' It was at a later hour in this same
night that Johnson 'scarified himself in three places. On Mr. Desmoulins
making a difficulty of giving him the lancet he said, "Don't you, if you
have any scruples; but I will compel Frank," and on Mr. Desmoulins
attempting to prevent Frank from giving it to him, and at last to
restrain his hands, he grew very outrageous, so much so as to call Frank
"scoundrel" and to threaten Mr. Desmoulins that he would stab him.'
_Ib_. p. 32.
[1263] Mr. Strahan, mentioning 'the anxious fear', which seized Johnson,
says, that 'his friends who knew his integrity observed it with equal
astonishment and concern.' He adds that 'his foreboding dread of the
Divine justice by degrees subsided into a pious trust and humble hope in
the Divine mercy.' _Pr. and Med._ preface, p. xv.
[1264] The change of his sentiments with regard to Dr. Clarke, is thus
mentioned to me in a letter from the late Dr. Adams, Master of Pembroke
College, Oxford:--'The Doctor's prejudices were the strongest, and
certainly in another sense the weakest, that ever possessed a sensible
man.
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