��Recollections of Dr. Johnson
��That Dr. Johnson's mind was preserved from insanity by his Devotional aspirations may surely be reasonably supposed. No man could have a firmer reliance on the efficacy of Prayer, and he would often with a solemn earnestness beg of his intimate friends to pray for him, and apparently on very slight occasions of corporeal indisposition.
But that he should have desired one prayer from Dr. Dodd, who was such an atrocious offender, has I know been very much condemn'd, as highly injurious to his character, not considering perhaps that Dr. Johnson might have had sufficient reason to believe Dodd to be a sincere Penitent, which indeed was the case I ; besides his mind was so soften'd with pitty \sic\ and
��for those gratifications which scientific pursuits or philosophic meditation be stow.' Somewhat the same thought is expressed by Baron Grimm :
- Je ne saurais m'empecher d'avancer,
en passant, un paradoxe qui me"rite cependant d'etre approfondi ; c'est que dans Petat ou sont les choses, et 1'esprit de^socie'te' etouffant continu- ellement en nous le genie, rien n'est si favorable a sa conservation que des sens peu parfaits. Ainsi, la vue ex- tremement basse vous empechera de remarquer mille petites manieres, mille minuties, et vous ne pourrez jamais avoir envie de les imiter, parce que vous ne les aurez jamais apergues. Ainsi, votre oreille peu fine vous em pechera de distinguer la difference des tons, et vous serez garanti de la manie de vous y exercer, parce que vous ne les aurez pas sentis. C'est ainsi que votre genie concentr^ en lui- meme au milieu de la societe" con- servera sa force et sa surete, et sera a 1'abri des dangers qui 1'entourent.' Correspondence de Grimm, ed. 1814, i. 187.
1 ' Atrocious ' is an absurd term to apply to Dodd. Johnson in his last letter to him said : ' Be comforted ; your crime, morally or religiously considered, has no very deep dye of
��turpitude. It corrupted no man's principles ; it attacked no man's life. It involved only a temporary and reparable injury. ... In requital of those well-intended offices which you are pleased so emphatically to ac knowledge, let me beg that you make in your devotions one petition for my eternal welfare/ Life, iii. 147.
Wesley, who visited Dodd in prison two days before his execution, said : 'Such a prisoner I scarce ever saw before; much less such a condemned malefactor. I should think none could converse with him without ac knowledging that God is with him.' Wesley's Journal, ed. 1827, i. 378.
Dodd had forged the signature of his late pupil, the fifth Earl of Chester field, to a bond for ,4,200, ' flattering himself with hopes that he might be able to repay its amount without being detected.' Life, iii. 140.
Five years earlier he had published a sermon 'intended to have been preached in the Chapel-Royal at St. James's,' on 'the Frequency of Capital Punishments inconsistent with Justice, sound Policy and Re ligion.' Gentleman's Magazine, 1772, p. 182.
In the Index to the first 56 volumes
of the Gentleman 's Magazine under
compassion
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