day I read
them again in the fine new edition that was prepared by that staunch
Johnsonian, Dr. Birkbeck Hill. The greatest English critic of these
latter days, Mr. Matthew Arnold, showed his appreciation by making a
selection from them for popular use. From age to age every man with the
smallest profession of interest in literature will study them. Of how
many books can this be said?

Greatest of all was Johnson as a writer in his least premeditated work,
his _Prayers and Meditations_. They take rank in my mind with the very
best things of their kind, _The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius_, _The
Confessions of Rousseau_, and similar books. They are healthier than any
of their rivals. William Cowper, that always fascinating poet and
beautiful letter writer, more than once disparaged Johnson in this
connexion. Cowper said that he would like to have "dusted Johnson's
jacket until his pension rattled in his pocket," for what he had said
about Milton. He read some extracts, after Johnson's death, from the
_Meditations_, and wrote contemptuously of them. {18} But if Cowper had
always possessed, in addition to his fascinating other-worldliness the
healthy worldliness of Dr. Johnson, perhaps we should all have been the
happier. To me that collection of _Prayers and Meditations_ seems one of
the most helpful books that I have ever read, and I am surprised that it
is not constantly reprinted in a handy form. {19} It is a valuable
inspiration to men to keep up their spirits under adverse conditions, to
conquer the weaknesses of their natures; not in the stifling manner of
Thomas a Kempis, but in a breezy, robust way. Yes, I think that these
three works, _Rasselas_, _The Lives of the Poets_, and the _Prayers and
Meditations_, make it quite clear that Johnson still holds his place as
one of our greatest writers, even if we were not familiar with his many
delightful letters, and had not read his _Rambler_--which his old enemy,
Miss Anna Seward, insisted was far better than Addison's _Spectator_.

All this is only to say that we cannot have too much of Dr. Johnson. The
advantage of such a gathering as this is that it helps us to keep that
fact alive. Moreover, I feel that it is a good thing if we can hearten
those who have devoted themselves to laborious research connected with
such matters. Take, for example, the work of Dr. Birkbeck Hill: his many
volumes are a delight to the Johnson student. I knew Dr. Hill very well