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208 A horrour at life in general is more consonant with Johnson's habitual gloomy cast of thought.

I have heard him repeat with great energy the following verses, which appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine for April this year; but I have no authority to say they were his own. Indeed one of the best criticks of our age suggests to me, that 'the word indifferently being used in the sense of without concern,' and being also very unpoetical, renders it improbable that they should have been his composition.

'Pity'd by gentle minds died; The brave,, were on thy side; , unhappy in his crimes of youth , Steady in what he still mistook for truth, Beheld his death so decently unmov'd. The soft lamented, and the brave approv'd. Rh