ablished church, though the liturgy no longer admits it, if _where
the tree, falleth, there it shall be_; if our state, at the close of
life, is to be the measure of our final sentence, then prayers for the
dead, being visibly fruitless, can be regarded only as the vain
oblations of superstition. But of all superstitions this, perhaps, is
one of the least unamiable, and most incident to a good mind. If our
sensations of kindness be intense, those, whom we have revered and
loved, death cannot wholly seclude from our concern. It is true, for the
reason just mentioned, such evidences of our surviving affection may be
thought ill judged; but surely they are generous, and some natural
tenderness is due even to a superstition, which thus originates in piety
and benevolence." These sentences, extracted from the reverend Mr.
Strahan's preface, if they are not a full justification, are, at least,
a beautiful apology. It will not be improper to add what Johnson himself
has said on the subject. Being asked by Mr. Boswell[p], what he thought
of purgatory, as believed by the Roman catholicks? his answer was, "It
is a very harmless doctrine. They are of opinion, that the generality of
mankind are neither so obstinately wicked, as to deserve everlasting
punishment; nor so good as to merit being admitted into the society of
blessed spirits; and, therefore, that God is graciously pleased to allow
a middle state, where they may be purified by certain degrees of
suffering. You see there is nothing unreasonable in this; and if it be
once established, that there are souls in purgatory, it is as proper to
pray for them, as for our brethren of mankind, who are yet in this
life." This was Dr. Johnson's guess into futurity; and to guess is the
utmost that man can do:

"Shadows, clouds, and darkness, rest upon it."

Mrs. Johnson left a daughter, Lucy Porter, by her first husband. She had
contracted a friendship with Mrs. Anne Williams, the daughter of Zachary
Williams, a physician of eminence in South Wales, who had devoted more
than thirty years of a long life to the study of the longitude, and was
thought to have made great advances towards that important discovery.
His letters to lord Halifax, and the lords of the admiralty, partly
corrected and partly written by Dr. Johnson, are still extant in the
hands of Mr. Nichols[q]. We there find Dr. Williams, in the eighty-third
year of his age, stating, that he had prepared an instrument, which
m