The Doctor's prejudices were the strongest, and
certainly in another sense the weakest, that ever possessed a sensible
man. You know his extreme zeal for orthodoxy. But did you ever hear what
he told me himself? That he had made it a rule not to admit Dr. Clarke's
name in his _Dictionary_. This, however, wore off. At some distance of
time he advised with me what books he should read in defence of the
Christian Religion. I recommended Clarke's _Evidences of Natural and
Revealed Religion_, as the best of the kind; and I find in what is
called his _Prayers and Meditations_, that he was frequently employed in
the latter part of his time in reading Clarke's _Sermons_. BOSWELL. See
_ante_, i. 398.

[1265] The Reverend Mr. Strahan took care to have it preserved, and has
inserted it in _Prayers and Meditations_, p. 216. BOSWELL.

[1266] See _ante_, iii. 433.

[1267] The counterpart of Johnson's end and of one striking part of his
character may be found in Mr. Fearing in _The Pilgrim's Progress_, part
ii. '"Mr. Fearing was," said Honesty, "a very zealous man. Difficulty,
lions, or Vanity Fair he feared not at all; it was only sin, death, and
hell that were to him a terror, because he had some doubts about his
interest in that celestial country." "I dare believe," Greatheart
replied, "that, as the proverb is, he could have bit a firebrand, had it
stood in his way; but the things with which he was oppressed no man ever
yet could shake off with ease."' See _ante_, ii. 298, note 4.

[1268] Her sister's likeness as Hope nursing Love was painted by
Reynolds. Northcote's _Reynolds_, i. 185.

[1269] The following letter, written with an agitated hand, from the
very chamber of death, by Mr. Langton, and obviously interrupted by his
feelings, will not unaptly close the story of so long a friendship. The
letter is not addressed, but Mr. Langton's family believe it was
intended for Mr. Boswell.

'MY DEAR SIR,--After many conflicting hopes and fears respecting the
event of this heavy return of illness which has assailed our honoured
friend, Dr. Johnson, since his arrival from Lichfield, about four days
ago the appearances grew more and more awful, and this afternoon at
eight o'clock, when I arrived at his house to see how he should be going
on, I was acquainted at the door, that about three quarters of an hour
before, he breathed his last. I am now writing in the room where his
venerable remains exhibit a spectacle, the interesting sol