I

"London, July 3. 1783. "DEAR SIR, Your anxiety about my health is very friendly and very agreeable with your general kindness. I have indeed had a very frightful blow. On the 17th of last month, about three in the morning, as near as I can guess, I perceived myself almost totally deprived of speech. I had no pain. My organs were so obstructed that I could I wrote say no, but could scarcely say yes. the necessary directions, for it pleased God to spare my hand, and sent for Dr. Heberden and Dr. Brocklesby. Between the time in which I discovered my own disorder, and that in which I sent for the doctors, I had, I believe, in spite of my surprise and solicitude, a little sleep, and nature began to renew its operations. They came and gave the directions which the disease required, and from that time I have been continually improving

in articulation. I can now speak; but the nerves are weak, and I cannot continue discourse long; but strength, I hope, will return. The physicians consider me as cured. I was last Sunday at church. On Tuesday I took an airing to Hampstead, and dined with the Club, where Lord Palmerston was proposed, and, against my opinion, was rejected. I designed to go next week with Mr. Langton to Rochester, where I purpose to stay about ten days, and then try some other air. I have many kind invitations. Your brother has very frequently inquired after me. friends have, indeed, been very attentive. dear Lord Hailes for his present.

Most of my Thank

"I hope you found at your return every thing gay and prosperous, and your lady, in particular,

1 Mistake for 17th. - CROKER.

His lordship was soon after chosen, and is now a member of the Club. BosWELL.

3 She soon returned, and attended him in his last illness. -CROKER, 1847.

4 During his illness Mr. Murphy visited him, and found him reading Dr. Watson's Chemistry: articulating with difficulty, he said, "From this book he who knows nothing

Last

"I am going next week into Kent, and purpee to change the air frequently this summer: whether I shall wander so far as Staffordshire I cannot te I should be glad to come. Return my thanks > Mrs. Cobb, and Mr. Pearson, and all that have shown attention to me. Let us, my dear, pray iz one another, and consider our sufferings as notice mercifully given us to prepare ourselves for another

state.

"I live now but in a melancholy way. My old friend Mr. Levett is dead, who lived with me in the house, and was useful and companionable; Mrs Desmoulins is gone away; and Mrs. Williams is so much decayed, that she can add little to another's gratifications. The world passes away, and we ge passing with it; but there is, doubtless, anoth? / world, which will endure for ever. Let us all it ourselves for it. I am, &c., SAM. JOHNSON,"

Such was the general vigour of his consti tution, that he recovered from this alarming and severe attack with wonderful quickness" so that in July he was able to make a visit to Mr. Langton at Rochester, where he passed about a fortnight, and made little excursions as easily as at any time of his life.

may learn a great deal, and he who knows will be pleased to find his knowledge recalled to his mind in a manner high pleasing." Life, p. 121. Murphy adds, that in the pot of August he set out for Lichfield on a visit to Miss Luc Porter; and in his way back paid his respects to Dr. Adas, at Oxford. But it seems certain that he did not in this t terval go to Lichfield, and there is barely time for a short

excursion to Oxford. CROKER.

rought it must be highly curious to trace his exTary rise to the supreme power from so escure a beginning. He at length laid aside his se ne on discovering that all that can be told of 1. 18 already in print; and that it is impracticable veure any authentic information in addition to what the world is already in possession of." 1

He had likewise projected, but at what part of fe is not known, a work to show how small a qantity of REAL FICTION there is in the world; ad that the same images, with very little variaten, have served all the authors who have ever

written."

He

His thoughts in the latter part of his life were quently employed on his deceased friends. etei muttered these or such like sentences: wan! and then he died.""

Poor

Speaking of a certain literary friend, He is a very pompous puzzling fellow,' said he:he lent me a letter once that somebody had written to him, no matter what it was about; but he wanted to have the letter back, and expressed a mighty value for it: he hoped it was to be met with again; he would not lose it for a thousand pounds. I laid my hand upon it soon afterwards, and gave it him. I believe I said I was very glad to have met with it. Oh, then he did not know that it signified any thing. So you see, when the letter was lost it was worth a thousand pounds, and when it was found it was not worth a farthing.'"

"The style and character of his conversation is pretty generally known: it was certainly conducted in conformity with a precept of Lord Bacon, but it is not clear, I apprehend, that this conformity was either perceived or intended by Johnson. The precept alluded to is as follows: In all kinds of speech, either pleasant, grave, severe, or ordinary, it is convenient to speak leisurely, and rather drawlingly than hastily: because hasty speech confounds the memory, and oftentimes, besides the

unseemliness, drives a man either to stammering, a nonplus, or harping on that which should follow: whereas a slow speech confirmeth the memory, addeth a conceit of wisdom to the hearers, besides a seemliness of speech and countenance.' Dr. Johnson's method of conversation was certainly calculated to excite attention, and to amuse and instruct (as it happened), without wearying or confusing his company. He was always most perfectly clear and perspicuous; and his language was so accurate, and his sentences so neatly constructed, that his conversation might have been all printed without any correction. At the same time, it was easy and natural; the accuracy of it had no appear. ance of labour, constraint, or stiffness: be seemed more correct than others by the force of habit, and the customary exercises of his powerful mind.”

