[1200] In his Life of Browne, Johnson wrote:—'The time will come to every human being when it must be known how well he can bear to die; and it has appeared that our author's fortitude did not desert him in the great hour of trial.' Works, vi. 499.
[1201] A Club in London, founded by the learned and ingenious physician, Dr. Ash, in honour of whose name it was called Eumelian, from the Greek [Greek: Eumelias]; though it was warmly contended, and even put to a vote, that it should have the more obvious appellation of Fraxinean, from the Latin. BOSWELL. This club, founded in 1788, met at the Blenheim Tavern, Bond-street. Reynolds, Boswell, Burney, and Windham were members. Rose's Biog. Dict. ii. 240. [Greek: Eummeliaes] means armed with good ashen spear.
[1202] Mrs. Thrale's Collection, March 10,1784. Vol. ii. p. 350.
BOSWELL.
[1203] Hawkins's Life of Johnson, p. 583.
[1204] See what he said to Mr. Malone, p. 53 of this volume. BOSWELL.
[1205] See ante, i. 223, note 2.
[1206] Epistle to the Romans, vii. 23.
[1207] 'Johnson's passions,' wrote Reynolds, 'were like those of other men, the difference only lay in his keeping a stricter watch over himself. In petty circumstances this [? his] wayward disposition appeared, but in greater things he thought it worth while to summon his recollection and be always on his guard.... [To them that loved him not] as rough as winter; to those who sought his love as mild as summer—many instances will readily occur to those who knew him intimately of the guard which he endeavoured always to keep over himself.' Taylor's Reynolds, ii. 460. See ante, i. 94, 164, 201, and iv. 215.
[1208] Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, 3d ed. p. 209. [Post, v. 211.] On the same subject, in his Letter to Mrs. Thrale, dated Nov. 29, 1783, he makes the following just observation:—'Life, to be worthy of a rational being, must be always in progression; we must always purpose to do more or better than in time past. The mind is enlarged and elevated by mere purposes, though they end as they began [in the original, begin], by airy contemplation. We compare and judge, though we do not practise.' BOSWELL.