thought neceffary that a man fhould watch with him all night; and one was found in the neighbourhood, who, for half a crown a night, undertook to fit up with, and affift him. When the man had left the room, he, in the prefence and hearing of Mr. Strahan and Mr. Langton, asked me, where I meant to bury him. I answered, doubtlefs, in Westminster abbey: 'If,' said he, my executors think it proper to 'mark the spot of my interment by a stone, let it be fo placed as to protect my body from injury.' I affured him it fhould be done. Before my departure, he defired Mr. Langton to put into my hands, money to the amount of upwards of 100l. with a direction to keep it till called for.

10th. This day at noon I faw him again. He faid to me, that the male nurfe to whofe care I had committed him, was unfit for the office. He is,' faid he,

an idiot, as aukward as a turnfpit just put into the wheel, and as fleepy as a dormouse.' Mr. Cruikfhank came into the room, and, looking on his fcarified leg, faw no fign of a mortification.

11th. At noon, I found him dozing, and would not disturb him.

12th, Saw him again; found him very weak, and, as he faid, unable to pray.

13th. At noon, I called at the house, but went not into his room, being told, that he was dozing. I was further informed by the fervants, that his appetite was totally gone, and that he could take no fuftenance. At eight in the evening, of the fame day, word was brought me by Mr. Saftres, to whom, in his last moments, he uttered thefe words, Jam moriturus,' that, at a quarter paft feven, he had, without a groan, or the leaft fign of pain or uneafincfs, yielded his laft breath.

At

At eleven, the fame evening, Mr. Langton came to me, and, in an agony of mind, gave me to underftand, that our friend had wounded himself in several parts of the body. I was fhocked at the news; but, upon being told that he had not touched any vital part, was easily able to account for an action, which would elfe have given us the deepest concern. The fact was, that conceiving himfelf to be full of water, he had done that, which he had often folicited his medical affiftants to do, made two or three incifions in his lower limbs, vainly hoping for fome relief from the flux that might follow.

Early the next morning, Frank came to me; and, being defirous of knowing all the particulars of this tranfaction, I interrogated him very strictly concerning it, and received from him anfwers to the following effect;

That, at eight in the morning of the preceding day, upon going into the bedchamber, his master, being in bed, ordered him to open a cabinet, and give him a drawer in it; that he did fo, and that out of it his mafter took a cafe of lancets, and choofing one of them, would have conveyed it into the bed, which Frank, and a young man that fat up with him, feeing, they feized his hand, and intreated him not to do a rafh action he faid he would not; but drawing his hand under the bed-clothes, they faw his arm move. Upon this, they turned down the clothes, and faw a great effufion of blood, which foon ftopped-That foon after, he got at a pair of fciffars that lay in a drawer by him, and plunged them deep in the calf of each leg-That immediately they fent for Mr. Cruikshank, and the apothecary, and they, or one of them, dreffed the wounds-That he then fell into that dozing which

carried

carried him off.-That it was conjectured he loft eight or ten ounces of blood; and that this effufion brought on the dozing, though his pulfe continued firin till three o'clock.

That this act was not done to haften his end, but to discharge the water that he conceived to be in him, I have not the leaft doubt. A dropfy was his disease; he looked upon himself as a bloated carcafe; and, to attain the power of eafy refpiration, would have undergone any degree of temporary pain. He dreaded neither punctures nor incifions, and, indeed, defied the trochar and the lancet: he had often reproached his phyficians and furgeon with cowardice; and, when Mr. Cruikshank fcarified his leg, he cried outDeeper, deeper;-I will abide the confequence: you are afraid of your reputation, but that is nothing to me.'--To thofe about him, he faid,~ You all pretend to love me, but you do not love me fo well as I myself do.'

I have been thus minute in recording the particulars of his laft moments, because I wifhed to attract attention to the conduct of this great man, under the moft trying circumftances human. nature is fubject to. Many perfons have appeared poffeffed of more ferenity of mind in this awful fcene; fome have remained unmoved at the diffolution of the vital union; and, it may be deemed a discouragement from the fevere practice of religion, that Dr. Johnson, whofe whole life was a preparation for his death, and a conflict with natural infirmity, was disturbed with terror at the profpect of the grave. Let not this relax the circumfpection of any one. It is true, that natural firmnefs of fpirit, or the confidence

confidence of hope, may buoy up the mind to the laft; but, however heroic an undaunted death may appear, it is not what we fhould pray for. As Johnfon lived the life of the righteous, his end was that of a Chriftian: he ftrictly fulfilled the injunction of the apoftle, to work out his falvation with fear and trembling; and, though his doubts and fcruples were certainly very diftreffing to himself, they give his friends a pious hope, that he, who added to almost all the virtues of Chriftianity, that religious humility which its great Teacher inculcated, will, in the fullness of time, receive the reward promifed to a patient continuance in well-doing.

A few days after his departure, Dr. Brocklesby and Mr. Cruikshank, who, with great affiduity and humanity, (and I must add, generosity, for neither they, nor Dr. Heberden, Dr. Warren, nor Dr. Butter, would accept any fees) had attended him, fignified a wish, that his body might be opened. This was done, and the report made was to this effect:

Two of the valves of the aorta offified.

The air-cells of the lungs unusually diftended. One of the kidneys deftroyed by the preffure of the water.

The liver fchirrous.

A ftone in the gall-bladder, of the fize of a common gooseberry.

On Monday the 20th of December, his funeral was celebrated and honoured by a numerous attendance of his friends, and among them, by particular invitation, of as many of the literary club as were then in town, and not prevented by engagements. The dean of Westminster, upon my application, would

gladly

gladly have performed the cerernony of his interment, but, at the time, was much indifpofed in his health; the office, therefore, devolved upon the fenior prebendary, Dr. Taylor, who performed it with becoming gravity and serioufnefs. All the prebendaries, except fuch as were absent in the country, attended in their furplices and hoods: they met the corpfe at the west door of their church, and performed, in the most respectful manner, all the honours due to the memory of fo great a man.

His body, enclosed in a leaden coffin, is depofited in the fouth transept of the abbey, near the foot of Shakespeare's monument, and close to the coffin of his friend Garrick. Agreeable to his request, a ftone of black marble covers his grave, thus infcribed:

SAMUEL JOHNSON, L. L. D.
Obiit XIII die Decembris,
Anno Domini

MDCCLXXXIV,

Etatis fuæ LXXV.

Copy of Dr. JOHNSON's WILL, and of the CODICIL thereto fubjoined.

In the name of God. Amen. I SAMUEL JOHNSON, being in full poffeffion of my faculties, but fearing this night may put an end to my life, do ordain this my last will and teftament. I bequeath to God a foul polluted with many fins, but I hope purified by repentance, and I truft redeemed by Jefus Christ. I leave feven hundred and fifty pounds in the hands of Bennet Langton, Efq; three hundred pounds in the hands of Mr. Barclay and Mr. Perkins,

* This declaration is, in fubftance, the fame with that in the former will, but varies in the expreffion.

brewers;