Obrazy na stronie
PDF
ePub

Utrecht. "A-fmall drinking glafs and a large one (faid he) may be equally full; but the large one holds more than the small."

On another occafion we find Johnson remarking, that " Every man is to take existence on the terms on which it is given to him. To fome men it is given on condition of not tak ing liberties which other men may take without much harm. One may drink wine, and be nothing the worse for it; on another, wine may have effects fo inflammatory as to injure him both in body and mind."

A gentleman mentioned the advice given us by philofophers, to confcle ourselves, when diftreffed or embarraffed, by thinking of those who are in a worse fituation than ourselves; but this, he observed, could not apply to all, for there must be some who have nobody worse than they are. "Why to be fure, Sir, there are (faid Johnson); but they don't know it. There is no being fo poor and fo contemptible, who does not think there is fomebody ftill poorer, and still more contemptible.

That man is never happy for the present, is fo true, that all his relief from unhappiness is only forgetting himself for a little while. Life is a progrefs from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment."

At

At another time he maintained, that a boy at fchool is the happieft of human beings. Mr. B. fupported a different opinion, namely, that a man is happier, and enlarged upon the anxiety and sufferings which are endured at school. "Ah! Sir (faid Johnson), a boy's being flogged is not fo fevere as a man's having the hifs of the world against him. Men have a folicitude about fame, and the greater fhare they have of it, the more afraid are they of lofing it."

The modes of living in different countries, and the various views with which men travel in queft of new scenes, having been talked of, a learned gentleman who held a confiderable office in the law expatiated on the happiness of a favage life, and mentioned an inftance of an officer who had actually lived for fome time in the wilds of America, of whom, when in that state, he quoted this reflection with an air of admiration, as if it had been deeply philofophical :- Here am I, free and unrestrained, amidst the rude magnificence of Nature, with this Indian woman by my fide, and this gun, with which I can procure food when I want it: what more can be desired for human happinefs.' "Do not allow yourself, Sir (faid Johnson), to be impofed upon by fuch grofs abfurdity. It is fad ftuff; it is brutish. If a bull could fpeak, he might as well exclaim,-"Here

am I with this cow and this grafs; what being can enjoy greater felicity?"

Johnson once faid, "A madman loves to be with people whom he fears; not as a dog fears the lash; but of whom he stands in awe*." He added, "Madmen are all fenfual in the lower stages of the diftemper. They are eager for gratifications to footh their minds, and divert their attention from the mifery which they fuffer; but when they grow very ill, pleasure is too weak for them, and they feek for pain. Employment, Sir, and hardships prevent melancholy. I suppose in all our army in America there was not one man who went mad."

It was a frequent obfervation with Johnson, that there was more to be endured than enjoyed, in the general condition of human life; and he often quoted these lines of Dryden :

"Strange cozenage! none would live past years again, "Yet all hope pleasure from what still remain."

For his part, he said, he never paffed that week in his life which he would wish to repeat, were an angel to make the proposal to him.

On this Mr. B. remarks: "I was ftruck with the juftice of this obfervation. To be with thofe of whom a perfon, whose mind is wavering and dejected, ftands in awe, repreffes and compofes an uneafy tumult of fpirits, and confoles him with the contemplation of fomething fteady, and at least com paratively great."

DEATH.

DEATH.

[ocr errors]

MR. BOSWELL tells us, that he once, in a converfation with Johnson, and other company, expreffed a horror at the thoughts of death. Mrs. Knowles, the Quaker, who was of the party, faid, "Nay, thou should'st not have a horror for what is the gate of life."Johnfon (ftanding upon the hearth rolling about with a ferious, folemn, and fomewhat gloomy air) obferved, that no rational man could die without uneafy apprehenfion.-Mrs. KNOWLES. "The Scriptures tell us, The righteous fhall have hope in his death.”—JOHNSON. "Yes, Madam; that is, he fhall not have despair. But confider, his hope of falvation. must be founded on the terms on which it is promifed, that the mediation of our SAVIOUR fhall be applied to us, namely, obedience; and where obedience has failed, then, as fuppletory to it, repentance. But what man can say that his obedience has been fuch as he would approve of in another, or even in himself upon close examination, or that his repentance has not been fuch as to require being repented of? No man can be fure that his obedience and repentance will obtain falvation."-MRS. K. "But divine

2

[ocr errors]

divine intimation of acceptance may be made to the foul."-7. "Madam, it may; but I fhould not think the better of a man who should tell me on his death-bed he was fure of falvation. A man cannot be fure himself that he has divine intimation of acceptance; much less can he make others fure that he has it."-B. "Then, Sir, we must be contented to acknowledge that death is a terrible thing."-7. "Yes, Sir. I have made no approaches to a state which can look on it as not terrible."-Mrs. K. (feeming to enjoy a pleafing ferenity in the perfuafion of benignant divine light) "Does not St. Paul fay, I have fought the good fight of faith, I have finished my courfe: henceforth is laid up for me a crown of life?"-7. "Yes, Madam; but here was a man infpired, a man who had been converted by fupernatural interpofition."-B." In profpect death is dreadful but in fact we find that people die easy.”—J. "Why, Sir, most people have not thought much of the matter, fo cannot fay much, and it is fuppofed they die cafy. Few believe it certain they are then to die; and those who do, fet themselves to behave with refolution, as a man does who is going to be hanged. He is not the lefs unwilling to be hanged."-MISS SEWARD." There is one mode of the fear of death, which

[ocr errors]
« PoprzedniaDalej »