d conversation; and that so far from
denying Christ, he had been, in this age, his greatest champion.'
Taylor's _Reynolds_, ii. 459.

[1261] Hannah More (_Memoirs_ i. 393) says that Johnson, having put up a
fervent prayer that Brocklesby might become a sincere Christian, 'caught
hold of his hand with great earnestness, and cried, "Doctor, you do not
say _Amen_." The Doctor looked foolishly, but after a pause cried
"_Amen_"' Her account, however, is often not accurate.

[1262] Windham records (_Diary_, p. 30) that on the night of the 12th he
urged him to take some sustenance, 'and desisted only upon his
exclaiming, "It is all very childish; let us hear no more of it."' On
his pressing him a second time, he answered that 'he refused no
sustenance but inebriating sustenance.' Windham thereupon asked him to
take some milk, but 'he recurred to his general refusal, and begged that
there might be an end of it. I then said that I hoped he would forgive
my earnestness; when he replied eagerly, "that from me nothing would be
necessary by way of apology;" adding with great fervour, in words which
I shall (I hope) never forget--"God bless you, my dear Windham, through
Jesus Christ;" and concluding with a wish that we might meet in some
humble portion of that happiness which God might finally vouchsafe to
repentant sinners. These were the last words I ever heard him speak. I
hurried out of the room with tears in my eyes, and more affected than I
had been on any former occasion.' It was at a later hour in this same
night that Johnson 'scarified himself in three places. On Mr. Desmoulins
making a difficulty of giving him the lancet he said, "Don't you, if you
have any scruples; but I will compel Frank," and on Mr. Desmoulins
attempting to prevent Frank from giving it to him, and at last to
restrain his hands, he grew very outrageous, so much so as to call Frank
"scoundrel" and to threaten Mr. Desmoulins that he would stab him.'
_Ib_. p. 32.

[1263] Mr. Strahan, mentioning 'the anxious fear', which seized Johnson,
says, that 'his friends who knew his integrity observed it with equal
astonishment and concern.' He adds that 'his foreboding dread of the
Divine justice by degrees subsided into a pious trust and humble hope in
the Divine mercy.' _Pr. and Med._ preface, p. xv.

[1264] The change of his sentiments with regard to Dr. Clarke, is thus
mentioned to me in a letter from the late Dr. Adams, Master of Pembroke
College, Oxford:--'