He spoke often in praise of French literature. The French are excellent in this,' he would say, they have a book on every subject.' From what he had seen of them he denied them the praise of superior politeness, and mentioned, with very visible disgust, the custom they have of spitting on the floors of their apartments. This,' said the doctor, 'is as gross a thing as can well be done; and one wonders how any man, or set of men, can persist it so offensive a practice for a whole day together: one should expect that the first effort towards eivilisation would remove it even among savages.'"

"Baxter's Reasons of the Christian Religion' he thought contained the best collection of the evidences of the divinity of the Christian system."

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Chymistry was always an interesting pursuit | with Dr. Johnson. Whilst he was in Wiltshire, be attended some experiments that were made by a physician at Salisbury on the new kinds of air. Ia the course of the experiments frequent mention being made of Dr. Priestley, Dr. Johnson knit his brows, and in a stern manner inquired, Why do we hear so much of Dr. Priestley?' He was very

morning (Sept. 6.). She died without a struggle, retaining her faculties entire to the very last; and, as she expressed it, having set her house in order, was prepared to leave it at the last summons of nature."

In his letter to Mrs. Thrale, Sept. 22., he adds: "Poor Williams has, I hope, seen the end of her afflic. tions. She acted with prudence, and she bore with fortitude. She has left me.

Thou thy weary task hast done,

Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages.'

Had she had good-humour and prompt elocution, her universal curiosity and comprehensive knowledge would have made her the delight of all that knew her. She left her little to your charity-school."- MALONE.

Mr. Malone observes, "This, however, was entirely a mistake, as appears from the Memoirs published by Mr. Noble. Had Johnson been furnished with the materials which the industry of that gentleman has procured, and with others which it is believed are yet preserved in manuscript, he would, without doubt, have produced a most valuable and curious history of Cromwell's life."- BoswELL. I may add, that, had Johnson given us a Life of Cromwell, we should not have been disgusted in numberless instances with "My Lord Protector" and "My Lady PROTECTRESS" and certainly the brutal ruffian who presided in the bloody assembly that murdered their sovereign would have been characterised by very different epithets than those which are applied to him in this work, where we find him described as "the BOLD and DETERMINED Bradshaw."-MALONE.

Hints for Civil Conversation. - Bacon's Works, 4to. vol. i. p. 571. - MALONE.

31 do not wonder at Johnson's displeasure when the name of Dr. Priestley was mentioned; for I know no writer who has been suffered to publish more pernicious doctrines. I shall instance only three. First, Materialism; by which

mind is denied to human nature; which, if believed, mut deprive us of every elevated principle. Secondly, Necessity, or the doctrine that every action, whether good or bad, s included in an unchangeable and unavoidable system; a notion utterly subversive of moral government. Third i that we have no reason to think that the future world (@bid, as he is pleased to inform us, will be adapted to our men improved nature) will be materially different from the which, if believed, would sink wretched mortals into despar, as they could no longer hope for the "rest that remaineta for the people of God," or for that happiness which is revealed to us as something beyond our present conceptions but would feel themselves doomed to a continuation of the uneasy state under which they now groan. I say nothing of the petulant intemperance with which he dares to insult the venerable establishments of his country. As a specimen of his writings, I shall quote the following passage, which appears to me equally absurd and impious, and which might have been retorted upon him by the men who were pros92– cuted for burning his house. "I cannot," says he, as a necessarian [meaning necessitarian], hate ang wan; because I consider him as being, in all respects, just what God has made him to be; and also as doing, teith respect to me, DAS IT but what he was expressly designed and appointed to do : God being the only cause, and men nothing more than the imitrements in his hands to execute all his pleasure.” — Limoretions of Philosophical Necessity, p. 111. The Reverend Dr. Parr, in a late tract, appears to suppose that Dr. JohnJON MUŽ only endured, but almost solicited, an interviste with Dr. Priestley. In justice to Dr. Johnson, I declare my firma bef that he never did. My illustrious friend was particality resolute in not giving countenance to men whose writings be considered as pernicious to society. I was present at Ox. ng when Dr. Price, even before he had rendered himself i generally obnoxious by his zeal for the French revolutia came into a company where Johnson was, who instantly in the room. Much more would he have reprobated Dr.

