PRAYERS AND MEDITATIONS.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION IN 1785.

THESE Posthumous Devotions of Dr. Johnson will be, no doubt, welcomed by the public, with a distinction similar to that which has been already paid to his other Works.

That the authenticity of this work may never be called in question, the original manuscript will be deposited in the library of Pembroke College, in Oxford. Dr. Bray's associates are to receive the profits of the first edition, by the author's appointment; and any further advan tages that accrue, will be distributed among his relations.*

During many years of his life, he statedly observed certain days with a religious solemnity; on which, and others occasions, it was his custom to compose suitable Prayers and Meditations; committing them to writing for his own I have now discharged the trust reposed in use, and, as he assured me, without any view to me by that friend, whose labours entitle him to their publication. But being last summer on a lasting gratitude and veneration from the litevisit at Oxford to the Reverend Dr. Adams, trary, and still more from the Christian world. and that gentleman urging him repeatedly to engage in some work of this kind, he then first conceived a design to revise these pious effusions, and bequeathed them, with enlargements, to the use and benefit of others.

His Lives of the English Poets "are written," as he justly hopes, "in such a manner as may tend to the promotion of piety." This merit may be ascribed, with equal truth, to most of his other works, and doubtless to his Infirmities, however, now growing fast upon Sermons, none of which indeed have yet been him, he at length changed this design, and de- made public, nor is it known where they are extermined to give the manuscripts, without revi- tant; though it be certain, from his own acsion, in charge to me, as I had long shared his knowledgment, both in conversation and writintimacy, and was at this time his daily attend-ing, that he composed many. As he seems ant. Accordingly, one morning, on my visiting to have turned his thoughts with peculiar earhim by desire at an early hour, he put these pa- nestness to the study of religious subjects, we pers into my hands, with instructions for com- may presume these remains would deserve to mitting them to the press, and with a promise be numbered among his happiest productions. to prepare a sketch of his own life to accompany It is therefore hoped they have fallen into the them. But the performance of this promise hands of those, who will not withhold them in also was prevented, partly by his hasty destruc- obscurity, but consider them as deposits, the setion of some private memoirs, which he after-clusion of which, from general use, would be an wards lamented, and partly by that incurable injurious diminution of their author's fame, sickness, which soon ended in his dissolution. and retrenchment from the common stock of seAs a biographer, he is allowed to have ex-rious instruction.† celled without a rival; and we may justly regret that he who had so advantageously transmitted to posterity the memories of other eminent men, should have been thus prevented doing equal honour to his own. But the particulars of this venerable man's personal history may, still, in great measure, be preserved; and the public are authorized to expect them from some of his many friends, who are zealous to augment the monument of his fame by the detail of his private virtues.

Viz. New-Year's Day; March 29, the day on which his wife, Mrs. Elizabeth Johnson, died; Good-Friday; Easter Day; and September the 18th, his own birthday.

Master of Pembroke College, at which Dr. Johnson received part of his education.

But the integrity of his mind was not only speculatively shadowed in his writings, but substantially exemplified in his life. His prayers and his alms, like those of the good Cornelius, went up for an incessant memorial; and always, from a heart deeply impressed with piety, never insensible to the calls of friendship or compassion, and prone to melt in effusions of tenderness on the slightest incitement.

When, among other articles in his Dictionary, Litchfield presents itself to his notice, he salutes that place of his nativity in these words of Vir

The profits of the first edition were accordingly paid to Dr. Bray's associates; and those of the second have been distributed among Dr. Johnson's poor relations and connexions, all of whom are since dead, except Hum. Ford, sister to the Rev. Cornelius Ford, and first cousin to our author. This poor man, who has seen better days, is now a tenant of Whicher's Almshouses, Chapel-street, Westminster.

Since this Preface was written the following publica-phrey Hely, who married tions have appeared, viz.

Anecdotes of the late Dr. Johnson, during the last Twenty Years of his life, by Hester Lynch Piozzi. 3d edit. 1786, small 8vo.

The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. published with his Works, by Sir John Hawkins, 8vo. 1797.

The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. by James Boswell, Esq. first published in 2 vols. 4to. afterwards (1793) in 3, and finally in 4 vols. 8vo.

An Essay on the Life and Genius of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. published with the 2d edition of his Works, by Arthur Murphy, Esa. 8vo. 1792.

In 1788, appeared one volume, and in 1789, a second, of Sermons on different subjects, left for publication by John Taylor, LL.D, late Prebendary of Westminster, &c. published by the Rev. Samuel Hayes, A.M, Usher of Westminster School. To the second volume is added a Sermon avowedly written by Dr. Johnson, for the funeral of his wife : from internal and other evidence, the whole contents of both volumes are now generally as cribed to the same author.

