SOURCE: Boswell, James. In Boswell: The Ominous Years, 1774-1776, edited by Charles Ryskamp and Frederick A. Pottle, pp. 276-77. 1931. Reprint. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1963.

In this excerpt originally recorded in his journal in 1776, Boswell relates an anecdote which demonstrates the value that Samuel Johnson placed upon The Anatomy of Melancholy.

Either this night or the one after he spoke to me of the melancholy to which I am subject, said that I had a very ticklish mind, and that I must divert distressing thoughts, and not combat with them. “Remember always,” said he, “———.”¹ I said I sometimes tried to think them down. He said I was wrong. He bid me have a lamp burning in my bedchamber, and take a book and read and so compose myself to rest. This I supposed was his own method. But I told him I seldom waked in the night. When I do...