D to grant him almost thirty years of life after this time;
and once, when he was in a placid frame of mind, he was obliged to own
to me that he had enjoyed happier days, and had many more friends, since
that gloomy hour than before.

It is a sad saying, that 'most of those whom he wished to please had
sunk into the grave;' and his case at forty-five was singularly unhappy,
unless the circle of his friends was very narrow. He said to Sir Joshua
Reynolds, 'If a man does not make new acquaintance as he advances
through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, Sir, should
keep his friendship in constant repair.'

In July this year he had formed some scheme of mental improvement, the
particular purpose of which does not appear. But we find in his Prayers
and Meditations, p. 25, a prayer entitled 'On the Study of Philosophy,
as an Instrument of living;' and after it follows a note, 'This study
was not pursued.'

On the 13th of the same month he wrote in his Journal the following
scheme of life, for Sunday:

'Having lived' (as he with tenderness of conscience expresses himself)
'not without an habitual reverence for the Sabbath, yet without that
attention to its religious duties which Christianity requires;

'1. To rise early, and in order to it, to go to sleep early on Saturday.

'2. To use some extraordinary devotion in the morning.

'3. To examine the tenour of my life, and particularly the last week;
and to mark my advances in religion, or recession from it.

'4. To read the Scripture methodically with such helps as are at hand.

'5. To go to church twice.

'6. To read books of Divinity, either speculative or practical.

'7. To instruct my family.

'8. To wear off by meditation any worldly soil contracted in the week.'

1756: AETAT. 47.]--In 1756 Johnson found that the great fame of his
Dictionary had not set him above the necessity of 'making provision for
the day that was passing over him.' No royal or noble patron extended
a munificent hand to give independence to the man who had conferred
stability on the language of his country. We may feel indignant that
there should have been such unworthy neglect; but we must, at the
same time, congratulate ourselves, when we consider that to this very
neglect, operating to rouse the natural indolence of his constitution,
we owe many valuable productions, which otherwise, perhaps, might never
have appeared.

He had spent, during the progress of the work,