on more philosophically, by asserting that "no doctrine, however
clearly expressed in Scripture, is to be admitted, if it contradict
the evidence of our senses:--For our evidence for the truth of
revealed religion is _less_ than the evidence for the truth of our
senses, because, _even_ in the first authors of our religion, it was
no greater; and it is evident it must diminish in passing from them to
us, through the medium of human testimony."--This question, however,
may perhaps be better elucidated by the following Anecdote, preserved
by Mr. Richardson, than by a more serious discussion:

"Mr. Pope, who loved to talk of Titcum, (one who used to be of the
party with him, Gay, Swift, Craggs, and Addison, and that set, in his
youth,) told us, that Gay went to see him as he was dying, and asked
him, if he would have a priest; (for he was a papist,) 'No, said he,
what should I do with them? But I would rather have one of them, than
one of yours, of the two. Our fools, (continued he) write great books
to prove that _bread_ is _God_; but your booby (he meant Tillotson)
has wrote a long argument to prove that _bread_ is _bread_.'"
_Richardsoniana_, p. 167.

[27] See his conversation with Lord Auchinleck. Boswell's _Tour_.

[28] See the First Book of Samuel, ch. x.

[29] "And I commend to thy fatherly goodness the soul of my departed
wife, beseeching thee to grant her whatever is best in her present state."
Johnson's _Meditations_.

[30] "I returned home, but could not settle my mind. At last I read a
chapter. Then went down about six or seven, and eat two _cross-buns_."
_Meditations_, p. 154.

[31] "I fasted, though less rigorously than at other times. I by
negligence poured some milk into my tea. _Ibid._ p. 146.--Yesterday, I
fasted, as I have always, or commonly done, since the death of Tetty;
the fast was more painful than usual."

[32]
"PURPOSES.
To keep a journal. To begin this day. (Sept. 18th, 1766.)
To spend four hours in study every day, and as much more as I can.
To read a portion of Scripture in Greek every Sunday.
To rise at eight.--Oct. 3d. Of all this I have done nothing." _Ibid._

[33] "I resolved last Easter to read, within the year, the whole
Bible; a great part of which I had never looked upon." _Meditations._

[34] "I have never yet read the Apocrypha. When I was a boy I have
read or heard Bel and the Dragon." _Meditations._

[35] See the First Book of Samu