280 Recollections of Dr. Johnson
Tho' it cannot be said that Dr. Johnson was ( in manners gentle,' yet it justly can, that he was ' in affections mild V bene volent and Compassionate, and to this singularity of character, inverting the common forms of civilized society, may I believe be ascribed in a great measure his extraordinary celebrity, sublimated, as one may say, with terror and with love.
But indeed it is worthy of consideration whether these, or any of Dr. Johnson's singularities, would have excited such admira tion, had they not been associated with the idea of his moral and religious character ; hence, most undoubtedly, that universal homage of respect and veneration that has been paid to his memory.
Much may be said in excuse for Dr. Johnson's asperity of manners at times, being, I believe, the natural effects of those inherent melancholy infirmities, both mental and corporeal, to which he was subject. Very rarely I believe perhaps never was he intentionally asperous, unless provoked by something said or done that seem'd detrimental to the cause of religion or morality, even in the slightest degree 2 . Tho' indeed it must be confessed that in his zealous ardour to defend the former he too often trespassed on the borders of the latter.
in the middle way
Yet whilst I linger on the doubtful steep Where Life's high vigour verges to decay Where youth declining seems with age to meet Sure Nature acts, I cry'd, by wond'rous Laws Nature to her own Laws appears averse, She yet all hope -withdraws
Still prompts resistance where there's no redress ;
The springing grass, the circulating air. Chears every sense the common air I breathe
to praise and prayer. Each common bounty prompts to prayer and praise.'
Johnson seems to have soon grown are not much less than those in the weary of correcting; at all events whole poem of about 170 lines, the corrections in the first few lines
1 ' Of manners gentle, of affections mild, In wit a man ; simplicity a child.
Pope, Epitaph on Gay.
- ' Obscenity and impiety (said in my company.' Life, iv. 295. See
Johnson) have always been repressed ante, ii. 224.
But
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