber in men of dull uninflexible in maintaining the obligations derstanding, was, in him, true, evident, and of religion and morality; both from a re- actual wisdom. His moral precepts are pracgard for the order of society, and from a tical; for they are drawn from an intimate veneration for the GREAT SOURCE of all acquaintance with human nature. His order; correct, nay stern in his taste; hard maxims carry conviction; for they are to please, and easily offended; impetuous founded on the basis of common sense, and and irritable in his temper, but of a most a very attentive and minute survey of real humane and benevolent heart, which shew- life. His mind was so full of imagery that ed itself not only in a most liberal charity, he might have been perpetually a poet; yet as far as his cicumstances would allow, but it is remarkable, that, however rich his prose in a thousand instances of active benevois in this respect, his poetical pieces, in gelence. He was afflicted with a bodily disease neral, have not much of that splendour, but which made him often restless and fretful; are rather distinguished by strong senti and with a constitutional melancholy, the ment, and acute observation, conveyed in clouds of which darkened the brightness of harmonious and energetic verse, particuhis fancy, and gave a gloomy cast to his larly in heroic couplets. Though usually whole course of thinking: we, therefore, grave, and even awful in his deportment, he ought not to wonder at his sallies of impa- possessed uncommon and peculiar powers tience and passion at any time; especially of wit and humour; he frequently indulged himself in colloquial pleasantry; and the heartiest merriment was often enjoyed in his company; with this great advantage, that it was entirely free from any poisonous tincture of vice or impiety, it was salutary to those who shared in it. He had accustomed himself to such accuracy in his com

In the Olla Podrida, a collection of Essays published at Oxford, there is an admirable paper upon the character of Johnson, written by the Reverend Dr. Horne, the last excellent Bishop of Norwich. The following passage is eminently happy :-"To reject wisdom, because the person of him who communicates it is uncouth, and his manners are inelegant ;-what is it, but to throw away a pine-apple, and assign for a reason the roughness of its coat!"

gathered from his talk; though when he was in company with a single friend, he would discuss a subject with genuine fairness; but he was too conscientious to make error permanent and pernicious, by deliberately writing it; and, in all his numerous works, he earnestly inculcated what appeared to him to be the truth; his piety being constant, and the ruling principle of all his conduct.

mon conversation," that he at all times ex-dience, his real opinions could seldom be pressed his thoughts with great force, and an elegant choice of language, the effect of which was aided by his having a loud voice, and a slow deliberate utterance. In him were united a most logical head with a most fertile imagination, which gave him an extraordinary advantage in arguing: for he could reason close or wide, as he saw best for the moment. Exulting in his intellectual strength and dexterity, he could, when he pleased, be the greatest sophist that ever contended in the lists of declamation; and, from a spirit of contradiction and a delight in shewing his powers, he would often maintain the wrong side with equal warmth and ingenuity; so that, when there was an au

Though a perfect resemblance of Johnson is not to be found in any age, parts of his character are admirably expressed by Clarendon, in drawing that of Lord Falkland, whom the noble and masterly historian describes at his seat near Oxford :-"Such an immenseness of wit, such a solidity of judgement, so infinite a fancy bound in by a most logical ratiocination.-His acquaintance was cultivated by the most polite and accurate men, so that his house was an University in less volume, whither they came, not so much for repose as study, and to examine and refine those grosser propositions, which laziness and consent made current in conversation."

Bayle's account of Menage may also be quoted as exceedingly applicable to the great subject of this work."His illustrious friends erected a very glorious monument to him in the collection entitled Menagiana. Those who judge of things aright, will confess that this collection is very proper to shew the extent of genius and learning which was the character of Menage. And I may be bold to say, that the excellent works he published will not distinguish him from other learned men so advantageously as this. To publish books of great learning, to make Greek and Latin verses exceedingly well turned, is not a common talent, I own; neither is it extremly rare. It is incomparably more difficult to

Such was SAMUEL JOHNSON, a man whose talents, acquirements, and virtues, were so extraordinary, that the more his character is considered, the more he will be regarded by the present age, and by posterity, with admiration and reverence.

find men who can furnish discourse about an infinite number of things, and who can diversify them an hundred ways. How many authors are there, who are admired for their works, on account of the vast learning that is displayed in them, who are not able to sustain a conversation. Those who know Menage only by his books, might think he resembled those learned men: but if you shew the MENAGIANA, you distinguish him from them, and make him known by a talent which is given to very few learned men. There it appears that he was a man who spoke off-hand a thousand good things. His memory extended to what was ancient and modern; to the court and to the city; to the dead and to the living languages; to things serious and things jocose; in a word, to a thousand sorts of subjects. That which appeared a trifle to some readers of the Menagiana, who did not consider circumstances, caused admiration in other readers, who minded the difference, between what a man speaks without preparation, and that which he prepares for the press. And, therefore, we cannot sufficiently commend the care which his illustrious friends took to erect a monument so capable of giving him immortal glory. They were not obliged to rectify what they had heard him say; for, in so doing, they had not been faithful historians of his conversation."

THE END.

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