��Essay on
��was still an active principle. Feeling himself swelled with the dropsy, he conceived that, by incisions in his legs, the water might be discharged. Mr. Cniikshank apprehended that a mortification might be the consequence ; but, to appease a dis tempered fancy, he gently lanced the surface. Johnson cried out, ' Deeper, deeper ; I want length of life, and you are afraid of giving me pain, which I do not value *.'
On the 8th of December, the Reverend Mr. Strahan drew his will 2 , by which, after a few legacies, the residue, amounting to about fifteen hundred pounds, was bequeathed to Frank, the Black servant, formerly consigned to the testator by his friend
Dr. Bathurst 3 .
The history of a death-bed is painful. Mr. Strahan informs us, that the strength of religion prevailed against the infirmity of nature ; and his foreboding dread of the Divine Justice subsided into a pious trust and humble hope of mercy at the Throne of Grace 4 . On Monday the I3th day of December (the last of his existence on this side the grave), the desire of life returned with all its former vehemence. He still imagined, that, by puncturing his legs relief might be obtained. At eight in the morning he tried the experiment, but no water followed 3 . In an hour or two after, he fell into a doze, and about seven in the evening, expired without a groan.
On the 20th of the month his remains, with due solemnities, and a numerous attendance of his friends, were buried in Westminster Abbey, near the foot of Shakspeare's monument,
��1 Life, iv. 399 ; Hawkins, p. 592. To Dr. Brocklesby a few days earlier he had said : * How many men in a year die through the timidity of those whom they consult for health ! I want length of life, and you fear giving me pain, which I care not for/ Hawkins, p. 588. See Life, iv. 409-
3 Strahan was only his amanuensis.
��Hawkins records on December 9 (p. 588) : ' I found him dictating to Mr. Strahan another will, the former \ib. pp. 576, 580-3] being, as he had said at the time of making it, a tem porary one.'
3 Life, iv. 401, 441.
4 Prayers and Meditations, Pre face, p. 15 ; Life, iv. 416.
5 Life, iv. 399, 418, n. I.
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