Dr. Johnson is generally charged with extreme big- otry, and want of charity towards religionists who dif- fered from him. This charge, however, is very unfair in the face of his repeated declaration to the contrary. "All denominations of Christians," he is reported to have said, "have really little difference in point of doc- trine, though they may differ widely in external forms." "For my part, I think all Christians, whether papist or Protestant, agree in the essential articles, ami that their differences are trivial, and rather political than relig- ious." He spoke in the highest terms of Wesley from intimate knowledge of his character, ha\ing been at the same coUege with him, and said that " lie thought of religion only." " Whatever might be thought of some Methodist teachers," he said, "he could scarcely doubt the sincerity of that man, who travelled 900 miles in a mouth, and preached twelve times in a week ; for no adequate reward, merely' temporal, could be given for
such indefatigable labor. The established clergy in general did not preach plain enough ; polished periods and glittering sentences flew over the heads of the com- mon people without impression on their hearts. Some- thing might be necessary to excite the atlcctious of the common people, who were sunk in languor and lethargy, and therefore he supposed that the new concomitants of jNIethodism might probably produce so desirable an effect. The mind, like the bodj', delighted in change and novelty, and even in religion itself courted new ap- pearances and modifications." His views on the great subjects of original sin, in consequence of the fall of man, and of the atonement made by our Saviour, as reported by his celebrated biographer, were decided and evangelical. His sentiments on natural and revealed religion were equally explicit. In short, it appears that few men have ever lived in whose thoughts re- Ugion had a larger or more practical share. 'His habitual piety," says lord Brougham, "his sense of his own imperfections, his generally blameless conduct in the various relations of life, have already been suf- ficiently described. He was a good man, as he was a great man ; and he had so firm a regard for virtue that he wisely set much greater store by his worth than by his fame." " Though consciousness of superiority might sometimes induce him to carry it high with man (and even this was much abated in the latter part of his life), his devotions have shown to the whole -world how humbly he walked at all times with his God." " If, then, it be asked," says lord Mahon, " who first in Eng- land, at that period, breasted the waves and stemmed the tide of infidelity — who enlisted wit and eloquence, together with argument and learning, on the side of revealed religion, first turned the literary current in its favor, mainly prepared the reaction which succeeded — that praise seems most justly to belong to Dr. Samuel Johnson. Refigion was with him no mere lip service nor cold formality; he was mindful of it in his social hours as much as in his graver lucubrations; and he brought to it not merely erudition such as few indeed possessed, but the weight of the highest character, and the respect which even his enemies could not deny him. It may be said of him that, though not in orders, he did the Church of England belter service than most of those who at that listless sera ate her bread."
The death of this great man was a beautiful com- mentary on his life. " When at length," says lord Ma- caulay, " the moment dreaded through so many years came close, the dark cloud passed away from Johnson's mind. His temper became unusually patient and gen- tle ; he ceased to think of death and of that which lies beyond death, and he s]ioke much of the mercy of God and the propitiation of Christ. Though the tender care which had mitigated his sufferings during months of sickness at Streatham was withdrawn, he Avas not left desolate. ... In this serene frame of mind he died, Dec. 13, 1784 ; a week later he was laid in Westminster Abbey, among the eminent men of whom he had been the historian — Cowley and Denham, Dryden and Con- greve. Gay, Prior, and Addison." (E. de P.)
It remains for us to append a brief outline of all the literary labors of his life. In addition to his contribu- tions to the Gentleman's Magazine and his poem London, Johnson wrote in 1744 an interesting Life of Richard Savage; in 1749 his best poem. The Vanity of Human Wishes, an imitation of the tenth satire of Juvenal; and in 1750 commenced The Ramble?; a periodical which he conducted for two years, and the contents of which were almost wholly his own composition. But perhaps one of his greatest accomplishments is his Dictionary, a no- ble piece of work, entitling its author to be considered the founder of English lexicography; it appeared in 1755, after eight years of solid labor. The Idler, an- other periodical, was begun by him in 1758, and carried on for two years also ; and in 1759 occurred one of the most touching episodes of his life — the writing of Ras- selas to pay the expenses of his mother's funeral. It