Page:Johnsonian Miscellanies I.djvu/119

 Grant that the remaining days which thou shalt yet allow me may be past in thy fear and to thy glory, grant me good resolutions and steady perseverance. Relieve the diseases of my body and compose the disquiet of my mind. Let me at last repent and amend my life, and. O Lord, take not from me thy Holy Spirit, but assist my amendment, and accept my repentance, for the sake of Jesus Christ. Amen.

149.

Oct. 14, Sunday, [1781.] (properly Monday morning x .)

I am this day about to go by Oxford and Birmingham to Lichfield and Ashbourne. The motives of my journey I hardly know. I omitted it last year, and am not willing to miss it again. Mrs. Aston 2 will be glad, I think, to see me. We are both old, and if I put off my visit, I may see her no more ; perhaps she wishes for another interview. She is a very good woman.

Hector is likewise an old friend, the only companion of my childhood that passed through the School with me. We have always loved one another 3. Perhaps we may be made better by some serious conversation, of which however I have no distinct hope.

At Lichfield, my native place, I hope to shew a good example by frequent attendance on publick worship 4.

At Ashbourne I hope to talk seriously with Taylor 5.

1 Part of this entry is quoted in the ' having heard that Johnson had said Life, iv. 135. that he would prefer a state of tor-

2 One of the unmarried daughters ment to that of annihilation, he told of Sir Thomas Aston. She lived at him that such a declaration, coming Lichfield. Life, ii. 466. from him, might be productive of evil

3 Hector was a Birmingham sur- consequences. Dr. J. desired him to geon. Life, ii. 456 ; Letters, ii. 228. arrange his thoughts on the subject.'

4 To make up perhaps for his Taylor says that Johnson's entry about shirking it in his boyhood. Life, the serious talk refers to this matter. i. 67. Gent. Mag. 1787, p. 521. I believe

5 Taylor published in 1 787 A Letter that Johnson meant to warn Taylor to Samuel Johnson on the Subject of about the danger he was running of a Future State. He writes that ' entering the state of torment.'

January

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