tioned him in my prayers; and after his death have made particular supplication for his surviving family to this day, but having now recommended them to God in this particular address, which though written-1

147.

Sept. 18, 1781.

This is my seventy third birth-day an awful day. I said a preparatory prayer last night, and waking early made use in the dark, as I sat up in bed of the prayer [beginning of this year']. I rose breakfasted, and gave thanks at Church3 for my Creation, Preservation, and REDEMPTION. As I came home I thought I had never begun any period of life so placidly. I read the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, and looked into Hammond's notes. I have always [been] accustomed to let this day pass unnoticed, but it came this time into my mind that some little festivity was not improper. I had a dinner, and invited Allen and Levet 5.

What has passed in my thoughts on this anniversary is in stitched book K.

My purposes are the same as on the first day of this year, to which I add hope of

More frequent attendance on publick Worship.

Participation of the Sacrament at least three times a year'.

148.

Sept. 18, Vesp. 10° 40', circ.8

Almighty and most merciful Father, who hast added another year to my life, and yet permittest me to call upon thee,

Grant that the remaining days which thou shalt yet allow me may be past in thy fear and to thy glory, grant me good resolutions and steady perseverance. Relieve the diseases of my body and compose the disquiet of my mind. Let me at last repent and amend my life, and, O Lord, take not from me thy Holy Spirit, but assist my amendment, and accept my repentance, for the sake of Jesus Christ. Amen.

149.

Oct. 14, Sunday, [1781.] (properly Monday morning'.)

I am this day about to go by Oxford and Birmingham to Lichfield and Ashbourne. The motives of my journey I hardly know. I omitted it last year, and am not willing to miss it again. Mrs. Aston will be glad, I think, to see me. We are

2

both old, and if I put off my visit, I may see her no more; perhaps she wishes for another interview. She is a very good

woman.

Hector is likewise an old friend, the only companion of my childhood that passed through the School with me. We have always loved one another3. Perhaps we may be made better by some serious conversation, of which however I have no distinct hope.

At Lichfield, my native place, I hope to shew a good example by frequent attendance on publick worship*.

At Ashbourne I hope to talk seriously with Taylor".

'Part of this entry is quoted in the 'having heard that Johnson had said Life, iv. 135.

2 One of the unmarried daughters of Sir Thomas Aston. She lived at Lichfield. Life, ii. 466.

3 Hector was a Birmingham surgeon. Life, ii. 456; Letters, ii. 228.

To make up perhaps for his shirking it in his boyhood. Life, i. 67.

5 Taylor published in 1787 A Letter to Samuel Johnson on the Subject of a Future State. He writes that

that he would prefer a state of torment to that of annihilation, he told him that such a declaration, coming from him, might be productive of evil consequences. Dr. J. desired him to arrange his thoughts on the subject.' Taylor says that Johnson's entry about the serious talk refers to this matter. Gent. Mag. 1787, p. 521. I believe that Johnson meant to warn Taylor about the danger he was running of 'entering the state of torment.'

Fanuary

150.

1782. Fanuary 20, Sunday. Robert Levett was buried in the church-yard of Bridewell, between one and two in the afternoon. He died on Thursday 17, about seven in the morning, by an instantaneous death. He was an old and faithful friend; I have known him from about 46. Commendavi. May God have mercy on him. May he have mercy on me1.

Having been, from the middle of January, distressed by a cold which made my respiration very laborious, and from which I was but little relieved by being blooded three times, having tried to ease the oppression of my breast by frequent opiates, which kept me waking in the night and drowsy the next day, and subjected me to the tyranny of vain imaginations; Having to all this added frequent catharticks, sometimes with mercury; I at last persuaded Dr. Laurence on Thursday March 14 to let me bleed more copiously. Sixteen ounces were taken away, and from that time my breath has been free, and my breast easy. On that day I took little food, and no flesh. On Thursday night I slept with great tranquillity. On the next night (15) I took diacodium3 and had a most restless night. Of the next day I remember nothing but that I rose in the afternoon, and saw Mrs. Lennox and Sheward 5.

I

Syrup of poppies. He considered diacodium an English word, for he gives it in his Dictionary.

3 1 Life, iv. 137, where are quoted the beautiful lines which Johnson wrote on Levett. For Johnson's 'recommendation' of the dead, see ante, p. 14.

4 Mrs. Lennox he pronounced superior to Mrs. Carter, Hannah More, and Fanny Burney. Life, iv. 275. Miss Burney looked upon this statement as one of those occasional sallies of Dr. Johnson, which uttered from local causes and circumstances, but all retailed verbatim by Mr. Boswell are filling all sort of readers with amaze, except the small party to whom Dr. Johnson was known.' Mme. D'Ar

2 He wrote to Mrs. Thrale on the day on which he was bled:-'I think the loss of blood has done no harm; whether it has done good time will tell. I am glad that I do not sink without resistance.' Letters, ii. 247. Miss Burney in the previous September had been alarmed at 'his strange discipline-starving, mercury, opium.' Mme. D'Arblay's blay's Diary, v. 212. Diary, ii. 107. 5 Mentioned ante,

p.

