JOHNSON. 



of his disease in Latin for the opinion of his godfather, 

 Dr. Swinfen, who was so much struck with it, that he, 

 perhaps indiscreetly, shewed it to others ; an act never 

 forgiven by the author. He had recourse to various 

 expedients to drive away this frightful malady, but in 

 vain. Sometimes he would take violent bodily exercise, 

 walking to Birmingham and back again ; sometimes, but 

 this was rather at a late period, he had recourse to 

 drinking ; and though he never admitted that this 

 resource failed entirely, yet it may be presumed it did, 

 both because such a practice always exacerbates the mis- 

 chief in others, and because he for many years of his 

 life entirely gave up the use of fermented liquors. He 

 attained by experience some little control over the 

 disease, probably by steering a judicious course between 

 idleness and overwork, by being moderate in the enjoy- 

 ment of sleep, and by attention to diet. But he never 

 at any period of his long life was free from the infliction, 

 so that melancholy was the general habit, and its remis- 

 sion was only by intervals comparatively short. What 

 haunted him was the dread of insanity ; and he was ever 

 accustomed to regard his malady as a partial visitation 

 of that dreadful calamity. He never believed himself 

 deranged, but he never hesitated both in writing and 

 speaking to call his mental disease by the name of mad- 

 ness without any circumlocution, though he only meant 

 to express that it was a morbid affection. 



The accounts which we have, and also upon his own 

 authority, of his early religious history, are interesting. 

 Although his mother's precepts and example gave him as 

 strong a bias towards religion as most children can have, 

 yet he considered her to have somewhat overdone her 



