vision has revived
the taste; though it seems a little odd that an apparition should
despair of being able to get access to his Lordship's bed in the shape
of a young woman, without being forced to use the disguise of a
robin-red-breast.' In the _Gent. Mag._ 1815, i. 597, and 1816, ii. 421,
accounts are given of this vision. In the latter account it is said that
'he saw a bird fluttering, and afterwards a woman appeared in white
apparel, and said, "Prepare to die; you will not exist three days."'
Mrs. Piozzi also wrote a full account of it. Hayward's _Piozzi_, i. 332.

[919] See _ante_, ii. 150, and iii. 298, note 1.

[920] See _ante_, p. 278.

[921] 'If he who considers himself as suspended over the abyss of
eternal perdition only by the thread of life, which must soon part by
its own weakness, and which the wing of every minute may divide, can
cast his eyes round him without shuddering with horror, or panting for
security; what can he judge of himself, but that he is not yet awakened
to sufficient conviction? &c.' _The Rambler_, No. 110. In a blank leaf
in the book in which Johnson kept his diary of his journey in Wales is
written in his own hand, 'Faith in some proportion to Fear.' Duppa's
Johnson's _Diary of a Journey &c_., p. 157. See _ante_, iii. 199.

[922] He wrote to Mrs. Thrale on March 20:--'Write to me no more about
_dying with a grace_; when you feel what I have felt in approaching
eternity--in fear of soon hearing the sentence of which there is no
revocation, you will know the folly.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 354. Of him
it might have been said in Cowper's words:--

'Scripture is still a trumpet to his fears.'

_The Task: The Winter Morning Walk_, 1. 611. See _ante_, iii. 294.

[923] The Reverend Mr. Ralph Churton, Fellow of Brazen-Nose College,
Oxford, has favoured me with the following remarks on my Work, which he
is pleased to say, 'I have hitherto extolled, and cordially approve.'

'The chief part of what I have to observe is contained in the following
transcript from a letter to a friend, which, with his concurrence, I
copied for this purpose; and, whatever may be the merit or justness of
the remarks, you may be sure that being written to a most intimate
friend, without any intention that they ever should go further, they are
the genuine and undisguised sentiments of the writer:--

'Jan. 6, 1792.

'Last week, I was reading the second volume of Boswell's _Johnson_, with
increasing esteem f