[290] ’Goldsmith asserted that Warburton was a weak writer.  “Warburton,” said Johnson, “may be absurd, but he will never be weak; he flounders well."’ Stockdale’s Memoirs, ii. 64.  See Appendix A.

[291] The Doctrine of Grace; or the Office and Operations of the Holy Spirit vindicated from the Insults of Infidelity and the Abuses of Fanaticism, 1762.

[292] A Letter to the Bishop of Gloucester, occasioned by his Tract on the Office and Operations of the Holy Spirit, by John Wesley, 1762.

[293] Malone records:—­’I could not find from Mr. Walpole that his father [Sir Robert] read any other book but Sydenham in his retirement.’  To his admiration of Sydenham his death was attributed; for it led him to treat himself wrongly when he was suffering from the stone.  Prior’s Malone, p. 387.  Johnson wrote a Life of Sydenham.  In it he ridicules the notion that ’a man eminent for integrity practised Medicine by chance, and grew wise only by murder.’ Works, vi. 409.

[294] All this, as Dr. Johnson suspected at the time, was the immediate invention of his own lively imagination; for there is not one word of it in Mr. Locke’s complimentary performance.  My readers will, I have no doubt, like to be satisfied, by comparing them; and, at any rate, it may entertain them to read verses composed by our great metaphysician, when a Bachelor in Physick.

AUCTORI, IN TRACTATUM EJUS DE FEBRIBUS.

     Febriles aestus, victumque ardoribus orbem
       Flevit, non tantis par Medicina malis. 
     Nam post mille artes, medicae tentamina curae,
       Ardet adhuc Febris; nec velit arte regi. 
     Praeda sumus flammis; solum hoc speramus ab igne,
       Ut restet paucus, quem capit urna, cinis. 
     Dum quaerit medicus febris caussamque, modumque,
       Flammarum & tenebras, & sine luce faces;
     Quas tractat patitur flammas, & febre calescens,
       Corruit ipse suis victima rapta focis. 
     Qui tardos potuit morbos, artusque trementes,
       Sistere, febrili se videt igne rapi. 
     Sic faber exesos fulsit tibicine muros;
       Dum trahit antiquas lenta ruina domos. 
     Sed si flamma vorax miseras incenderit aedes,
       Unica flagrantes tunc sepelire salus. 
     Fit fuga, tectonicas nemo tunc invocat artes;
       Cum perit artificis non minus usta domus. 
     Se tandem Sydenham febrisque Scholaeque furori
       Opponens, morbi quaerit, & artis opem. 
     Non temere incusat tectae putedinis [putredinis] ignes;
       Nec fictus, febres qui fovet, humor erit. 
     Non bilem ille movet, nulla hic pituita; Salutis
       Quae spes, si fallax ardeat intus aqua? 
     Nec doctas magno rixas ostentat hiatu,
       Quis ipsis major febribus ardor inest. 
     Innocuas placide corpus jubet urere flammas,
       Et justo rapidos temperat igne focos.