You know his extreme zeal for orthodoxy. But did you ever hear what
he told me himself? That he had made it a rule not to admit Dr. Clarke's
name in his _Dictionary_. This, however, wore off. At some distance of
time he advised with me what books he should read in defence of the
Christian Religion. I recommended Clarke's _Evidences of Natural and
Revealed Religion_, as the best of the kind; and I find in what is
called his _Prayers and Meditations_, that he was frequently employed in
the latter part of his time in reading Clarke's _Sermons_. BOSWELL. See
_ante_, i. 398.
[1265] The Reverend Mr. Strahan took care to have it preserved, and has
inserted it in _Prayers and Meditations_, p. 216. BOSWELL.
[1266] See _ante_, iii. 433.
[1267] The counterpart of Johnson's end and of one striking part of his
character may be found in Mr. Fearing in _The Pilgrim's Progress_, part
ii. '"Mr. Fearing was," said Honesty, "a very zealous man. Difficulty,
lions, or Vanity Fair he feared not at all; it was only sin, death, and
hell that were to him a terror, because he had some doubts about his
interest in that celestial country.
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