matter deeply interefting and of great delicacy, 1729. which had been entrusted to him in confidence; Ætat. 20. and expofed a complaint of his young friend and patient, which, in the fuperficial opinion of the generality of mankind, is attended with contempt and difgrace. But let not little men triumph upon knowing that Johnson was an HYPOCHONDRIACK, was subject to what the learned, philosophical, and pious Dr. Cheyne has fo well treated, under the title of "The English Malady." Though he fuffered feverely from it, he was not therefore degraded. The powers of his great mind might be troubled, and their full exercise fufpended at times; but the mind itself was ever entire. As a proof of this, it is only neceffary to confider, that, when he was at the very worst, he compofed that ftate of his own cafe, which fhewed an uncommon vigour, not only of fancy and tafte, but of judgement. I am aware that he himself was too ready to call fuch a complaint by the name of madness; in conformity with which notion, he has traced its gradations, with exquifite nicety, in one of the chapters of his RASSELAS. But there is furely a clear diftinction between a diforder which affects only the imagination and spirits, while the judgement is found, and a diforder by which the judgement itself is impaired. This diftinction was made to me by the late Profeffor Gaubius of Leyden, physician to the Prince of Orange, in a converfation which I had with him feveral years ago, and he expanded it thus: "If (faid he) a man tells me that he is grievously disturbed, for that he imagines he fees a ruffian 1729. Etat. 20. ruffian coming against him with a drawn fword, though at the fame time he is confcious it is a delufion, I pronounce him to have a difordered imagination; but if a man tells me that he fees this, and in confternation calls to me to look at it, I pronounce him to be mad." It is a common effect of low fpirits or melancholy, to make those who are afflicted with it imagine that they are actually fuffering thofe evils which happen to be most strongly prefented to their minds. Some have fancied themselves to be deprived of the ufe of their limbs, fome to labour under acute diseases, others to be in extreme poverty; when, in truth, there was not the leaft reality in any of the fuppofitions; fo that when the vapours were dispelled, they were convinced of the delufion. To Johnson, whofe fupreme enjoyment was the exercise of his reason, the disturbance or obfcuration of that faculty was the evil most to be dreaded. Infanity, therefore, was the object of his moft difinal apprehenfion; and he fancied himself seized by it, or approaching to it, at the very time when he was giving proofs of a more than ordinary foundness and vigour of judgement. That his own difeafed imagination fhould have fo far deceived him, is ftrange; but it is ftranger ftill that fome of his friends fhould have given credit to his groundlefs opinion, when they had fuch undoubted proofs that it was totally fallacious; though it is by no means surprising that those who wish to depreciate him, fhould, fince his death, have laid hold of this circumftance, and infifted upon it with very unfair aggravation. 1729. Amidft the oppreffion and distraction of a difcafe which very few have felt in its full extent, Etat. 20. but many have experienced in a flighter degree, Johnson, in his writings, and in his converfation, never failed to difplay all the varieties of intellectual excellence. In his march through this world to a better, his mind still appeared grand and brilliant, and impreffed all around him with the truth of Virgil's noble fentiment The history of his mind as to religion is an important article. I have mentioned the early impreffions made upon his tender imagination by his mother, who continued her pious care with affiduity, but, in his opinion, not with judgement. "Sunday (faid he) was a heavy day to me when I was a boy. My mother confined me on that day, and made me read The Whole Duty of Man,' from a great part of which I could derive no inftruction. When, for instance, I had read the chapter on theft, which from my infancy I had been taught was wrong, I was no more convinced that theft was wrong than before; so there was no acceffion of knowledge. A boy fhould be introduced to fuch books, by having his attention directed to the arrangement, to the ftile, and other excellencies of compofition; that the mind being thus engaged by an amufing variety of objects, may not grow weary." He communicated to me the following particulars upon the subject of his religious progress. “I fell into an inattention to religion, or an indifference about it, in my ninth year. The church at Lichfield, 1729. Ætat. 20. Lichfield, in which we had a feat, wanted repara- geneBut I found Mrs. Piozzi has given a strange fantastical account of the original of Dr. Johnson's belief in our most holy religion. "At the age of ten years his mind was disturbed by scruples of infidelity, which preyed upon his fpirits, and made him very uneafy, the more so, as he revealed his uneafiness to none, being naturally (as he faid) of a fullen temper, and reserved difpofition. He fearched, however, diligently, but fruitlessly, for evidences of the truth of revelation; and, at length, recollecting a book he had once feen [I fuppofe at five years old] in his father's fhop, intitled De veritate Religionis, &c. he began to think himself highly culpable for neglecting fuch a means of information, and took himself severely to task for this fin, adding many acts of voluntary, and, to others, unknown penance. The firft opportunity which offered, of course, he feized the book with avidity; but, on examination, not finding himself fcholar enough to perufe its contents, fet his heart at reft; and not thinking to enquire whether there were any English books written on the fubject, followed his ufual amufements and confidered his confcience 1729. predominant object of his thoughts; though, with the juft fentiments of a confcientious chriftian, he tat. zo. lamented that his practice of its duties fell far fhort of what it ought to be. This inftance of a mind fuch as that of Johnfon being first difpofed, by an unexpected incident, to think with anxiety of the momentous concerns of eternity, and of "what he fhould do to be faved," may for ever be produced in oppofition to the fuperficial and fometimes profane contempt that has been thrown upon those occasional impreffions which it is certain many christians have experienced; though it must be acknowledged that weak minds, from an erroneous fuppofition that no man is in a state of grace who has not felt a particular converfion, have, in fome cafes, brought a degree of ridicule upon them; a ridicule, of which it is inconfiderate or unfair to make a general application. confcience as lightened of a crime. He redoubled his diligence to learn the language that contained the information he most wished for; but from the pain which guilt [namely having omitted to read what he did not understand] had given him, he now began to deduce the foul's immortality, [a fenfation of pain in this world being an unquestionable proof of existence in another] which was the point that belief first stopped at; and from that moment refolving to be a Christian, became one of the most zealous and pious ones our nation ever produced." Anecdotes p. 17. This is one of the numerous mifrepresentations of this lively lady, which it is worth while to correct; for if credit fhould be given to fuch a childish, irrational, and ridiculous statement of the foundation of Dr. Johnfon's faith in Christianity, how little credit would be due to it. Mrs. Piozzi feems to wish, that the world should think Dr. Johnson alfo under the influence of that eafy logick, Stet pro ratione voluntas, How |