[302] St. Matthew, xxvii. 52.

[303] I Corinthians, xv. 37.

[304] As this subject frequently recurs in these volumes, the reader may be led erroneously to suppose that Dr. Johnson was so fond of such discussions, as frequently to introduce them. But the truth is, that the authour himself delighted in talking concerning ghosts, and what he has frequently denominated the mysterious; and therefore took every opportunity of leading Johnson to converse on such subjects. MALONE. See ante, i. 406.

[305] Macbean (Johnson's old amanuensis, ante, i. 187) is not in Boswell's list of guests; but in the Pemb. Coll. MSS., there is the following entry on Monday, April 16:—'Yesterday at dinner were Mrs. Hall, Mr. Levet, Macbean, Boswel (sic), Allen. Time passed in talk after dinner. At seven, I went with Mrs. Hall to Church, and came back to tea.'

[306] Mrs. Piozzi records (Anec. p. 192) that he said 'a long time after my poor mother's death, I heard her voice call Sam.' She is so inaccurate that most likely this is merely her version of the story that Boswell has recorded above. See also ante, i. 405. Lord Macaulay made more of this story of the voice than it could well bear—'Under the influence of his disease, his senses became morbidly torpid, and his imagination morbidly active. At one time he would stand poring on the town clock without being able to tell the hour. At another, he would distinctly hear his mother, who was many miles off, calling him by his name. But this was not the worst.' Macaulay's Writings and Speeches, ed. 1871, p. 374.

[307]

'One wife is too much for most
husbands to bear,
But two at a time there's no
mortal can bear.'
Act iii. sc. 4.

[308] 'I think a person who is terrified with the imagination of ghosts and spectres much more reasonable than one who, contrary to the reports of all historians, sacred and profane, ancient and modern, and to the traditions of all nations, thinks the appearance of spirits fabulous and groundless.' The Spectator, No. 110.

[309] St. Matthew, chap. xxvii. vv. 52, 53. BOSWELL.

[310] Garrick died on Jan. 20, 1779.