Life of Johnson Volume IV Part 77

[1199] 'He would also,' says Hawkins (_Life_, p. 579), 'have written in Latin verse an epitaph for Mr. Garrick, but found himself unequal to the task of original poetic composition in that language.'

[1200] In his _Life of Browne_, Johnson wrote:--'The time will come to every human being when it must be known how well he can bear to die; and it has appeared that our author's fort.i.tude did not desert him in the great hour of trial.' _Works_, vi. 499.

[1201] A Club in London, founded by the learned and ingenious physician, Dr. Ash, in honour of whose name it was called Eumelian, from the Greek [Greek: Eumelias]; though it was warmly contended, and even put to a vote, that it should have the more obvious appellation of _Fraxinean_, from the Latin. BOSWELL. This club, founded in 1788, met at the Blenheim Tavern, Bond-street. Reynolds, Boswell, Burney, and Windham were members. Rose's _Biog. Dict._ ii. 240. [Greek: Eummeliaes] means _armed with good ashen spear_.

[1202] Mrs. Thrale's _Collection_, March 10,1784. Vol. ii. p. 350.

BOSWELL.

[1203] Hawkins's _Life of Johnson_, p. 583.

[1204] See what he said to Mr. Malone, p. 53 of this volume. BOSWELL.

[1205] See _ante_, i. 223, note 2.

[1206] _Epistle to the Romans_, vii. 23.

[1207] 'Johnson's pa.s.sions,' wrote Reynolds, 'were like those of other men, the difference only lay in his keeping a stricter watch over himself. In petty circ.u.mstances this [? his] wayward disposition appeared, but in greater things he thought it worth while to summon his recollection and be always on his guard.... [To them that loved him not]

as rough as winter; to those who sought his love as mild as summer--many instances will readily occur to those who knew him intimately of the 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 pa.s.sion, 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_ lx.x.xii. 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 r.e.t.a.r.d 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 pa.s.sions 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 a.s.sent 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 G.o.d. 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 G.o.d, 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_. annuit.i.tes 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 G.o.d-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 Henric.u.m Stephanum. To the Rev. Mr. Strahan, vicar of Islington, in Middles.e.x, 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. b.u.t.ter, 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.)