69) it was Lade who having asked Johnson whether he advised him to marry, received as answer: 'I would advise no man to marry, Sir, who is not likely to propagate understanding.' See ante, ii. 109, note 2. Mr. Hayward adds that 'he married a woman of the town, became a celebrated member of the Four-in-Hand Club, and contrived to waste the whole of a fine fortune before he died.' In Campbell's Chancellors (ed. 1846, v. 628) a story is told of Sir John Ladd, who is, I suppose, the same man. The Prince of Wales in 1805 asked Lord Thurlow to dinner, and also Ladd. 'When "the old Lion" arrived the Prince went into the ante-room to meet him, and apologised for the party being larger than he had intended, but added, "that Sir John was an old friend of his, and he could not avoid asking him to dinner," to which Thurlow, in his growling voice, answered, "I have no objection, Sir, to Sir John Ladd in his proper place, which I take to be your Royal Highness's coach-box, and not your table."'
[1256] British Synonymy was published in 1794, later therefore than Boswell's first and second editions. In both these the latter half of this paragraph ran as follows:--"From the specimen which Mrs. Piozzi has exhibited of it (Anecdotes, p. 196) it is much to be wished that the world could see the whole. Indeed I can speak from my own knowledge; for having had the pleasure to read it, I found it to be a piece of exquisite satire conveyed in a strain of pointed vivacity and humour, and in a manner of which no other instance is to be found in Johnson's writings. After describing the ridiculous and ruinous career of a wild spendthrift he consoles him with this reflection:--
"You may hang or drown at last."'
[1257] Sir John.
[1258]'"Les morts n'ecrivent point," says Madame de Maintenon.' Hannah More's Memoirs, i. 233. The note that Johnson received 'was,' says Mr. Hoole, 'from Mr. Davies, the bookseller, and mentioned a present of some pork; upon which the Doctor said, in a manner that seemed as if he thought it ill-timed, "too much of this," or some such expression.' Croker's Boswell, p. 844.
[1259] Sir Walter Scott says that 'Reynolds observed the charge given him by Johnson on his death-bed not to use his pencil of a Sunday for a considerable time, but afterwards broke it, being persuaded by some person who was impatient for a sitting that the Doctor had no title to exact such a promise.' Croker's Corres. ii. 34. 'Reynolds used to say that "the pupil in art who looks for the Sunday with pleasure as an idle day will never make a painter."' Northcote's Reynolds, i. 119. 'Dr. Johnson,' said Lord Eldon, 'sent me a message on his death-bed, to request that I would attend public worship every Sunday.' Twiss's Eldon, i. 168. The advice was not followed, for 'when a lawyer, a warm partisan of the Chancellor, called him one of the pillars of the Church; "No," said another lawyer, "he may be one of its buttresses; but certainly not one of its pillars, for he is never found within it."' Ib. iii. 488. Lord Campbell (Lives of the Chancellors, vii. 716) says:--Lord Eldon was never present at public worship in London from one year's end to the other. Pleading in mitigation before Lord Ellenborough that he attended public worship in the country, he received the rebuke, "as if there were no God in town.'"
[1260] Reynolds records:--'During his last illness, when all hope was at an end, he appeared to be quieter and more resigned. His approaching dissolution was always present to his mind. A few days before he died, Mr. Langton and myself only present, he said he had been a great sinner, but he hoped he had given no bad example to his friends; that he had some consolation in reflecting that he had never denied Christ, and repeated the text, "Whoever denies me, &c." [St. Matthew x. 33.] We were both very ready to assure him that we were conscious that we were better and wiser from his life and conversation; and that so far from denying Christ, he had been, in this age, his greatest champion.' Taylor's Reynolds, ii. 459.
[1261] Hannah More (Memoirs i. 393) says that Johnson, having put up a fervent prayer that Brocklesby might become a sincere Christian, 'caught hold of his hand with great earnestness, and cried, "Doctor, you do not say Amen." The Doctor looked foolishly, but after a pause cried "Amen"' Her account, however, is often not accurate.
[1262] Windham records (Diary, p. 30) that on the night of the 12th he urged him to take some sustenance, 'and desisted only upon his exclaiming, "It is all very childish; let us hear no more of it."' On his pressing him a second time, he answered that 'he refused no sustenance but inebriating sustenance.' Windham thereupon asked him to take some milk, but 'he recurred to his general refusal, and begged that there might be an end of it. I then said that I hoped he would forgive my earnestness; when he replied eagerly, "that from me nothing would be necessary by way of apology;" adding with great fervour, in words which I shall (I hope) never forget--"God bless you, my dear Windham, through Jesus Christ;" and concluding with a wish that we might meet in some humble portion of that happiness which God might finally vouchsafe to repentant sinners.