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who is refolved to kill himself. When Euftace Budgel was walking down to the Thames, determined to drown himself, he might, if he pleafed, without any apprehenfion of danger, have turned afide, and firft fet fire to St. James's palace."

The fubject at another time turning on the belief in ghosts, Johnson faid, "Sir, I make a distinction between what a man may experience by the mere ftrength of his imagination, and what imagination cannot poffibly produce.Thus, fuppofe I should think that I saw a form and heard a voice cry, Johnson, you are a very wicked fellow, and unless you repent you will certainly be punished;' my own unworthiness is fo deeply impreffed upon my mind, that I might imagine I thus faw and heard, and therefore I fhould not believe that an external communication had been made to me. But if a form should appear, and a voice fhould tell me that a particular man had died at a particular place, and a particular hour, a fact which I had no apprehenfion of, nor any means of knowing, and this fact with all its circumstances should afterwards be unquestionably proved, I fhould, in that cafe be perfuaded that I had fupernatural intelligence imparted to me."

Mr. Bofwell gives us what he declares to be a true and fair statement of Johnson's way of

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thinking upon the question whether departed fpirits are ever permitted to appear in this world, or in any way to operate upon human life, "He has (fays Mr. B.) been ignorantly mifre prefented as weakly credulous upon that fubject; and, therefore, though I feel an inclination to difdain and treat with filent contempt fo foolish a notion concerning my illuftrious friend, yet, as I find it has gained ground, it is necetlary to refute it. The real fact then is, that Johníon had a very philofophical mind, and fuch a rational refpect for teftimony, as to make him submit his understanding to what was authentically proved, though he could not comprehend why it was fo. Being thus difpofed, he was willing to inquire into the truth, of any relation of fupernatural agency, a general belief of which has prevailed in all nations and ages. the dupe of implicit faith, that he examined the matter with a jealous attention, and no man was more ready to refute its falfhood when he had difcovered it."

But fo far was he from being

Of apparitions he once took occafion to observe, "A total disbelief of them is adverse to the opinion of the existence of the foul between death and the last day; the queftion fimply is, Whether departed fpirits ever have the power of making themselves perceptible to us? A man

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who thinks he has feen an apparition can only be convinced himself; his authority will not convince another; and his conviction, if rational, must be founded on being told fomething which cannot be known but by fupernatural

means.

Johnfon mentioned a thing as not unfrequent, namely, the being called, that is, hearing one's name pronounced by the voice of a known perfon at a great distance, far beyond the possibility of being reached by any found uttered by human organs. "An acquaintance (fays Mr. B.), on whofe 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 brother's death." Mr. Macbean afferted, that this inexplicable calling was a thing very well known.-Dr. Johafon faid, that one day at Oxford, as he was turning the key of his chamber, he heard his mother diftinctly call Sam. She was then at Litchfield; but nothing enfued.

Mr. Bofwell one day faid, "I do not know whether there are any well-attefted ftories of the appearance of ghofts. You know there is a famous account of the apparition of Mrs. Veal, prefixed to Drelincourt on Death,"-JOHNSON.

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"I believe, Sir, that is given up. I think the woman declared upon her death-bed that it was a lie."-B." This objection is made against the truth of ghofts appearing that if they are in a state of happiness, it would be a punishment to them to return to this world; and if they are in a state of misery, it would be giving them a respite."-7. "Why, Sir, as the happiness or mifery of unembodied fpirits does not depend upon place, but is intellectual, we cannot say that they are less happy or lefs miferable by appearing upon earth. It is wonderful, however, that five thousand years have now elapfed fince the creation of the world, and ftill it is undecided whether or not there has been an inftance of the fpirit of any perfon appearing after death. All argument is against it; but all belief is for it."

On the fubject of our fituation in a future ftate, he faid, "The happiness of an unembodied spirit will confift in a consciousness of the favour of GOD, in the contemplation of truth, and in the poffeffion of felicitating ideas." "But, Sir (faid Mr. Bofwell), is there any harm in our forming to ourselves conjectures as to the particulars of our happiness, though the fcripture has faid but very little on the subject? We know not what we fhall be."-7. "Sir, there is no harm. What philofophy fuggefts

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to us on this topic is probable. what fcripture tells us is certain. Dr. Henry More has carried it as far as philosophy can. You may buy both his theological and philosophical works in two volumes folio, for about eight fhillings."B. "One of the most pleasing thoughts is, that we fhall fee our friends again."-7. "Yes, Sir; but you muft confider, that when we are become purely rational, many of our friendfhips will be cut off. Many friendships are formed by a community of fenfual pleasures: all these will be cut off. We form many friendfhips with bad men, because they have agreeable qualities, and they can be useful to us.— We form many friendships by mistake, imagining people to be different from what they really After death, we shall fee every one in a true light. Then, Sir, they talk of our meeting our relations but then all relationship is diffolved; and we fhall have no regard for one perfon more than another, but for their real value. However, we fhall have either the fatisfaction of meeting our friends, or be fatisfied without meeting them."-B. "Yet, Sir, we fee in fcripture, that Dives ftill retained an anxious concern about his brethren."-J. "Why, Sir, we must either fuppofe that paffage to be metaphorical, or hold with many divines, and all the Purgatorians, that departed fouls

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