But we find in his _Prayers
and Meditations_, p. 25, a prayer entitled 'On the Study of Philosophy,
as an Instrument of living;' and after it follows a note, 'This study
was not pursued.'
On the 13th of the same month he wrote in his _Journal_ the following
scheme of life, for Sunday:
'Having lived' (as he with tenderness of conscience expresses himself)
'not without an habitual reverence for the Sabbath, yet without that
attention to its religious duties which Christianity requires;
'1. To rise early, and in order to it, to go to sleep early on Saturday.
'2. To use some extraordinary devotion in the morning.
'3. To examine the tenour of my life, and particularly the last week;
and to mark my advances in religion, or recession from it.
'4. To read the Scripture methodically with such helps as are at hand.
'5. To go to church twice.
'6. To read books of Divinity, either speculative or practical.
'7. To instruct my family.
'8. To wear off by meditation any worldly soil contracted in the week.'
1756: AETAT. 47.--In 1756 Johnson found that the great fame of his
_Dictionary_ had not set him above the necessity of 'making provision
for the day that was passing over him[888].'
[Page 304: Payment for the DICTIONARY. A.D. 1756.]
No royal or noble patron extended a munificent hand to give independence
to the man who had conferred stability on the language of his country.
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