*

dences of our surviving affection may be thought ill-judged; but surely they are generous; and some natural tenderness is due even to a superstition, which thus originates in piety and benevolence.

We see our author, in one place, purposing with seriousness to remember his brother's dream; in another, owning his embarrassment from needless stipulations; and, on many occasions, noting, with a circumstantial minuteness, the process of his religious fasts. But these pe culiarities, if they betray some tincture of the propensity already observed, prove, for the most part, the pious tenor of his thoughts. They indicate a mind ardently zealous to please God, and anxious to evince its alacrity in his service, by a scrupulous observance of more than enjoin ed duties.

gil, Salve, magna parens. Nor was the saluta- | true, for the reason just mentioned, such evition adopted without reason; for well might he denominate his parent city great, who, by the celebrity of his name, hath for ever made it soSalve, magna parens frugum, Staffordia tellus Magna virum. VIRG. Georg. lib. ii. 173. More decisive testimonies of his affectionate sensibility are exhibited in the following work, where he bewails the successive depredations of death on his relations and friends; whose virtues, thus mournfully suggested to his recollection, he seldom omits to recite, with ardent wishes for their acquittal at the throne of mercy. In praying, however, with restriction, for these regretted tenants of the grave, he indeed conformed to a practice, which though it has been retained by other learned members of our church, her Liturgy no longer admits, and many, who adhere to her communion, avowedly But however the soundness of his principles disapprove. That such prayers are, or may be, might, in general, be apparent, he seems to have efficacious, they who sincerely offer them must lived with a perpetual conviction that his conbelieve. But may not a belief in their efficacy, duct was defective; lamenting past neglects, so far as it prevails, be attended with danger to forming purposes of future diligence, and conthose who entertain it? May it not incline stantly acknowledging their failure in the event. them to carelessness; and promote a neglect of It was natural for him, who possessed such repentance, by inducing a persuasion, that with- powers of usefulness, to consider the waste of out it, pardon may be obtained through these his time as a peculiar delinquency; with which, vicarious intercessions? Indeed the doctrine (I however, he appears to have been far less frespeak with deference to the great names that quently, and less culpably chargeable, than his have espoused it) seems inconsistent with some own tender sense of duty disposed him to appreprinciples generally allowed among us. If, hend. That he meritoriously redeemed many where the tree falleth, there it shall be; if, as Pro- days and years from indolence, is evinced by testants maintain, our state at the close of life the number and excellence of his works; nor is to be the measure of our final sentence; then can we doubt that his literary exertions would prayers for the dead, being visibly fruitless, can have been still more frequent, had not morbid be regarded only as the vain oblations of super-melancholy, which, as he informs us, was the stition. But of all superstitions, this perhaps is one of the least unamiable, and most incident to a good mind. If our sensations of kindness be intense, those whom we have revered and loved during life, death which removes them from sight, cannot wholly exclude from our concern. The fondness, kindled by intercourse, will still glow from memory, and prompt us to wish, perhaps to pray, that the valued dead, to whose felicity our friendship can no longer minister, may find acceptance with Him, who giv-Mercy. eth us, and them, richly all things to enjoy. It is

* Our author informs us that his prayers for deceased friends were offered up, on several occasions, as far as might be lawful for him: and once with Preface of Permission: whence it should seem that he had some doubt concerning the lawfulness of such prayers, though it does not appear that he ever discontinued the use of them. It is also observable, that in his reflections on the death of his Wife, and again of Mr. Thrale, he wishes that the Almighty not may have, but may have had mercy on them; evidently supposing their sentence to have been already passed in the Divine Mind. This supposition, indeed, may seem not very consistent with his recommending them to the Divine Mercy afterwards. It proves, however that he had no belief in a state of Purgatory, and consequently no reason for praying for the dead, that could impeach the sincerity of his profession as a Protestant.

infirmity of his life, repressed them. To the prevalence of this infirmity, we may certainly ascribe that anxious fear, which seized him on the approach of his dissolution, and which his friends, who knew his integrity, observed with equal astonishment and concern. But the strength of religion at length prevailed against the frailty of nature; and his foreboding dread of the Divine Justice by degrees subsided into a pious trust and humble hope in the Divine

He is now gone to await his eternal sentence; and as his life exhibited an illustrious example, so his death suggests an interesting admonition. It concerns us to reflect, that however many may find it impossible to rival his intellectual excellence, yet to imitate his virtues is both possible and necessary to all; that the current of time now hastens to plunge us in that gulf of Death, where we have so lately seen him ab sorbed, where there is no more place of repentance, and whence, according to our innocence or guilt, we shall rise to an immortality of bliss or torment. GEORGE STRAHAN.

Islington, August 6th 1795.

ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FOURTH EDITION.

