The Final Weeks I

Abstract

Saturday 20 Nov. 1784 — This evening, about eight o’clock, I paid a visit to my dear friend Dr Johnson, whom I found very ill and in great dejection of spirits. We had a most affecting conversation on the subject of religion, in which he exhorted me, with the greatest warmth of kindness, to attend closely to every religious duty, and particularly enforced the obligation of private prayer and receiving the Sacrament. He desired me to stay that night and join in prayer with him; adding, that he always went to prayer every night with his man Francis [Barber]. He conjured me to read and meditate upon the Bible, and not to throw it aside for a play or a novel. He said he had himself lived in great negligence of religion and worship for forty years; that he had neglected to read his Bible, and had often reflected what he could hereafter say when he should be asked why he had not read it. He begged me repeatedly to let his present situation have due effect upon me; and advised me, when I got home, to note down in writing what had passed between us, adding, that what a man writes in that manner dwells upon his mind. His said many things that I cannot now recollect, but all delivered with the utmost fervour of religious zeal and personal affection.