The Life of Samuel Johnson - James Boswell [568]
I mentioned a kind of religious Robinhood Society, which met every Sunday evening, at Coachmakers’–hall, for free debate; and that the subject for this night was, the text which relates, with other miracles, which happened at our Saviour’s death, ‘And the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.’1024 Mrs. Hall said it was a very curious subject, and she should like to hear it discussed. JOHNSON. (somewhat warmly,) ‘One would not go to such a place to hear it, – one would not be seen in such a place – to give countenance to such a meeting.’ I, however, resolved that I would go. ‘But, Sir, (said she to Johnson,) I should like to hear you discuss it.’ He seemed reluctant to engage in it. She talked of the resurrection of the human race in general, and maintained that we shall be raised with the same bodies. JOHNSON. ‘Nay, Madam, we see that it is not to be the same body; for the Scripture uses the illustration of grain sown,1025 and we know that the grain which grows is not the same with what is sown. You cannot suppose that we shall rise with a diseased body; it is enough if there be such a sameness as to distinguish identity of person.’ She seemed desirous of knowing more, but he left the question in obscurity.
Of apparitions,a he observed, ‘A total disbelief of them is adverse to the opinion of the existence of the soul between death and the last day; the question simply is, whether departed spirits ever have the power of making themselves perceptible to us; a man who thinks he has seen an apparition, can only be convinced himself; his authority will not convince another, and his conviction, if rational, must be founded on being told something which cannot be known but by supernatural means.’
He mentioned a thing as not unfrequent, of which I had never heard before, – being called, that is, hearing one’s name pronounced by the voice of a known person at a great distance, far beyond the possibility of being reached by any sound uttered by human organs. ‘An acquaintance,1026 on whose veracity I can depend, told me, that walking home one evening to Kilmarnock he heard himself called from a wood, by the voice of a brother who had gone to America; and the next packet brought accounts of that brother’s death.’ Macbean asserted that this inexplicable calling was a thing very well known. Dr. Johnson said, that one day at Oxford, as he was turning the key of his chamber, he heard his mother distinctly call Sam. She was then at Lichfield; but nothing ensued. This phænomenon is, I think, as wonderful as any other mysterious fact, which many people are very slow to believe, or rather, indeed, reject with an obstinate contempt.
Some time after this, upon his making a remark which escaped my attention, Mrs. Williams and Mrs. Hall were both together striving to answer him. He grew angry, and called out loudly, ‘Nay, when you both speak at once, it is intolerable.’ But checking himself, and softening, he said, ‘This one may say, though you are ladies.’ Then he brightened into gay humour, and addressed them in the words of one of the songs in The Beggar’s Opera: –
‘But two at a time there’s no mortal can bear.’1027
‘What, Sir, (said I,) are you going to turn Captain Macheath?’ There was something as pleasantly ludicrous in this scene as can be imagined. The contrast between Macheath, Polly, and Lucy – and Dr. Samuel Johnson, blind, peevish Mrs. Williams, and lean, lank, preaching Mrs. Hall, was exquisite.
I stole away to Coachmakers’–hall, and heard the difficult text of which we had talked, discussed with great decency, and some intelligence, by several speakers. There was a difference of opinion as to the appearance of ghosts in modern times, though the arguments for it, supported by Mr. Addison’s authority, preponderated. The immediate subject of