JOHNSON. 19 



way the case above described, I have thought it right 

 to record it for the benefit of those who may be similarly 

 afflicted ; and if any one who may be suffering under it 

 is desirous of further information, I believe I shall be able 

 to procure it. Dr. Baillie was at one time consulted, but 

 declared that the mental and bodily regimen which had 

 been adopted, were the best that occurred to him; only 

 he strongly recommended horse exercise, and an absti- 

 nence from hard work of all kinds, neither of which 

 prescriptions, as I have since understood, were followed. 

 He had once known a case much resembling this, and 

 which also terminated favourably, by the disease, as it 

 were, wearing itself out. 



While Johnson was carrying on manfully and inde- 

 pendently and even proudly this arduous struggle, in- 

 duced by the natural desire of obtaining some less pre- 

 carious employment which might suffice for his support, he 

 listened to an offer of the mastership of Apple^y Gram- 

 mar School, in Staffordshire. The salary was only sixty 

 pounds a year, but he would gladly have accepted this 

 with the labour of teaching, however hateful to him, that 

 he might escape from the drudgery and the uncertainties 

 of a poor author's life. Unfortunately the rules of the 

 foundation required that the master should have the 

 degree of M.A., and after a fruitless attempt through 

 Lord Gower to obtain this from the University of Dublin, 



thought arid spoke ill of him, and asking his pardon. Locke imme- 

 diately answered it in a letter which has been much and justly 

 admired. Newton replies, that he cannot conceive to what Locke 

 alludes, as he has no recollection of having written to him ; but adds 

 that for some time past he had been out of health owing to a bad 

 habit of sleeping after dinner. 



c 2 