80.

17 Sunday.

17 Sunday. I lay late, and had only Palfrey' to dinner. (d. 2s. 6.) I read part of Waller's Directory, a pious rational book, but in any except a very regular life difficult to practise2.

It occurred to me that though my time might pass unemployed, no more should pass uncounted, and this has been written to-day in consequence of that thought. I read a Greek Chapter, prayed with Francis, which I now do commonly, and explained to him the Lord's Prayer, in which I find connection not observed, I think, by the expositors. I made punch 3 for Myself and my servants, by which in the night I thought both my breast and imagination disordered.

3

March 18. I rose late, looked a little into books. Saw Miss Reynolds and Miss Thrale, and Nicolaida, afterwards Dr. Hunter came for his catalogue. I then dined on tea, &c. ; then read over part of Dr. Laurence's book de Temperamentis, which seems to have been written with a troubled mind.

I prayed with Francis.

My mind has been for some time much disturbed. The Peace of God be with me.

' Strahan printed palfrey. A critic in Notes and Queries, March 2, 1867, suggested that Johnson wrote pastry. Palfrey, or Palfry (as Johnson writes the name, post, p. 106) was some poor man, to whom he gave (as 'd' probably signifies) on this day and on the 24th, two shillings and sixpence.

2 Divine Meditations upon Several Occasions with a Dayly Directory. By the Excellent Pen of Sir William Waller, Kt. London, 1680. Waller was the Presbyterian general, the 'William the Conqueror' of the citizens of London. Clarendon's History, ed. 1826, iv. 114.

The day was strictly divided in the Directory, with frequent private prayers and meditations, and family prayers at noon and supper. 'In summer time I would be up by five; in winter by six. At Meals I would observe a moderation; a mean be

tween eating by the ounce and by the pound.'

3 In his Dictionary he describes punch as 'a cant word.'

'A learned Greek, nephew of the Patriarch of Constantinople, who had fled from a massacre of the Greeks.' Johnstone's Works of Dr. Parr, i. 84. See also ib. pp. 87-90, and Life, ii. 379. 5 A little later was published an instalment of the Catalogue of Dr. William Hunter's Collection of Coins. It was written by Charles Combe. Dict. of Nat. Biog. xi. 427; xxviii. 304.

6 Mr. Croker thinks that Lawrence had lent Johnson Galen's work De Temperamentis et inequali temperie. I conjecture that it was a work in manuscript by Lawrence, who wrote his medical books in Latin. The entries of the 19th and 26th support this view.

I hope to-morrow to finish Laurence, and to write to Mrs. Aston, and to Lucy.

19. I rose late. I was visited by Mrs. Thrale, Mr. Cotton', and Mr. Crofts. I took Laurence's paper in hand, but was chill, having fasted yesterday, I was hungry and dined freely, then slept a little, and drank tea, then took candles and wrote to Aston and Lucy 3, then went on with Laurence of which little remains. I prayed with Francis.

Mens sedatior, laus DEO.

To-morrow Shaw comes, I think to finish Laurence, and write to Langton.

Poor Laurence has almost lost the sense of hearing, and I have lost the conversation of a learned, intelligent, and communicative companion, and a friend whom long familiarity has much endeared. Laurence is one of the best men whom I have known.

Nostrum omnium miserere, Deus 5.

20. Shaw came; I finished reading Laurence. Steevens came. I dined liberally. Wrote a long letter to Langton, and designed to read but was hindered by Strahan'. The ministry is dissolved. I prayed with Fr. and gave thanks 8.

'Mrs. Thrale had cousins of that name. Life, v. 435, n. 2; Letters, ii. 394, n.

2 It was not the Rev. Thomas Crofts, the owner of a famous library, for he had died in 1781. Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, viii. 482. See Letters, ii. 294, where his name is wrongly given as Croft. Perhaps Johnson's visitor was the Rev. Herbert Croft who had written for him the Life of Young. Life, iv. 58.

3 The letter to Mrs. Aston has never been printed; for the letter to Miss Porter, see Life, iv. 142.

* William Shaw, the Gaelic scholar. Life, iii. 106; iv. 252.

5 This passage about Dr. Lawrence is quoted in the Life, iv. 143. 6 Life, iv. 145.

' William Strahan, the printer, M.P. for Malmesbury.

8

Quoted by Boswell under date of Jan. 20. Life, iv. 139. On the afternoon of March 20 Lord North announced in the House of Commons 'that his Majesty's Ministers were no more.' Parl. Hist. xxii. 125. For Johnson's contempt of this ministry, see Life, iii. I; iv. 139. On March 30 he wrote:-"The men are got in whom I have endeavoured to keep out, but I hope they will do better than their predecessors; it will not be easy to do worse.' Letters, ii. 248.

Fifty-one years later Macaulay described a splendid rout at Lord Grey's,' who was then Prime Minister. 'I mean,' he wrote, 'only to tell you one circumstance which struck and

To-morrow