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cule; but all his arguments had no effect: Johnson went to the house at Cock lane along with Dr Douglas, afterwards bishop of Salisbury, the clergyman of the parish, and various others, and having in their company the person whom the ghost had promised to accompany to the burying vault. The girl having declared that the spirit was present, it was informed that the person to whom the promise was made of striking the coffin was then about to visit the vault, and the performance of the promise was claimed. The company at one o'clock in the morning went into the church, and the gentleman to whom the promise was made, together with another, went into the vault, and required the spirit to perform its promise; but no answer was made. The person supposed to be accused by the spirit, together with the rest of the company, afterwards went into the vault; but still nothing happened. Johnson wrote an account of the transaction, which was published in the Gentleman's Magazine. The persons concerned in the imposture being afterwards detected, were prosecuted and punished. The whole affair now seems abundantly foolish; but, at the period alluded to, the whole city of London, and consequently the country at large, was full of this affair; and the singular weakness of Johnson in matters of this sort exposed him to censure for his credulity, and caused his religion to be resolved into superstition.

As Johnson kept a diary, or written record of his thoughts and actions, it is known that he repeatedly offered up prayers for the dead, particularly for his deceased wife; and, from the statements VOL. I.

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given of his conversation, there seems reason to suppose that he had little objection to the Popish doctrine of Purgatory. This, however, is undoubtedly to be considered not as the result of any exertion of his understanding on the subject, but as one of the reveries, or fancies, in which his melancholy temperament led him to indulge. Indeed, his veneration for every thing connected with religion was extraordinary: he pulled off his hat when he entered within the walls of the ruinous Roman Catholic churches in Scotland, and he regarded the bishops and dignified elergy of the church of England with great reverence.

It seems probable, however, that Johnson's tendency to melancholy, in consequence of the religious disposition which it produced, was at tended with some advantages. Like some other men of strong passions and acute feelings, Johnson was a lover of sensual pleasure. He delighted extremely in a luxurious table, and ate with a degree of voracity which he could not conceal. But though destitute of temperance, on ordinary occasions his mind was sufficiently powerful to enable him to submit to the severest privations. He considered fasting as a religious duty, and practised it often, and with excessive severity. He likewise loved wine; yet, during many years, he abstained entirely from the use of a liquor in which he was liable to indulge to excess. As his constitution was originally defective, it is extremely probable that the excess in eating and drinking, to which he was inclined, must, at an early period, have proved fatal to his health, in consequence of his sedentary habits, or, by aug

menting the irritability of his frame, might even have brought on that incapacity for the exertion of his intellectual powers, which he always feared. But abstinence proved a substitute for temperance. It enabled him to pass through life with the enjoyment of tolerable health, and to attain, though not to great longevity, at least to a mature age, with the full possession of all his intellectual energies.

We have already mentioned Johnson's early attachment to the unfortunate house of Stuart, and the fondness for monarchical principles, which he retained during life. These were naturally supported and fostered by the superstitious tendency of his mind, which led him to the high admiration of whatever seemed ancient and venerable, and gave him a want of hardihood in the exercise of his understanding. His political notions arose also, perhaps, in some degree, from the fervour of his imagination, which led him away from ordinary and present objects, and interested him in the fate of the unfortunate race of our ancient princes. It ought to be recollected, that a still more glowing fancy, without the aid of superstition, produced, at a later period, a similar partiality to the house of Stuart in the mind of the celebrated Scottish poet, Robert Burns.

A considerable degree of narrowness of mind appears through life to have accompanied John

son.

His prejudices against the Scots, the Irish, and the natives of every country but his own, were on all occasions appearing in his conversation, and in some degree sunk him from the character of a moralist and a man of letters, and

gave him a place among the vulgar of every age and country, who think and judge precisely in the same way, and know not that in neighbouring states, in the same age, the measure of human talents differs little.

This

In his temper Johnson may be considered as having been a proud man, extremely conscious of the talents with which he was endowed. quality or passion of pride is apt to be fostered in men of letters as much by poverty as by riches. Johnson long struggled with adversity, while at the same time he knew himself to be possessed of intellectual accomplishments, which ought to have elevated him far above many of those who enjoyed the smiles of fortune, and of mankind. This produced in him an inclination to demonstrate with little delicacy, the independence of his mind, and his sense of his own worth, and gave rise to an asperity of manners which, in his more prosperous days, he endeavoured in some degree to abandon, but which often rendered his society unacceptable or disgusting. He not only asserted his opinions in a presumptuous and dictatorial form, but he considered so little the trouble which he gave to others, that he was usually an unwelcome visitor to the mistress of every house. Being fond of tea, and unboundedly sensual in these pleasures in which he ventured to indulge, he drank this liquor in monstrous profusions, and never hesitated in the family of Mr Thrale, or elsewhere, to allow the mistress of the house to remain occupied, till past midnight, in pouring out for him quantities of it in endless succession.

With regard to the learning and talents of John

son, they ought to be considered according to the forms in which they were displayed or exerted. Of languages he had learned the Latin and Greek, the French and Italian. Of the first of these he was a great master, as appears from his Latin poems, a sort of writing of which he was fond, as Milton and Addison had been, and in which he took great pride. His efforts of this sort, however, being chiefly made in the early part of his life, and not resumed unless rarely, and on occasions of little importance, they afford no test of the degree of perfection to which, by perseverance, he might have carried this species of writing. Johnson was also a good Greek scholar, but was not master of the language in the same degree as of Latin. The two modern tongues already mentioned he understood sufficiently to qualify him for the task of translation. In the walks of science, properly so called, Johnson had made no extensive range. Of the physical sciences he may be considered as having been altogether ignorant. His tour along the eastern coast of Scotland, and thereafter to the Hebrides, returning by Glasgow, afforded him an ample opportunity of displaying his skill in natural history and mineralogy. As he possessed abundance both of capacity and inclination to exhibit in a prominent point of view whatever knowledge he possessed, and as no symptoms of any such knowledge were displayed on the occasion alluded to, we may fairly conclude that it did not exist. We have already mentioned that he possessed a chemical apparatus; but he appears to have used it merely as a toy or play thing. He never attained a sufficient acquaintance with

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