Johnson's Works, i. 150.
[1197] Hawkins (Life, p. 590) says that he asked that the stone over his own grave 'might be so placed as to protect his body from injury.' Harwood (History of Lichfield, p. 520) says that the stone in St. Michael's was removed in 1796, when the church was paved. A fresh one with the old inscriptions was placed in the church on the hundredth anniversary of Johnson's death by Robert Thorp, Esq., of Buxton Road House, Macclesfield. The Rev. James Serjeantson, Rector of St. Michael's, suggests to me that the first stone was never set up. It is, he says, unlikely that such a memorial within a dozen years was treated so unworthily. Moreover in 1841 and again in 1883, during reparations of the church, a very careful search was made for it, but without result. There may have been, he thinks, some difficulty in finding the exact place of interment. The matter may have stood over till it was forgotten, and the mason, whose receipted bill shews that he was paid for the stone, may have used it for some other purpose.
[1198] See ante, i. 241, and iv. 351.
[1199] 'He would also,' says Hawkins (Life, p. 579), 'have written in Latin verse an epitaph for Mr. Garrick, but found himself unequal to the task of original poetic composition in that language.'
[1200] In his Life of Browne, Johnson wrote:--'The time will come to every human being when it must be known how well he can bear to die; and it has appeared that our author's fortitude did not desert him in the great hour of trial.' Works, vi. 499.
[1201] A Club in London, founded by the learned and ingenious physician, Dr. Ash, in honour of whose name it was called Eumelian, from the Greek [Greek: Eumelias]; though it was warmly contended, and even put to a vote, that it should have the more obvious appellation of Fraxinean, from the Latin. BOSWELL. This club, founded in 1788, met at the Blenheim Tavern, Bond-street. Reynolds, Boswell, Burney, and Windham were members. Rose's Biog. Dict. ii. 240. [Greek: Eummeliaes] means armed with good ashen spear.
[1202] Mrs. Thrale's Collection, March 10,1784. Vol. ii. p. 350. BOSWELL.
[1203] Hawkins's Life of Johnson, p. 583.
[1204] See what he said to Mr. Malone, p. 53 of this volume. BOSWELL.
[1205] See ante, i. 223, note 2.
[1206] Epistle to the Romans, vii. 23.
[1207] 'Johnson's passions,' wrote Reynolds, 'were like those of other men, the difference only lay in his keeping a stricter watch over himself. In petty circumstances this [? his] wayward disposition appeared, but in greater things he thought it worth while to summon his recollection and be always on his guard.... [To them that loved him not] as rough as winter; to those who sought his love as mild as summer--many instances will readily occur to those who knew him intimately of the guard which he endeavoured always to keep over himself.' Taylor's Reynolds, ii. 460. See ante, i. 94, 164, 201, and iv. 215.
[1208] Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, 3d ed. p. 209. [Post, v. 211.] On the same subject, in his Letter to Mrs. Thrale, dated Nov. 29, 1783, he makes the following just observation:--'Life, to be worthy of a rational being, must be always in progression; we must always purpose to do more or better than in time past. The mind is enlarged and elevated by mere purposes, though they end as they began [in the original, begin], by airy contemplation. We compare and judge, though we do not practise.' BOSWELL.
[1209] Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, p. 374. [Post, v. 359.] BOSWELL.
[1210] Psalm xix. 13.
[1211] Pr. and Med. p.47. BOSWELL.
[1212] Ib. p. 68 BOSWELL
[1213] Ib. p. 84 BOSWELL
[1214] Ib. p. 120. BOSWELL.
[1215] Pr. and Med. p. 130. BOSWELL.
[1216] Dr. Johnson related, with very earnest approbation, a story of a gentleman, who, in an impulse of passion, overcame the virtue of a young woman. When she said to him, 'I am afraid we have done wrong!' he answered, 'Yes, we have done wrong;--for I would not debauch her mind.' BOSWELL.
[1217] St. John, viii. 7.
[1218] Pr. and Med. p. 192. BOSWELL.
[1219] See ante, iii. 155.
[1220] Boswell, on Feb. 10, 1791, describing to Malone the progress of his book, says:--'I have now before me p. 488 [of vol. ii.] in print; and 923 pages of the copy [MS.] only is exhausted, and there remains 80, besides the death; as to which I shall be concise, though solemn. Pray how shall I wind up? Shall I give the character from my Tour somewhat enlarged?' Croker's Boswell, p. 829. Mr. Croker is clearly in error in saying (ib. p. 800) that 'Mr. Boswell's absence and the jealousy between him and some of Johnson's other friends prevented his being able to give the particulars which he (Mr. Croker) has supplied in the Appendix.' In this Appendix is Mr. Hoole's narrative which Boswell had seen and used (post, p. 406).
[1221] Psalm lxxxii. 7.
[1222] See Appendix E.
[1223] 'On being asked in his last illness what physician he had sent for, "Dr. Heberden," replied he, "ultimus Romanorum, the last of the learned physicians."' Seward's Biographiana, p.