his grateful benediction, "God bless you all, for Jesus Christ's sake." We both remained for some time unable to speak. - He rose suddenly and quitted the room, quite melted in tenderness.”*

Having taken a tender, and, as he justly apprehended, a last farewel of his friends in Staffordshire, Johnson returned, by the way of Oxford, to London, and reached the Capital on the sixteenth of November.

Both the asthma and dropsy had, for several weeks before his arrival in town, threatened him with a serious return, and he was, soon after that event, seized with a most violent and alarming paroxysm. His attachment to literature, however, still continued as strong as ever; he amused himself, during his restless nights, in translating from the Greek into Latin Verse several Epigrams in the Anthologia, and sent to Mr. Nichols a Catalogue of the Authors of the Universal History, with an account of their respective shares in that arduous undertaking; a piece of information which he had derived from Mr. Swinton, one of the most laborious writers of the work, and which he now requested Mr. Nichols to deposit in the British Museum.

All that could be effected by the powers of me* Life of Johnson, vol. 4. p. 351, 352.

dicine was assiduously procured for him, and he had the diligent and gratuitous attendance of Drs. Heberden, Brocklesby, Warren, Butter, and Mr. Cruikshank. His constitution was, however, too much broken to admit of any thing but palliatives, and he therefore prepared for death with firmness and resignation. His apprehensions of dissolution, which had so frequently embittered his hours of comparative health, ceased with his hope of recovery, and his last days were composed, and apparently exempt from all despondency.

In the week previous to his decease, he burnt all his papers and letters; of the latter "those written by his mother drew from him a flood of tears, when the paper they were written on was all consumed. Mr. Sastres saw him cast a melancholy look upon their ashes, which he took up and examined, to see if a word was still legible."* Among his papers we have to regret the loss of two quarto volumes, " containing a full, fair, and most particular account of his own life, from his earliest recollection.t A fragment, however, if not of this work, of another written by Johnson with the title of Annals, has been preserved and

published; it extends but to his eleventh year, and is, consequently, of little value.*

The period was now at hand, when this great, this good and pious man was destined to exchange the sorrows and anxieties of this feverish world, for a more pure and perfect state of being. On the evening of the 13th of December, 1784, and in the 75th year of his age, he expired so calmly, that the persons who were sitting in the room only knew that he had ceased to breathe by the sudden failure of the sound which had for some days accompanied his respiration.

His remains were deposited in Westminster Abbey, adjoining the tomb of Garrick; they were attended to that venerable pile by most of his friends, and by many of the members of the Literary Club. Over the grave, at his own request, was laid a large blue flag stone with the following inscription,

A subscription for a cenotaph to his memory in St. Paul's Cathedral was, soon after his death, commenced by the Literary Club. The friends and admirers of Johnson hastened to contribute their support; and on February 23d, 1796, it was opened to the public curiosity. This monument, which was executed by Bacon, at an expence of eleven hundred guineas, exhibits a colossal figure of the Moralist leaning against a column; and beneath is the following classical and appropriate epitaph from the pen of the Rev. Dr. Parr:

In a transept, or recess, near the South door of the Cathedral Church of Lichfield, a bust has been, likewise, erected to his memory, with this Inscription on the sarcophagus beneath:

The Friends of

Samuel Johnson, LL. D.
A native of Lichfield,
Erected this Monument,
To the Memory of
A man of extensive learning,
A distinguished moral writer, and
A sincere Christian.

He died the 13th of December, 1784,
Aged 75 years.

From the narration which we have now given of the studies and pursuits of Dr. Johnson, his literary character will, I trust, be accurately appreciated; in order, however, to present the subject under one view, it will be necessary to contract the picture, and to exhibit a retrospective miniature of his mind and its productions.

It cannot be affirmed of Johnson, that his erudition was either very profound, or very extensive; he was an excellent Latin scholar, but his knowledge of Greek was neither copious nor intimate. With French and Italian he was grammatically well acquainted, but spoke neither with facility. His reading, however, was vast and various, though desultory, and his memory was of pro