of his inside), do not be like the spider, man; and spin conversation thus incessantly out of thy own bowels."—I told him of another friend who suffered grievously with the gout—“ He will live a vast many years for all that (replied he), and then what signifies how much he suffers? but he will die at last, poor fellow, there's the misery; gout seldom takes the fort by a coup-de-main, but turning the siege into a blockade, obliges it to surrender at discretion."

A lady he thought well of, was disordered in her health-"What help has she called in?" inquired Johnson. Dr. James, sir: was the reply. "What is her disease?" Oh, nothing positive, rather a gradual and gentle decline. "She will die then, pretty dear! (answered he ;) when Death's pale horse runs away with a person on full speed, an active physician may possibly give them a turn; but if he carries them on an even slow pace, down hill too! no care nor skill can save them!"

When Garrick was on his last sick-bed, no arguments or recitals of such facts as I had heard, would persuade Mr. Johnson of his danger: he had prepossessed himself with a notion, that to say a man was sick, was very near wish

L

ing him so; and few things offended him more, than prognosticating even the death of an ordinary acquaintance. Ay, ay (said he), Swift knew the world pretty well, when he said, that

66

Some dire misfortune to portend,

No enemy can match a friend."

The danger then of Mr. Garrick, or of Mr. Thrale, whom he loved better, was an image which no one durst present before his view; he always persisted in the possibility and hope of their recovering disorders from which no human creatures by human means alone ever did recover. His distress for their loss was for that very reason poignant to excess: but his fears of his own salvation were excessive: his truly tolerant spirit, and Christian charity, which hopeth all things, and believeth all things, made him rely securely on the safety of his friends, while his earnest aspiration after a blessed immortality made him cautious of his own steps, and timorous concerning their consequences. He knew how much had been given, and filled his mind with fancies of how much would be required, till his impressed imagination was often disturbed by them, and

his health suffered from the sensibility of his too tender conscience: a real Christian is so apt to find his task above his power of performance!

Mr. Johnson did not however give into ridiculous refinements either of speculation or practice, or suffer himself to be deluded by specious appearances. "I have had dust thrown in my eyes too often (would he say) to be blinded so. Let us never confound matters of belief with matters of opinion."-Some one urged in his presence the preference of hope to possession; and, as I remember, produced an Italian sonnet on the subject. "Let us not (cries Johnson) amuse ourselves with subtilties and sonnets, when speaking about hope, which is the follower of faith and the precursor of eternity; but if you only mean those air-built hopes which to-day excites and to-morrow will destroy, let us talk away, and remember that we only talk of the pleasures of hope; we feel those of possession, and no man in his senses would change the last for the first: such hope is a mere bubble, that by a gentle breath may be blown to what size you will almost, but a rough blast bursts it at once. Hope is*

an amusement rather than a good, and adapted to none but very tranquil minds." The truth is, Mr. Johnson hated what we call unprofitable chat; and to a gentleman who had disserted some time about the natural history of the mouse-"I wonder what such a one would have said (cried Johnson), if he had ever had the luck to see a lion !"

I well remember that at Brighthelmstone once, when he was not present, Mr. Beauclerc asserted that he was afraid of spirits; and 1, who was secretly offended at the charge, asked him, the first opportunity I could find, what ground he had ever given to the world for such a report? "I can (replied he) recollect nothing nearer it, than my telling Dr. Lawrence many years ago, that a long time after my poor mother's death, I heard her voice call Sam!" What answer did the doctor make to your story, sir? said I. "None in the world," replied he; and suddenly changed the conversation. Now as Mr. Johnson had a most unshaken faith, without any mixture of credulity, this story must either have been strictly true, or his persuasion of its truth the effect of disordered spirits. I relate the anecdote pre

cisely as he told it me; but could not prevail on him to draw out the talk into length for farther satisfaction of my curiosity.

As Johnson was the firmest of believers without being credulous, so he was the most charitable of mortals without being what we call an active friend. Admirable at giving counsel no man saw his way so clearly; but he would not stir a finger for the assistance of those to whom he was willing enough to give advice: besides that, he had principles of laziness, and could be indolent by rule. To hinder your death, or procure you a dinner, I mean if really in want of one, his earnestness, his exertions, could not be prevented, though health and purse and ease were all destroyed by their violence. If you wanted a slight favour, you must apply to people of other dispositions; for not a step would Johnson move to obtain a man a vote in a society, to repay a compliment which might be useful or pleasing, to write a letter of request, or to obtain a hundred pounds a-year more for a friend, who perhaps had already two or three. No force could urge him to diligence, no importunity could conquer his resolution of standing still. "What good are