To this Edition is added [at p. 647] a Prayer, now in my possession in Dr. Johnson's own handwriting, in which he expressly supposes that Providence may permit him to enjoy the good effects of his Wife's attention and ministration by appearance, impulses, or dreams. It is well known that he admitted the credibility of apparitions and in his Rasselas, he maintains it, in the person of Imlac, by the following acute train of reasoning:

"That the dead are seen no more, said Imlac, I will not undertake to maintain, against the concurrent and unvaried testimony of all ages and of all nations. There is no people, rude or learned, among whom apparitions of the dead are not related and believed. This opinion, which perhaps prevails as far as human nature is diffused, could become universal only by its truth; those that never heard of one another, would not have agreed in a tale which nothing but experience can make credible. That it is doubted by single cavillers, can very little weaken the general evidence; and some who deny it with their tongues confess it by their fears."

Cavillers have indeed doubted the credibility of this tale, rejecting it in every instance as the dream of delusion, or the fiction of imposture.

That many tales of apparitions have originated in delusion, and many in imposture, cannot be denied; and the whole question to be considered in this case is, how far we have authority for believing that any are founded in truth or probability.

than those that are common; because their occurrence having been less frequent, their existence has been verified in fewer instances by experience. And, upon the same principle, the more remote any reported phenomenon appears to be from what we ordinarily observe in nature, the greater, antecedently to its authentication by evidence, is its improbability.

But improbability arising from rarity of occurrence, or singularity of nature, amounts to no disproof; it is a presumptive reason of doubt too feeble to withstand the conviction induced by positive and credible testimony; such as that which has been borne to shadowy reappearances of the dead. These, as our author intimates, have been uniformly attested in every age and country by persons, who had no communication or knowledge of each other, and whose concurrence of testimony in this case can be accounted for only by a supposition of its It is evidently a far greater improbabitruth. lity, that witnesses so numerous, so dispersed, and unconnected, should concur in forging so extraordinary a relation, than that such a relation, extraordinary as it is, should be true. For though the several objects we meet in the world be in general formed according to observably stated laws; yet anomalies in nature may occur, and their occurrence has been occasionally asserted and believed on less accumulated attestation. We now at length have ceased to question the supernatural stature of the Patagonians; why, then, are we so unwilling to admit the more amply witnessed existence of appariBecause the degree of prodigiousness tions? implied in the supposition of a visible spirit strikes the imagination as too stupendous for belief. This is the effect of measuring the credibility of the attested achievements of nature by our own narrow experience, not by the power of Him, who is the author of nature, and to whom all things, even the investing spirits with visibility, are possible. We have constant assurance of other natural processes not less difficult to account for than this, which we contemplate with such indignant mistrust. Nor can it on Still the acknowledged millions of the dead reflection appear more surprising or incomprethat are seen no more induce a reluctance to be-hensible, that a spirit should assume a visible lieve in the reappearance of any, however attested. Common incidents, though often not less inexplicable than those which are unusual, become familiar to our observation, and soon cease to excite our wonder. But rare and preternatural occurrences astonish and shock belief by their novelty; and apparitions are by many accounted things so improbable in themselves, as not to be rendered credible by any external testimony. The same charge of insuperable incredibility has been urged against miracles; and in both cases proceeds upon a supposition, evidently erroneous, that the improbable nature of any alleged event is a stronger evidence of its falsity, than the best approved testimony can be of its truth.

Some have thought all such reported appearances liable to suspicion, because in general they seem called forth by no exigency, and calculated to administer to no end or purpose. This circumstance, so far as it may be observed, will authorize a presumption that they are not the fabrications of imposture; which has always some end, commonly a discoverable end, to promote by its illusions. At any rate, our ignorance of the purpose or end can be no disproof of the fact and the purposes of Providence, in the events most obvious to our notice, observably often elude our scrutiny.

It is confessed that extraordinary events, when rumoured, are, till proved, less probable

Chap. xxxi.

shape, than that it should animate and move a material body. The wonders we see may soften our incredulity to patience of those which we have not seen, but which all tradition attests. Nothing possible in itself, and proved by sufficient evidence, can be too prodigious for rational belief.

But even the evidence of our own senses is disputed by some reasoners, who pronounce every believed view of these unsubstantial forms to be a mere illusion of the fancy, engendered by disease, indigestion, and other bodily affections. Bodily affections, it is certain, have been known to bewilder the views of the Mind; and instances enough may be produced of men not generally supposed insane, who have been deluded and possessed with the most extravagant conceptions, by the vapours of distempered health. But by what token do these philosophers discover, that the witnesses of the fact in question, whom they never saw, and of whose

