Page:Johnsonian Miscellanies I.djvu/97

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deficiencies x . Yet much remains to be repented and reformed. I hope that I refer more to God than in former times, and consider more what submission is due to his dispensations. But I have very little reformed my practical life, and the time in which I can struggle with habits cannot be now expected to be long. Grant O God, that I may no longer resolve in vain, or dream away the life which thy indulgence gives me, in vacancy and uselessness.

9na mane.

I went to bed about two, had a disturbed night, though not so distressful as at some other times.

Almighty and most merciful Father, who seest all our miseries, and knowest all our necessities, Look down upon me. and pity me. Defend me from the violent incursions of evil thoughts, and enable me to form and keep such resolutions as may conduce to the discharge of the duties which thy Providence shall appoint me, and so help me by thy Holy Spirit, that my heart may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found, and that I may serve Thee with pure affection and a cheerful mind. Have mercy upon me, O God, have mercy upon me ; years and infirmities oppress me, terrour and anxiety beset me. Have mercy upon me, my Creatour and my Judge. In all dangers protect me, in all perplexities relieve and free me, and so help me by thy Holy Spirit, that I may now so commemorate the death of thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ as that when this short and painful life shall have an end, I may for his sake be received to everlasting happiness. Amen 2 .

121.

April 6 [177 7].

By one strange hindrance or another, I have been withheld from the continuation of my thoughts to this day, the Sunday following Easter day.

1 Quoted in the Life, iii. 99. common name to all.' Anatomy of

For * the disturbances of the mind ' Melancholy, ed. 1660, Introduction,

see Life, i. 65 ; v. 215 ; and Letters^ p. 18.

i. 39. ' Folly, melancholy, madness 2 Quoted in the Life, iii. 99.

are but one disease. Delirium is a

On

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