[[31]] "I fasted, though less rigorously than at other times. I by negligence poured some milk into my tea. Ibid. p. 146.—Yesterday, I fasted, as I have always, or commonly done, since the death of Tetty; the fast was more painful than usual."
[[32]]
"Purposes.
To keep a journal. To begin this day. (Sept. 18th, 1766.)
To spend four hours in study every day, and as much more as I can.
To read a portion of Scripture in Greek every Sunday.
To rise at eight.—Oct. 3d. Of all this I have done nothing." Ibid.
[[33]] "I resolved last Easter to read, within the year, the whole Bible; a great part of which I had never looked upon." Meditations.
[[34]] "I have never yet read the Apocrypha. When I was a boy I have read or heard Bel and the Dragon." Meditations.
[[35]] See the First Book of Samuel, ch. v. and vi. in which an account is given of the punishment of the Philistines for looking into the ark.
[[36]] The Rev. Dr. Adams of Oxford, distinguished for his answer to David Hume's Essay on Miracles.
[[37]] From the following letter there is reason to apprehend that Dr. Adams would not support Mr. S——n, if he should add this to the other singular anecdotes that he has published relative to Dr. Johnson.
Mr. Urban, Oxford, Oct. 22d, 1785.
In your last month's Review of books, you have asserted, that the publication of Dr. Johnson's Prayers and Meditations appears to have been at the instance of Dr. Adams, Master of Pembroke College, Oxford. This, I think, is more than you are warranted by the editor's preface to say; and is so far from being true, that Dr. Adams never saw a line of these compositions, before they appeared in print, nor ever heard from Dr. Johnson, or the editor, that any such existed. Had he been consulted about the publication, he would certainly have given his voice against it: and he therefore hopes, that you will clear him, in as publick a manner as you can, from being any way accessary to it. Wm. Adams.
[[38]]
"Debilem facite manu,
Debilem pede, coxa;
Tuber adstrue gibberum;
Lubricos quate dentes;
Vita dum superest, bene est:
Hanc mihi, vel acuta
Si sedeam cruce, sustine." Senec. Epist. 101.
Let me but live, the fam'd Mæcenas cries,
Lame of both hands, and lame in feet and thighs;
Hump-back'd, and toothless;—all convuls'd with pain,
Ev'n on the cross,—so precious life remain.
Dr. Johnson, in his last illness, is said to have declared (in the presence of Doctors H. and B.) that he would prefer a state of existence in eternal pain to annihilation.