[73] Johnson; it seems, took up this study. In July, 1773, he recorded
that between Easter and Whitsuntide, he attempted to learn the Low Dutch
language. 'My application,' he continues, 'was very slight, and my
memory very fallacious, though whether more than in my earlier years, I
am not very certain.' _Pr. and Med._ p. 129, and ante, ii. 263. On his
death-bed, he said to Mr. Hoole:--'About two years since I feared that I
had neglected God, and that then I had not a _mind_ to give him; on
which I set about to read _Thomas a Kempis_ in Low Dutch, which I
accomplished, and thence I judged that my mind was not impaired, Low
Dutch having no affinity with any of the languages which I knew.'
Croker's _Boswell_, p. 844. See ante, iii. 235.
[74] See post, under July 5, 1783.
[75] See ante, ii. 409, and iii. 197.
[76] One of Goldsmith's friends 'remembered his relating [about the year
1756] a strange Quixotic scheme he had in contemplation of going to
decipher the inscriptions on the _written mountains_, though he was
altogether ignorant of Arabic, or the language in which they might be
supposed to be written.
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