That thefe gloomy conceptions were in part owing to the books he had been accustomed to read, I have little doubt. Sundry paffages occur in his writings, which induce a fufpicion, that his notions of the ftate of departed fpirits were fuch as are now deemed fuperftitious; and I will not attempt to vindicate him from the charge of believing fome of the many relations extant, that go to prove an intercourse between them and the inhabitants of this earth. Thefe, as they were fyftematical, and fuch as he was able to defend by arguments the moft fpecious, I can no better account for, than by a fuppofition, that in the course of his ftudies he had been a dabbler in demonology, by which I mean, not the writings of thofe vulgar authors who relate the intrigues and midnight banquets of witches with infernal fpirits, or that teach the difference between black and white witches, and affert the power of them and their agents to harm us, but from those more authentic writers, namely, Mede, and others, whofe proofs, that the doctrine of demons made a part of the gentile theology, have induced an opinion that in these later times departed fpirits have fuch an existence as the intercourfe above-mentioned, feems to imply.

Not to dwell longer on fo painful a fubject, I will dismiss these reflections with an observation, that by the unhappiness of his bodily conftitution, and the defect of his organs of fenfe, he was rendered unfufceptible of almost all thofe delights which we term pleasures of the imagination, and which help to foothe the mind under affliction; and this melancholy truth I fhall attempt to illuftrate by the following obfer

vations :

2

With refpect to fight, it must be noted, that he was of that class of men, who, from a defect in the visual organs, are termed myops, or near-fighted perfons; and farther, that disease had deprived him of the use of one eye, the confequence whereof was, that in lieu of thofe various delightful profpects which the face of nature affords, the beautiful and the grand, that multiply ideas and adminifter delight, as well in the reflection as the immediate enjoyment of them, his mind was prefented with an univerfal blank. Nor was his misfortune lefs, with refpect to thofe objects wherein beauty, fymmetry, and harmony of parts and proportions are refident: to him a ftatue was an unshapen mass, and a fumptuous edifice a quarry of ftone. Of the beauties of painting, notwithstanding the many eulogiums on that art which, after the commencement of his friendship with Sir Joshua Reynolds, he inferted in his writings, he had not the leaft conception; and this leads me to mention a fact to the purpose, which I well remember. One evening, at the club, I came in with a small roll of prints, which, in the afternoon, I had picked up: I think they were landscapes of Perelle, and laying it down with my hat, Johnfon's curiofity prompted him to take it up and unroll it: he viewed the prints feverally with great attention, and asked me what fort of pleafure fuch things could afford me; I told him, that as reprefentations of nature, containing an affemblage of fuch particulars as render rural scenes delightful, they prefented to my mind the objects themselves, and that my imagination realifed the profpect before me; he faid, that was more than his would do, for that

in his whole life he was never capable of difcerning the least resemblance of any kind between a picture and the fubject it was intended to reprefent.

To the delights of mufic, he was equally infenfible: neither voice nor inftrument, nor the harmony of concordant founds, had power over his affections, or even to engage his attention. Of mufic in general, he has been heard to say, it excites in my mind no ideas, ⚫ and hinders me from contemplating my own;' and of a fine finger, or inftrumental performer, that he had the merit of a Canary-bird. Not that his hearing was fo defective as to account for this infenfibility, but he laboured under the misfortune which he has noted in his life of Barretier, and is common to more perfons than in this mufical age are willing to confefs it, of wanting that additional sense or faculty, which renders music grateful to the human ear.

From this state of his mental and bodily conftitution, it must neceffarily be inferred, that his comforts were very few, and that his mind had no counterpoise against thofe evils of ficknefs, forrow, and want, which, at different periods of his life he laboured under, and in fome of his writings pathetically laments. Of this misfortune himself was fenfible,

I have fometimes thought that mufic was pofitive pain to him. Upon his once hearing a celebrated performer go through a hard compofition, and hearing it remarked that it was very difficult, Johnson faid, I would it had been impoffible.' As a science of which he was ignorant he contemned it. In the early part of my life I had collected fome memoirs of Abbate Steffani, Mr. Handel's predeceffor at the court of Hanover, and the compofer of thofe fine duets that go under his name, with a view to print them, as prefents to fome mufical friends: I fubmitted the manufcript to Johnson's perufal, and he returned it with corrections that turned to ridi. cule all I had faid of him and his works.

and

and the frequent reflection thereon wrought in him a perfuafion, that the evils of human life preponderated against the enjoyments of it; and this opinion he would frequently enforce by an obfervation on the general ufe of narcotics in all parts of the world, as, in the east, and fouthern countries, opium; in the west, and northern, fpirituous liquors and tobacco *; and into this principle he refolved most of the temptations to ebriety. To the ufe of the former of these, himself had a strong propenfity, which increased as he advanced in years: his firft inducement to it was, relief against watchfulnefs, but when it became habitual, it was the means of positive pleasure, and as fuch, was reforted to by him whenever any depreffion of fpirits made it neceffary. His practice was, to take it in fubftance, that is to fay, half a grain levigated with a spoon against the fide of a cup half full of fome liquid, which, as a vehicle, carried it down.

With fo few refources of delight, it is not to be wondered at, if after the lofs of his wife, his melancholy was hardly fupportable. Company and converfation were the only reliefs to it, and when these failed him he was miferable. At the club in Ivy lane, our ufual hour of departure was eleven, and when that approached he was frequently tempted to wander the ftreets, and join in the converfation of thofe miferable females who were there to be met with. Of these he was very inquifitive as to their courfe of life, the hiftory of their feduction, and the chances of reclaiming them. The first question he generally

He has been heard to remark, that fince the disuse of smoaking among the better fort of people, fuicide has been more frequent in this country than before.

afked,

afked was, if they could read. Of one who was very handsome, he asked, for what she thought God had given her fo much beauty: fhe answered- To please gentlemen *.'

In the midft of the diftreffes which, at this period of his life, furrounded him, he found both inclination and the means to be helpful to others. His wife, a fhort time before her death, had configned to his care a friend of her own fex, a perfon of very extraordinary endowments, whom, for a benevolent purpose that will be fhortly mentioned, Johnson had invited to a refidence in his houfe: This was Mrs. Anna Williams, whofe hiftory is as follows:

Her father, Zachariah Williams, was a furgeon and physician in South Wales, a man of parts and great ingenuity he had addicted himself to mathematical ftudies, and having, by a kind of intuitive penetration, discovered, that the variations of the magnetic needle were equal at equal diftances eaft and weft; he entertained a fanguine hope, that he had attained the means of afcertaining the longitude. As London was the place where he thought he fhould best avail himfelf of his discovery, and alfo turn it to the improvement of his fortunes, he, in the year 1730, with an apparatus of mathematical and nautical inftruments of his own invention, left his habitation and bufinefs, and, together with his daughter, fettled in the metropolis. His firft bufinefs was, to lay before the commiffioners of the longitude the fruits of his

This story is too well attefted for me to omit it; but it leaves it a question, how, with the defect of fight under which he laboured, he was capable of difcerning beauty. He might poffibly think it an indifpenfable requifite for her profeffion, and therefore conclude that the had it.

VOL. I.

Y

ftudies;