Note 73 — THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D.

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 à 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.