’Can’st thou not minister to a mind diseas’d;
     Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow;
     Raze out the written troubles of the brain;
     And, with some sweet oblivious antidote,
     Cleanse the stuff’d bosom of that perilous stuff,
     Which weighs upon the heart?’

To which Dr. Brocklesby readily answered, from the same great poet:—­

     ’—­therein the patient
     Must minister to himself.’

Johnson expressed himself much satisfied with the application.

On another day after this, when talking on the subject of prayer, Dr. Brocklesby repeated from Juvenal,—­

‘Orandum est, ut sit mens sana in corpore sano,’

and so on to the end of the tenth satire; but in running it quickly over, he happened, in the line,

‘Qui spatium vitae extremum inter munera ponat,’

to pronounce supremum for extremum; at which Johnson’s critical ear instantly took offence, and discoursing vehemently on the unmetrical effect of such a lapse, he shewed himself as full as ever of the spirit of the grammarian.

Having no near relations, it had been for some time Johnson’s intention to make a liberal provision for his faithful servant, Mr. Francis Barber, whom he looked upon as particularly under his protection, and whom he had all along treated truly as an humble friend.  Having asked Dr. Brocklesby what would be a proper annuity to a favourite servant, and being answered that it must depend on the circumstances of the master; and, that in the case of a nobleman, fifty pounds a year was considered as an adequate reward for many years’ faithful service; ’Then, (said Johnson,) shall I be nobilissimus, for I mean to leave Frank seventy pounds a year, and I desire you to tell him so.’  It is strange, however, to think, that Johnson was not free from that general weakness of being averse to execute a will, so that he delayed it from time to time; and had it not been for Sir John Hawkins’s repeatedly urging it, I think it is probable that his kind resolution would not have been fulfilled.  After making one, which, as Sir John Hawkins informs us, extended no further than the promised annuity, Johnson’s final disposition of his property was established by a Will and Codicil.

The consideration of numerous papers of which he was possessed, seems to have struck Johnson’s mind, with a sudden anxiety, and as they were in great confusion, it is much to be lamented that he had not entrusted some faithful and discreet person with the care and selection of them; instead of which, he in a precipitate manner, burnt large masses of them, with little regard, as I apprehend, to discrimination.  Not that I suppose we have thus been deprived of any compositions which he had ever intended for the publick eye; but, from what escaped the flames, I judge that many curious circumstances relating both to himself and other literary characters have perished.