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A friend was one day, about two years before his death, struck with some instance of Dr. Johnson's great candour. Well, Sir,' said he, I will always say that you are a very candid man.' Will you?' replied the doctor; I doubt then you will be very singular. But, indeed, Sir,' continued he, 'I look upon myself to be a man very much misunderstood. I am not an uncandid, nor am I a severe man. I sometimes say more than I mean, in jest; and people are apt to believe me serious: however, I am more candid than I was when I

was younger. As I know more of mankind, I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man upon easier terms than I was formerly.""

[JOHNSON TO BARBER.'

"Heale, Sept. 16. 1783.

“DEAR FRANCIS,—I rather wonder that you have never written; but that is now not necessary, for I purpose to be with [you] on Thursday before dinner. As Thursday is my birth-day, I would have a little dinner got, and would have you invite Mrs. Desmoulins, Mrs. Davis that was about Mrs. Williams, and Mr. Allen and Mrs. Gardiner. am, yours, &c.,

SAM. JOHNSON."]

I

- Harwood MSS. On his return from Heale he wrote to Dr. Burney:

"I came home on the 18th of September, at noon, to a very disconsolate house. You and I have lost our friends; but you have more friends at home. My domestic companion is taken from me. She is much missed, for her acquisitions were many, and her curiosity universal; so that she partook of every conversation. I am not well enough to go much out; and to sit, and eat or fast alone, is very wearisome. I always mean to send my compli

ments to all the ladies."

Priestley. Whoever wishes to see a perfect delineation of this Literary Jack of all Trades may find it in an ingenious tract, entitled "A Small Whole-Length of Dr. Priestley," printed for Rivingtons, in St. Paul's Churchyard. -BoswELL. The foregoing note produced a reply from Dr. Parr (Gent. Mag. March, 1795), in which he endeavoured to support his assertion by evidence, which, however, really contradicted him. For instead of Johnson's having solicited an interview (which was the point in dispute), Dr. Parr is obliged to admit that the meeting was at Mr. Paradise's dinner-table, that Dr. Johnson did not solicit the interview, but was aware that Dr. Priestley was invited, and that he behaved to him with civility: and then Dr. Parr concludes, in a way that does little credit eit her to his accuracy or his candour, "Should Mr. Boswell be pleased to maintain that Dr. Johnson rather consented to the interview, than almost solicited it, I shall

alleviated the sufferings of a woman of great merit, both intellectual and moral. Her curiosity was universal, her knowledge was very extensive, and she sustained forty years of misery with steady fortitude. Thirty years and more she had been my companion, and her death has left me very desolate. "That I have not written sooner, you may impute to absence, to ill health, to any thing rather than want of regard to the benefactress of my departed friend. I am, Madam, your most humble servant, SAM. JOHNSON."]

Montagu MSS.

His fortitude and patience met with severe trials during this year. The stroke of the palsy has been related circumstantially; but he was also afflicted with the gout, and was besides troubled with a complaint which not only was attended with immediate inconvenience, but threatened him with a chirurgical operation, from which most men would shrink. The complaint was a sarcocele, which Johnson bore with uncommon firmness, and was not at all frightened while he looked forward to amputation. He was attended by Mr. Pott and Mr. Cruikshank. I have before me a letter of the 30th of July, this year, to Mr. Cruikshank, in which he says, "I am going to put myself into your hands:" and another, accompanying a set of his "Lives of the Poets,' in which he says, "I beg your acceptance of these volumes, as an acknowledgment of the great favours which you have bestowed on, Sir, your most obliged and most humble servant." I have in my possession several more letters from him to Mr. Cruikshank, and also to Dr. Mudge at Plymouth, which it would be improper to insert, as they are filled with unpleasing technical details. I shall, however, extract from his letters to Dr. Mudge such passages as show either a felicity of expression, or the undaunted state of his mind.

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My conviction of your skill, and my belief of your friendship, determine me to entreat your opinion and advice. In this state I with great earnestness desire you to tell me what is to be done. Excision is doubtless necessary to the cure, and I know not any means of palliation. The operation is doubtless painful; but is it dangerous? The pain I hope to endure with decency; but I am loath to put life into much hazard. By representing the gout as an antagonist to the palsy, you have said enough to make it welcome. This is not strictly the first fit, but I hope it is as good as the first;

not object to the change of expression "the mode of expression being a disingenuous surrender of the whole question, leaving Dr. Parr without a shadow of excuse for his misrepresentation.- CROKER,

I have thought it worth while to preserve this note (not included in my former edition), to show that Johnson had now overcome the reluctance to keeping his birthday (antè, p. 634. n. 1), or at least could indulge his more intimate friends with that celebration.- CROKER, 1847.

2 As Miss Williams enjoyed a pension from Mrs. Montagu, Johnson thought himself bound to acquaint her with the death of the object of her charity. This pension was in truth an indirect benefaction to Johnson himself, and was probably so meant by the delicate and courteous charity of that excellent lady. — CROKER, 1831-47.