Dr. Scott left us, and soon afterwards we went to dinner.  Our company consisted of Mrs. Williams, Mrs. Desmoulins, Mr. Levett, Mr. Allen, the printer, and Mrs. Hall[299], sister of the Reverend Mr. John Wesley, and resembling him, as I thought, both in figure and manner.  Johnson produced now, for the first time, some handsome silver salvers, which he told me he had bought fourteen years ago; so it was a great day.  I was not a little amused by observing Allen perpetually struggling to talk in the manner of Johnson, like the little frog in the fable blowing himself up to resemble the stately ox[300].

I mentioned a kind of religious Robinhood Society[301], which met every Sunday evening, at Coachmakers’-hall, for free debate; and that the subject for this night was, the text which relates, with other miracles, which happened at our SAVIOUR’S death, ’And the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many[302].’  Mrs. Hall said it was a very curious subject, and she should like to hear it discussed.  JOHNSON, (somewhat warmly) ’One would not go to such a place to hear it,—­one would not be seen in such a place—­to give countenance to such a meeting.’  I, however, resolved that I would go.  ’But, Sir, (said she to Johnson,) I should like to hear you discuss it.’  He seemed reluctant to engage in it.  She talked of the resurrection of the human race in general, and maintained that we shall be raised with the same bodies.  JOHNSON.  ’Nay, Madam, we see that it is not to be the same body; for the Scripture uses the illustration of grain sown, and we know that the grain which grows is not the same with what is sown[303].  You cannot suppose that we shall rise with a diseased body; it is enough if there be such a sameness as to distinguish identity of person.’  She seemed desirous of knowing more, but he left the question in obscurity.

Of apparitions[304], he observed, ’A total disbelief of them is adverse to the opinion of the existence of the soul between death and the last day; the question simply is, whether departed spirits ever have the power of making themselves perceptible to us; a man who thinks he has seen an apparition, can only be convinced himself; his authority will not convince another, and his conviction, if rational, must be founded on being told something which cannot be known but by supernatural means.’

He mentioned a thing as not unfrequent, of which I had never heard before,—­being called, that is, hearing one’s name pronounced by the voice of a known person at a great distance, far beyond the possibility of being reached by any sound uttered by human organs.  ’An acquaintance, on whose veracity I can depend, told me, that walking home one evening to Kilmarnock, he heard himself called from a wood, by the voice of a brother who had gone to America; and the next packet brought accounts of that