1751. Etat. 42. Etat. 43. her eyes, which afterwards ended in total blindness, was kindly received as a conftant vifitor at his houfe while Mrs. Johnfon lived; and after her death having come under his roof in order to have an operation upon her eyes performed with more comfort to her than in lodgings, fhe had an apartment from him during the reft of her life, at all times when he had a house. In 1752 he was almost entirely occupied with his Dictionary. The laft paper of his Rambler was published March 2, this year; after which, there was a ceffation for fome time of any exertion of his talents as an effayift. But, in the fame year, Dr. Hawkefworth, who was his warm admirer, and a ftudious imitator of his ftyle, and then lived in great intimacy with him, began a periodical paper, entitled "THE ADVENTURER," in connection with other gentlemen, one of whom was Johnfon's much-loved friend, Dr. Bathurst; and, without doubt, they received many valuable hints from his converfation, moft of his friends having been fo affifted in the course of their works. That there fhould be a fufpenfion of his literary labours during a part of the year 1752, will not seem strange, when it is confidered that foon after clofing his Rambler, he fuffered a lofs which, there can be no doubt, affected him with the deepest distress. For on the 17th of March, O. S. his wife died. Why Sir John Hawkins fhould unwarrantably take upon him even to suppose that Johnfon's fondnefs for her was diffembled (meaning fimulated or affumed,) and to affert, that if it was not the cafe, "it was a leffon he had learned by rote," rote," I cannot conceive; unless it proceeded from 1752. a want of fimilar feelings in his own breaft. To Etat. 43. argue from her being much older than Johnson, or any other circumftances, that he could not really love her, is abfurd; for love is not a fubject of reafoning, but of feeling, and therefore there are no common principles upon which one can perfuade another concerning it. Every man feels for himfelf, and knows how he is affected by particular qualities in the person he admires, the impressions of which are too minute and delicate to be fubftantiated in language. That his love for her was of the moft ardent kind, and, during the long period of fifty years, was unimpaired by the lapfe of time, is evident from various paffages in the series of his Prayers and Meditations, published by the Reverend Mr. Strahan, as well as from other memorials, two of which I felect, as ftrongly marking the tenderness and fenfibility of his mind. "March 28, 1753, I kept this day as the anniversary of my Tetty's death, with prayer and tears in the morning. In the evening I prayed for her conditionally if it were lawful." "April 23, 1753. I know not whether I do not too much indulge the vain longings of affection; but I hope they intenerate my heart, and that when I die like my Tetty, this affection will be acknowledged in a happy interview, and that in the mean time I am incited by it to piety. I will, however, not deviate too much from common and received methods of devotion." VOL. I. P Her 1752. Her wedding-ring, when, fhe became his wife, Etat. 43 was, after her death, preferved by him, as long as he lived, with an affectionate care, in a little round wooden box, in the infide of which he pasted a flip of paper, thus inscribed by him in fair characters, as follows: "Ebeu! « Eliz. Johnson, "Mart. 17° 175,2." After his death, Mr. Francis Barber, his faithful fervant and refiduary legatee, offered this memorial of tenderness to Mrs, Lucy Porter, Mrs. Johnson's daughter; but he having declined to accept of it, he had it enamelled as a mourning ring for his old mafter, and prefented it to his wife, Mrs. Barber, who now has it. T The state of mind in which a man must be upon the death of a woman whom he fincerely loves, had been in his contemplation many years before. In his IRENE, we find the following fervent and tender fpeech of Demetrius, addressed to his Afpafia: "From those bright regions of eternal day, I have, indeed, been told by Mrs. Defmoulins, who, before her marriage, lived for fome time Atat. 43. with Mrs. Johnfon at Hampstead, that the in- 1752. dulged herself in country air and nice living; at an unsuitable expence, while her husband was drudging in the fmoke of London, and that fhe by no means treated him with that complacency. which is the most engaging quality in a wife. But all this is perfectly compatible with his fondness for her, especially when it is remembered that he had a high opinion of her understanding, and that the impreffion which her beauty, real or imaginary, had originally made upon his fancy, being continued by habit, had not been effaced, though fhe herself was doubtlefs much altered for the worse. The dreadful fhock of feparation took place in the night; and he immediately dispatched a letter to his friend, the Reverend Dr. Taylor, which, as Taylor told me, expreffed grief in the strongest manner he had ever read; fo that it is much to be regretted it has not been preferved. The letter was, brought to Dr. Taylor, at his houfe in the Cloysters, Westminster, about three in the morning; and as it fignified an earnest defire to fee him, he got up, and went to Johnson as foon as he was dreffed, and found him in tears and in extreme agitation. After being a little while together, Johnson requested him to join with him in prayer. He then prayed extempore, as did Dr. Taylor; and thus, by means of that piety which was ever his primary object, his troubled mind was, in fome degree, foothed and compofed. The next day he wrote as follows: 1752. Etat. 43. To the Reverend Dr. TAYLOR. "DEAR SIR, "LET me have your company and inftruction. Do not live away from me. My diftrefs is great. Pray defire Mrs. Taylor to inform me what mourning I should buy for my mother and Mifs Porter, and bring a note in writing with you. "Remember me in your prayers, for vain is the help of man. "I am, dear Sir, &c. March 18, 1752. SAM. JOHNSON." That his fufferings upon the death of his wife were fevere, beyond what are commonly endured, I have no doubt, from the information of many who were then about him, to none of whom I give more credit than to Mr. Francis Barber, his faithful negro fervant, who came into his family Francis Barber was born in Jamaica, and was brought to England in 1750 by Colonel Bathurft, father of Johnson's very intimate friend, Dr. Bathurft. He was fent, for fome time, to the Reverend Mr. Jackfon's fchool, at Barton in Yorkshire. The Colonel by his will left him his freedom, and Dr. Bathurst was willing that he should enter into Johnson's service, in which he continued from 1752 till Johnson's death, with the exception of two intervals; in one of which, upon fome difference with his mafter, he went and served an apothecary in Cheapfide, but ftill vifited Dr. Johnfon occafionally; in another, when he took a fancy to go to fea. Part of the time, indeed, he was, by the kindness of his mafter, at a school in Northamptonshire, that he might have the advantage of fome learning. So early and fo lafting a connection was there between Dr. Johnson and. this humble friend. about |