He has done with this.' BOSWELL. 'It appears to me, Sir, to be
very difficult to unite a due attention to this world, and that which is
to come; for, if we engage eagerly in the affairs of life, we are apt to
be totally forgetful of a future state; and, on the other hand, a steady
contemplation of the awful concerns of eternity renders all objects here
so insignificant, as to make us indifferent and negligent about them.'
JOHNSON. 'Sir, Dr. Cheyne has laid down a rule to himself on this
subject, which should be imprinted on every mind:--"_To neglect nothing
to secure my eternal peace, more than if I had been certified I should
die within the day: nor to mind any thing that my secular obligations
and duties demanded of me, less than if I had been ensured to live fifty
years more[463]_."'
I must here observe, that though Dr. Johnson appeared now to be
philosophically calm, yet his genius did not shine forth as in
companies, where I have listened to him with admiration. The vigour of
his mind was, however, sufficiently manifested, by his discovering no
symptoms of feeble relaxation in the dull, 'weary, flat and
unprofitable[464]' state in which we now were placed.
I am inclined to think that it was on this day he composed the following
Ode upon the _Isle of Sky_, which a few days afterwards he shewed me
at Rasay:--
ODA,
Ponti profundis clausa recessibus,
Strepens procellis, rupibus obsita,
Quam grata defesso virentem
Skia sinum nebulosa pandis.
Pages:
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173