mental or bodily state they can have no know- | times, must have perceived, that the soul, howledge, were so enfeebled and distracted in their ever it might continue to exist after its separapowers of perception? Can it be proved, that tion from the body, did not ordinarily appear apparitions of the dead, however astonishing, on earth: and, till it had appeared, they could are impossible? Or, if not, upon what princi- have no reason for supposing, in opposition to ple is it maintained invariably, that they who their past experience, that it ever would. The think they see such phantoms see them only in departed spirit, for aught they could foresee, imagination? According to this tenor of rea- might always survive invisibly; and their be soning, all truth, not obvious to common expe- lief, if they afterwards entertained any, could rience, might be sacrificed to prejudice, and every be induced only by their sensible perception of rare fact, which we were unwilling to admit, its appearance. might be exploded, by the short method of supposing, that the witnesses of it at the time must have been bereft of their senses. Writers, who thus get rid of evidence by presuming it the effect of fascination, betray some share of the infirmity they impute, and judge with a reason palpably overpowered and distorted by the influence of opinion.

Accordingly, tradition informs us, that sensi ble evidence has not been wanting in this case. In every age and country the posthumous appearance of the soul has been believed, not on the authority of conjecture, but on the attesta tions of persons who severally declared themselves eyewitnesses of it in distinct instances. If it be said, that these attestations might all be founded, as many of them confessedly were, in delusion or imposture; still it will be difficult, if not impossible, to account for so general a consent in so strange a fiction. One true re

Others, perceiving that few, if any, apparitions have been authenticated in the present day, are thence induced to infer too hastily that none were ever seen. These visible departed shades are extraordinary exhibitions in nature, report-port that a spirit has been seen, may give occaed to have been observed in all nations occasion- sion and birth to many false reports of similar ally, but at no stated times. During some pe- incidents. But universal and unconcerted_testiriods they may occur with more frequency, in mony to a supernatural casualty cannot always others with less: and the proof of their former be untrue; nor is it conceivable, that they who occurrence, once established, is not to be weak- lived in distant ages and nations, who never ened, much less done away, by the protracted heard of one another, should agree, either in a delay or discontinuance of their renewal. delusion or imposture so remote from common Nor can it generally reflect discredit on aver-conception, and so unlike any thing observable red appearances of the dead, that they are ob- in the ordinary course of events. An appearserved to abound most in ignorant and dark ing spirit is a prodigy too singular in its nature ages. At such junctures, a fabulous increase of to become a subject of general invention. That these, and other strange casualties, we may ex- this prodigy has been every where counterfeited, pect, will be supplied by the reveries of super- proves only that it has every where in reality stition, or the interested impositions of craft occurred to view. The fable bears witness to upon credulity. But because in times of igno- the fact of its existence; and, to a mind not inrance, prodigies of this sort will seem to multi-fluenced by popular prejudice, it will be scarce ply by the more than usual obtrusion of such as are false; is it reasonable to conclude, that none we hear of, either in those times, or at any other, are true? Does the utmost abundance of counterfeits, in this or in any case, disprove the existence of genuine originals? On the contrary, without the supposition of some such originals, might it not be difficult to conjecture, how even the counterfeits of occurrences so strange should become so universal? And does not their experienced universality hence strongly tend to prove, that at least the earliest of them were imitations of some real models; shadows devised after substances; forgeries of fancy or fraud, which derived their origin, and received their form, from the suggestion and example of fact?

Possibly it may yet be objected that the belief in the existence of the soul in a separate state, which has always obtained extensively, might lead to the belief, without the experimental witness, of its appearance.

possible to believe, that apparitions of the dead could have been vouched in all countries, had they never been seen in any.

The opinion we have been considering, whether true or false, may at last be thought of too trivial moment to require or justify a discussion in this place. But to show the credibility of this opinion, chiefly by our author's own arguments, to which nothing of equal weight can be added, seemed not only due to him on the present occasion, but requisite in another important view. Appearances of departed spirits are occasionally recorded in Scripture; and as all indiscriminate objections against the reality of such appearances hence evidently impeach the testimony of Scripture, the above notice of the fallacy of some currently urged objections of this sort was not unseasonable, and may not, it is hoped, be altogether useless. It was the superstition of the dark ages to believe in many false miracles and apparitions; whence it seems often the insinuated wisdom of our enlightened times, to accept none, however authenticated in any age, for true: as if the folly of baseless unbelief were less than that of credulity; and it were not the province of instructed judgment to decide in no case capriciously or blindly, resist prejudice, and be determined by evi

It were easy to show, that disembodied souls have been believed, not only to exist, but to be constantly present, where they were not imagined to be visible; and consequently that the supposition mentioned, which can be proved true in no case, is ascertained to be groundless in some cases, and upon the balance of its evidence. dence not probable in any.

But it is needless to contend against a supposition so manifestly visionary. All men, in all

Islington, May 2d, 1789.

GEORGE STRAHAN.

See 1 Sam. xxviii. 14. and Matt. xvii. 3.

PRAYERS AND MEDITATIONS.