ASCETICISM.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THZ "SPECTATOR."]
Sis,—In the Spectator of April 17th " Catholicus" asks "Is there not a story of Dr. Johnson on his knees in the muddy kennel of Lichfield Market Place?" When Johnson was nineteen he refused to attend his father to ITttoxeter Market, for which fault he did atonement in his old age.—Vide Hill's " Boswell's Johnson," Vol. I., p. 56. (Should not " atonement" be " penance " P) When Johnson was seventy-five years old, he told Mr. Henry White (Miss Seward's cousin): "A few years ago, I desired to atone for this fault ; I went to Uttoxeter in very bad weather, and stood for a considerable time bare- headed in the rain, on the spot where my father's stall used to stand. In contrition I stood, and I hope the penance was expiatory."—Vide Hill's "Boswell," VoL IV., p. 373 and Note I.—I am, Sir, &c , 7 Powis Square, W., April 20th, WALTER WREN.
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