Dear SIR,

In perambulating Ivy lane, Mr. Ryland found neither our landlord Horfeman, nor his fucceffor. The old houfe is fhut up, and he liked not the appearance of any near it he, therefore, bespoke our dinner at the Queen's Arms, in St. Paul's 'church yard, where, at half an hour after three,

your company will be defired to-day, by thofe who remain of our former fociety. "Your humble fervant,

SAM. JOHNSON.

Dec. 3. With this invitation I chearfully complied, and met, at the time and place-appointed, all who could be mustered of our fociety, namely, Johnfon, Mr. Ryland, and Mr. Payne of the bank. When we were collected, the thought that we were so few, occafioned fome melancholy reflections, and I could not but compare our meeting, at fuch an advanced period of life as it was to us all, to that of the four old men in the 'Senile Colloquium' of Erafmus. We dined, and in the evening regaled with coffee. At ten, we broke up, much to the regret of Johnfon, who propofed ftaying; but finding us inclined to feparate, he left us, with a figh that feemed to come from his heart, lamenting that he was retiring to folitude and chearless meditation.

Johnson had propofed a meeting, like this, once a month, and we had one more; but, the time approaching for a third, he began to feel a return of fome of his complaints, and fignified a wifh, that we would dine with him at his own houfe; and, accordingly, we met there, and were very chearfully entertained by him.

A few

A few days after, he fent for me, and informed me, that he had difcovered in himself the fymptoms of a dropfy, and, indeed, his very much increased bulk, and the fwoln appearance of his legs, feemed to in-. dicate no lefs. He told me, that he was defirous of making a will, and requested me to be one of his executors upon my confenting to take on me the office, he gave me to understand, that he meant to make a provifion for his fervant Frank, of about 701. a year for life, and concerted with me a plan for invefting a fum fufficient for the purpose: at the fame time he opened to me the state of his circumftances, and the amount of what he had to difpofe cf.

In a vifit, which I made him in a few days, in confequence of a very prefling requeft to fee me, I found him labouring under great dejection of mind. He bade me draw near him, and faid, he wanted to enter into a serious converfation with me; and, upon my expreffing a willingness to join in it, he, with a look that cut me to the heart, told me, that he had the profpect of death before him, and that he dreaded to meet his Saviour. I could not but be astonished at fuch a declaration, and advised him, as I had done once before, to reflect on the courfe of his life, and the fervices he had rendered to the caufe of religion and virtue, as well by his example, as his writings; to which he answered, that he had written as a philofopher, but had not lived like one. In the estimation of his offences, he reafoned thus-'Every man knows his own fins, and alfo, what grace he has refifted. But, C to those of others, and the circumstances under which

they were committed, he is a stranger: he is, there

fore, to look on himfelf as the greateft finner that

⚫ he knows of*. At the conclufion of this argument, which he strongly enforced, he uttered this paffionate exclamation,- Shall I, who have been a teacher of others, myself be a caftaway?'

Much to the fame purpose paffed between us in this and other converfations 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 paft life, as I did, at his making choice of me for his confeffor, knowing full well how meanly qualified I was for fuch an office.

It was on a Thurfday that I had this converfation with him; and here, let not the fupercilious lip of fcorn protrude itself, while I relate that, in the course thereof, he declared his intention to devote the whole of the next day to fafting, humiliation, and fuch other devotional exercifes, as became a man in his fituation. On the Saturday following, I made him a vifit, and, upon entering his room, observed in his countenance fuch a ferenity, as indicated that some remarkable crisis of his diforder had produced a change in his feelings. He told me, that, pursuant to the refolution he had mentioned to me, he had fpent the preceding day in an abstraction from all worldly concerns; that, to prevent interruption, he had, in the morning, ordered Frank not to admit any one to him, and, the better to enforce the charge, had added thefe awful words, For your mafter is preparing himself to die.' He then mentioned to me, that, in the

I find the above fentiment in Law's Serious call to a devout and holy life, a book which Johnfon was very converfant with, and often commended.

courfe

course of this exercise, he found himself relieved from that disorder which had been growing on him, and was become very oppreffing, the dropfy, by a gradual evacuation of water to the amount of twenty pints, a like inftance whereof he had never before experienced, and asked me what I thought of it.

I was well aware of the lengths that fuperftition and enthufiafin will lead men, and how ready fome are to attribute favourable events to fupernatural caufes, and faid, that it might favour of presumption to say that, in this inftance, God had wrought a miracle; yet, as divines recognize certain difpenfations of his providence, recorded in the Scripture by the denomination of returns of prayer, and his omnipotence is now the fame as ever, I thought it would be little lefs than criminal, to afcribe his late relief to caufes merely natural, and, that the fafer opinion was, that he had not in vain humbled himself before his Maker. feemed to acquiefce in all that I faid on this important fubject, and, feveral times, while I was difcourfing with him, cried out, It is wonderful, very wonderful!'

He

His zeal for religion, as manifefted in his writings and converfation, and the accounts extant that atteft his piety, have induced the enemies to his memory to tax him with fuperftition. To that charge, I oppose his behaviour on this occafion, and leave it to the judgment of fober and rational perfons, whether fuch an unexpected event, as that above-mentioned, would not have prompted a really fuperftitious man, to fome more paffionate exclamation, than that it was wonderful *.

He

* Doubtless there are men who look upon all religious exercifes

He had no fooner experienced the eafe and comfort which followed from the remarkable event abovementioned, than he began to entertain a hope, that he had got the better of that difcafe which moft oppreffed him, and that length of days might yet be his portion; he, therefore, fought for a relief from that folitude, to which the lofs of Mrs. Williams and others of his domeftic companions, feemed to have doomed him; and, in the fame fpirit that induced him to attempt the revival of the Ivy lane club, fet about the establishment of another. I was not made privy to this his intention, but, all circumftances confidered, it was no matter of furprife to me when I heard, as I did from a friend of mine, that the great Dr. Johníon had, in the month of December 1783, formed a fixpenny club, at an ale-house in Effex-ftreet, and that, though fome of the members thereof were perfons of note, ftrangers, under reftrictions, for three pence each night, might, three nights in a week, hear him talk, and partake of his converfation. I foon afterwards learned from the doctor, the nature of, as also the motives to this inftitution, which, as to him, was novel, in this refpect, that, as the prefidency

as fuperftition, and upon prayer and other acts of devotion, as evidences of a weak mind. Thefe fay, that reafon is a fufficient rule of action, and that God needs not to be fupplicated, nor requires our thanks. Of this clafs of infidels I take Annet to have been one: he who wrote against the miracles, and was fome years ago convicted of blafphemy, and fentenced to imprisonment. The wife of Jackfon, the bookfeller, in Clare court, Drury lane, a man well known by the collectors of old books and pamphlets, once told me, that this man would often call in at their shop, and if he happened to fee a bible lying on the counter, would intreat her to take it away, for that he could not bear the fight of it.

paffed