Vir impavidus, constans, animosus, periculorum immemor, laborum
patientissimus; fiducia christiana fortis, fervidusque; paterfamilias
apprime strenuus; bibliopola admodum peritus; mente et libris et
negotiis exculta; animo ita firmo, ut, rebus adversis diu conflictatus,
nec sibi nec suis defuerit; lingua sic temperata, ut ei nihil quod aures
vel pias, vel castas laesisset, aut dolor, vel voluptas unquam
expresserit.
Natus Cubleiae, in agro Derbiensi,
Anno MDCLVI.
Obiit MDCCXXXI.
Apposita est SARA, conjux,
Antiqua FORDORUM gente oriunda; quam domi sedulam, foris paucis notam;
nulli molestam, mentis acumine et judicii subtilitate praecellentem;
aliis multum, sibi parum indulgentem: aeternitati semper attentam, omne
fere virtutis nomen commendavit.
Nata Nortoniae Regis, in agro Varvicensi, Anno MDCLXIX;
Obiit MDCCLIX.
Cum NATHANAELE, illorum filio, qui natus MDCCXII, cum vires et animi et
corporis multa pollicerentur, anno MDCCXXXVII, vitam brevem pia morte
finivit. 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. 601.
[1224] Mr. Green related that when some of Johnson's friends desired
that Dr. Warren should be called in, he said they might call in whom
they pleased; and when Warren was called, at his going away Johnson
said, 'You have come in at the eleventh hour, but you shall be paid the
same with your fellow-labourers. Francis, put into Dr. Warren's coach a
copy of the _English Poets_.' CROKER. Dr. Warren ten years later
attended Boswell in his last illness. _Letters of Boswell_, p. 355. He
was the great-grandfather of Col. Sir Charles Warren, G.C.M.G., F.R.S.,
Chief Commissioner of Police.
[1225] This bold experiment, Sir John Hawkins has related in such a
manner as to suggest a charge against Johnson of intentionally hastening
his end; a charge so very inconsistent with his character in every
respect, that it is injurious even to refute it, as Sir John has thought
it necessary to do. It is evident, that what Johnson did in hopes of
relief, indicated an extraordinary eagerness to retard his dissolution.
BOSWELL. Murphy (_Life_, p. 122) says that 'for many years, when Johnson
was not disposed to enter into the conversation going forward, whoever
sat near his chair might hear him repeating from Shakespeare [_Measure
for Measure_, act iii. sc. i]:--
"Ay, but to die and go we know not where;
To lie in cold obstruction and to rot;
This sensible warm motion to become
A kneaded clot; and the delighted spirit
To bathe in fiery floods."