cribes the state of spirits he is in. There is a
paper containing an account of his last interview with Johnson,
shortly before Johnson died; he says that he told Johnson how
much he reproached himself for not having lived more in his
society, and that he had often resolved to be with him as much as
he could, but that his not having done so was a proof of the
fallacy of our resolutions, that he regretted. In Windham's diary
are several Johnsoniana, after the manner of Boswell, only much
shorter, his opinions on one or two subjects briefly given, some
quotations and criticisms. I was much struck with his criticisms
on Virgil, whom he seems to have held in great contempt, and to
have regarded as inferior to Ovid. He says, 'Take away his
imitation of Homer, and what do you leave him?' Of Homer his
admiration was unbounded, although he says that he never read the
whole of the 'Odyssey' in the original, but that everything which
is most admirable in poetry is to be found in Homer. I care the
less about remembering these things because they will probably
appear in print before long.[3]

[3] [A selection from Mr. Windham's journals was published
by Mrs. Henry Baring in 1866. The Johnsoniana had
previously been published by Mr. Croker in his edition
of Boswell's 'Life of Johnson.']

Windham told Johnson that he regretted having omitted to talk to
him of the most important of all subjects on which he had often
doubted. Johnson said, 'You mean natural and revealed religion,'
and added that the historical evidences of Christianity were so
strong that it was not possible to doubt its truth, that we had
not so much evidence that Caesar died in the Capitol as that
Christ died in the manner related in the Bible; that three out of
four of the Evangelists died in attestation of their evidence,
that the same evidence would be considered irresistible in any
ordinary historical case. Amyot told me, as we were coming along,
that Windham had questioned Johnson about religion, having
doubts, and that Johnson had removed them by this declaration:
if, then, the commonest and hundred times repeated arguments were
sufficient to remove such doubts as were likely to occur to a
mind like Windham's, it may be counted a miracle, for I am sure,
in the ordinary affairs of life, Windham would not have been so
easily satisfied. It has always appeared to me questionable
whether Johnson was a believer (I mean whether