1769.

ཨ་ན་

Etat. 60.

،

He obferved, " Providence has wifely ordered that the more numerous men are, the more difficult it is for them to agree in any thing, and so they are governed. There is no doubt, that if the poor fhould reason, We'll be the poor no longer, we'll make the rich take their turn,' they could easily do it, were it not that they can't agree. So the common foldiers, though fo much more numerous than their officers, are governed by them for the fame reason."

He faid, "Mankind have a strong attachment to the habitations to which they have been accuftomed. You fee the inhabitants of Norway do not with one confent quit it, and go to fome part of America, where there is a mild climate, and where they may have the fame produce from land, with the tenth part of the labour. No, Sir; their affection for their old dwellings, and the terrour of a general change, keep them at home. Thus, we see many of the finest spots in the world thinly inhabited, and many rugged spots well inhabited."

"The London Chronicle", which was the only news-paper he conftantly took in, being brought, the office of reading it aloud was affigned to me. I was diverted by his impatience. He made me pass over so many parts of it, that my task was very eafy. He would not fuffer one of the petitions to the King about the Middlefex election to be read.

I had hired a Bohemian as my fervant while I remained in London, and being much pleased with him, I asked Dr. Johnfon whether his being a Roman Catholick fhould prevent my taking him

with me to Scotland. JOHNSON. "Why no, Sir. 1769. If he has no objection, you can have none.” Bos-Etat. 60. WELL." So, Sir, you are no great enemy to the Roman Catholick religion." JOHNSON. JOHNSON. "No more, Sir, than to the Prefbyterian religion." BOSWELL. "You are joking." JOHNSON. "No, Sir, I really think fo. Nay, Sir, of the two, I prefer the Popish.' BOSWELL. "How fo, Sir? JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, the Prefbyterians have no church, no apoftolical ordination." BOSWELL. "And do you think that abfolutely effential, Sir?" JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, as it was an apoftolical inftitution, I think it is dangerous to be without it. And, Sir, the Presbyterians have no publick worship: they have no form of prayer in which they know they are to join. They go to hear a man pray, and are to judge whether they will join with him." BOSWELL." But, Sir, their doctrine is the fame with that of the Church of England. Their confeffion of faith, and the thirty-nine articles, contain the fame points, even the doctrine of predeftination." JOHNSON. "Why yes, Sir; predeftination was a part of the clamour of the times, fo it is mentioned in our articles, but with as little pofitiveness as could be." BOSWELL. "Is it neceffary, Sir, to believe all the thirty-nine articles?" JOHNWhy, Sir, that is a question which has been much agitated. Some have thought it neceffary that they should all be believed; others have confidered them to be only articles of peace, that is to say, you are not to preach against them." BosWELL." It appears to me, Sir, that predeftination, or what is equivalent to it, cannot be avoided, it

SON.

we

1769. we hold an univerfal prefcience in the Deity." JOHN Etat. 60, SON. "Why, Sir, does not GOD every day fee things going on without preventing them?" BosWELL."True, Sir; but if a thing be certainly foreseen, it must be fixed, and cannot happen otherwife; and if we apply this confideration to the human mind, there is no free will, nor do I fee how prayer can be of any avail." He mentioned Dr. Clarke, and Bishop Bramhall on Liberty and Neceffity, and bid me read South's fermons on Prayer; but avoided the question which has excruciated philofophers and divines, beyond any other. I did not prefs it further, when I perceived that he was displeased, and shrunk from any abridgement of an attribute ufually afcribed to the Divinity, however irreconcileable in its full extent with the grand fyftem of moral government. His fuppofed orthodoxy here cramped the vigorous powers of his understanding. He was confined by a chain which early imagination and long habit made him think maffy and strong, but which, had he ventured to try, he could at once have fnapt afunder.

I proceeded: "What do you think, Sir, of Purgatory, as believed by the Roman Catholicks?" JOHNSON. Why, Sir, it is a very harmless doctrine. They are of opinion that the generality of mankind are neither fo obftinately wicked as to deserve everlasting punishment, nor fo good as to merit being admitted into the fociety of bleffed fpirits; and therefore that GOD is graciously pleased to allow of a middle ftate, where they may be purified by cettain degrees of fuffering. You fee,

Sir, there is nothing unreasonable in this." BosWELL. "But then, Sir, their maffes for the dead?" JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, if it be once eftablished. 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." BOSWELL. "The idolatry of the Mafs?"-JOHNSON. "Sir, there is no idolatry in the Mafs. They believe GOD to be there, and they adore him." BOSWELL. "The worship of Saints?" JOHNSON. "Sir, they do not worship faints; they invoke them; they only afk their prayers. I am talking all this time of the doctrines of the church of Rome. I grant you that in practice, Purgatory is made a lucrative impofition, and that the people do become idolatrous as they recommend themselves to the tutelary protection of particular faints. I think their giving the facrament only in one kind is criminal, because it is contrary to the exprefs inftitution of CHRIST, and I wonder how the Council of Trent admitted it." BOSWELL. "Confeffion?"-JOHNSON. "Why, I don't know but that is a good thing.. The fcripturé fays, Confefs your faults one to another;" and the priests confefs as well as the laity. Then it must be confidered that their abfolution is only upon repentance, and often upon penance alfo. You think your fins may be forgiven without penance, upon repentance alone."

I thus ventured to mention all the common objections against the Roman Catholick Church, that I might hear fo great a man upon them. What he faid is here accurately recorded. But it is not VOL. I. improbable

1769.

Ætat. 60.

1769. improbable that if one had taken the other fide, he Etat, 60, might have reasoned differently.

I must however mention, that he had a refpect for "the old religion," as the mild Melanthon called that of the Roman Catholick Church, even while he was exerting himself for its reformation in fome particulars. Sir William Scott informs me, that he heard Johnson say, "A man who is converted from Proteftantifm to Popery, may be fincere: he parts with nothing: he is only fuperadding to what he already had. But a convert from Popery to Protestantism, gives up fo much of what he has held as facred as any thing that he retains; there is so much laceration of mind in fuch a converfion, that it can hardly be fincere and lafting." The truth of this reflection may be confirmed by many and eminent inftances, fome of which will occur to most of my readers.

When we were alone, I introduced the subject of death, and endeavoured to maintain that the fear of it might be got over. I told him that David Hume faid to me, he was no more uneasy to think he fhould not be after this life, than that he had not been before he began to exift. JOHNSON. "Sir, if he really thinks fo, his perceptions are disturbed; he is mad: if he does not think fo, he lies. He may tell you, he holds his finger in the flame of a candle, without feeling pain; would you believe him? When he dies, he at least

gives up all he has." BOSWELL. "Foote, Sir, told me, that when he was very ill he was not afraid to die." JOHNSON. "It is not true, Sir. Hold a piftol to Foote's breaft, or to Hume's

breaft,