Page:Johnsonian Miscellanies I.djvu/228

 2IO

��Anecdotes.

��even once said, 'that he thought it an error to endeavour at pleasing God by taking the rod of reproof out of his hands.' And when we talked of convents, and the hardships suffered in them ' Remember always (said he) that a convent is an idle place, and where there is nothing to be done something must be endured x : mustard has a bad taste per se you may observe, but very insipid food cannot be eaten without it.'

His respect however for places of religious retirement was carried to the greatest degree of earthly veneration 2 : the Bene dictine convent at Paris paid him all possible honours in return, and the Prior and he parted with tears of tenderness 3. Two of that college sent to England on the mission some years after, spent much of their time with him at Bolt Court I know, and he was ever earnest to retain their friendship 4 ; but though beloved by all his Roman Catholic acquaintance, particularly Dr. Nugent 5 , for whose esteem he had a singular value, yet was Mr. Johnson a most unshaken church of England man 6 ; and I think, or at

��invigorated and roused, by which the attractions of pleasure are inter rupted, and the claims of sensuality

are broken Austerity is the proper

antidote to indulgence ; the diseases of mind as well as body are cured by contraries, and to contraries we should readily have recourse, if we dreaded guilt as we dread pain.' Rambler, No. no.

For his penance in Uttoxeter market see Life, iv. 373.

1 In the Benedictine convent in Paris he recorded : ' Benedictines may sleep eight hours. Bodily la bour wanted in monasteries.' Ib. ii.

390.

2 Amidst the ruins at St. Andrews he said : ' I never read of a hermit, but in imagination I kiss his feet ; never of a monastery, but I could fall on my knees, and kiss the pavement. But I think putting young people there, who know nothing of life, nothing of retirement, is dangerous

��and wicked.' Ib. v. 62. See also ib. i. 365.

' Goldsmith, who hated the prudery of Johnson's morals and the fop pery of Hawkes worth's manners, yet warmly admired the genius of both, was in use to say among his acquain tance that Johnson would have made a decent monk, and Hawkes worth a good dancing master? Memoirs of the Life, &c., of Dr. Johnson, 1785, p. 194.

3 ' I was very kindly treated by the English Benedictines, and have a cell appropriated to me in their con vent.' Life, ii. 402.

4 Letters, i. 401, 406 ; ii. 39.

5 Burke's father-in-law. Post, p. 230, and Life, i. 477.

6 ' Of the Roman Catholic religion he said : ' ... I would be a Papist if I could. I have fear enough ; but an obstinate rationality prevents me.' Ib. iv. 289.

least

�� �