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ance; an affistance which I am perfuaded "would never have been communicated, "had there been the least fufpicion of those "facts, which I have been the inftrument "of conveying to the world." We have here a contemporary teftimony to the integrity of Dr. Johnson throughout the whole of that vile tranfaction. What was the confequence of the requifition made by Dr. Douglas? Johnfon, whofe ruling passion may be faid to be the love of truth, convinced Lau der, that it would be more to his interest to make a full confeffion of his guilt, than to ftand forth the convicted champion of a lye; and for this purpose he drew up, in the ftrongest terms, a recantation in a Letter to the Rev. Mr. Douglas, which Lauder figned, and published in the year 1751. That piece will remain a lasting memorial of the abhorrence with which Johnfon beheld a violation of truth. Mr. Nichols, whofe attachment to his illustrious friend was unwearied, fhewed him in 1780 a book, called Remarks on Johnfon's Life of Milton, in which the affair of. Lauder was renewed with virulence, and a poetical fcale in the Literary Magazine 1758 (when Johnson had ceafed to write in that collection) was urged as an additional proof

of

of deliberate malice. He read the libellous passage with attention, and instantly wrote on the margin: "In the business of Lauder "I was deceived, partly by thinking the man too frantic to be fraudulent. Of the

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poetical fcale quoted from the Magazine I 66 am not the author. I fancy it was put in "after I had quitted that work; for I not "only did not write it, but I do not re"member it." As a critic and a fcholar, Johnson was willing to receive what numbers at the time believed to be true information when he found that the whole was a forgery, he renounced all connection with the author.

In March 1752, he felt a fevere stroke of affliction in the death of his wife. The laft number of the Rambler, as already mentioned, was on the 14th of that month. The lofs of Mrs. Johnson was then approaching, and, probably, was the caufe that put an end to thofe admirable periodical effays. It appears that he died on the 28th of March: in a memorandum, at the foot of the Prayers and Meditations, that is called her Dying Day. She was buried at Bromley, under the care of Dr. Hawkefworth. Johnson placed

a Latin infcription on her .tomb, in which he celebrated her beauty. With the fingularity of his prayers for his deceased wife, from that time to the end of his days, the world is fufficiently acquainted. On Easterday, 22d April, 1764, his memorandum says: Thought on Tetty, poor dear Tetty! with

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my eyes full. Went to Church. After fer"mon I recommended Tetty in a prayer by "herself; and my father, mother, brother, "and Bathurst, in another. I did it only "once, fo far as it might be lawful for me." In a prayer, January 23, 1759, the day on which his mother was buried, he commends, as far as may be lawful, her foul to God, imploring for her whatever is most beneficial to her in her prefent ftate. In this habit he perfevered to the end of his days. The Rev. Mr. Strahan, the editor of the Prayers and Meditations, obferves, "That Johnson, on "fome occafions, prays that the Almighty

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may have had mercy on his wife and Mr. "Thrale; evidently fuppofing their sentence "to have been already passed in the Divine "Mind; and, by confequence, proving, that "he had no belief in a state of purgatory, "and no reason for praying for the dead "that could impeach the fincerity of his

"pro

"profeffion as a Proteftant." Mr. Strahan adds, "That, in praying for the regretted "tenants of the grave, Johnfon conformed

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to a practice which has been retained by 66 many learned members of the Established "Church, though the Liturgy no longer "admits it, If where the tree falleth, there "it fhall be; if our state, at the close of life, "is to be the measure of our final fentence, "then prayers for the dead, being vifibly "fruitless, can be regarded only as the vain "oblations of fuperftition. But of all super"stitions this, perhaps, is one of the least "unamiable, and most incident to a good "mind. If our fenfations of kindness be "intense, thofe, whom we have revered and "loved, death cannot wholly feclude from 66 our concern. It is true, for the reafon

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juft mentioned, fuch evidences of our fur"viving affection may be thought ill-judged; "but furely they are generous, and fome "natural tenderness is due even to a fuper

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stition, which thus originates in piety and "benevolence." Thefe fentences, extracted from the Rev. Mr. Strahan's preface, if they are not a full justification, are, at least, a beautiful apology. It will not be improper to add what Johnson himself has faid on

the fubject. Being afked by Mr. Boswell *, what he thought of purgatory as believed by the Roman Catholicks? His answer was, "It is a very harmless doctrine. They are "of opinion, that the generality of man"kind are neither fo obftinately wicked as "to deferve everlasting punishment; nor fo

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good as to merit being admitted into the

fociety of bleffed fpirits; and, therefore, "that God is graciously pleased to allow a "middle state, where they may be purified

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by certain degrees of fuffering. You fee "there is nothing unreasonable in this; and "if it be once established that there are fouls "in purgatory, it is as proper to pray for "them, as for our brethren of mankind who "are yet in this life." This was Dr. Johnson's guefs into futurity; and to guess is the utmost that man can do. Shadows, clouds, and darkness, reft upon it.

Mrs. Johnson left a daughter, Lucy Porter, by her first husband. She had contracted a friendship with Mrs. Anne Williams, the daughter of Zachary Williams, a phyfician of eminence in South Wales, who had devoted more than thirty years of a

* Life of Johnson, Vol. I. p. 328.

long