strong liquors. One night's drunkenness may defeat the labours of forty days well employed. Be firm, but not clamorous; be active, but not malicious; and you may form such an interest, as may not only exalt yourself, but dignify your family. "We are, as you may suppose, all busy here. Mr. Fox resolutely stands for Westminster, and his friends say will carry the election'. However that be, he will certainly have a seat. Mr. Hoole has just told me, that the city leans towards the king. "Let me hear, from time to time, how you are employed, and what progress you make. "Make dear Mrs. Boswell, and all the young Boswells, the sincere compliments of, sir, your affectionate humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." To Mr. Langton he wrote with that cordiality which was suitable to the long friendship which had subsisted between him and that gentleman. "DR. JOHNSON TO BENNET LANGTON, ESQ. "27th March, 1784. "Since you left me I have continued, in my own opinion, and in Dr. Brocklesby's, to grow better, with respect to all my formidable and dangerous distempers; though, to a body battered and shaken as mine has lately been, it is to be feared that weak attacks may be sometimes mischievous. I have, indeed, by standing carelessly at an open window, got a very troublesome cough, which it has been necessary to appease by opium, in larger quantities than I like to take, and I have not found it give way so readily as I expected: its obstinacy, however, seems at last disposed to submit to the remedy, and I know not whether I should then have a right to complain of any morbid sensation. My asthma is, I am afraid, constitutional and incurable; but it is only occasional, and, unless it be excited by labour or by cold, gives me no molestation, nor does it lay very close siege to life; for Sir John Floyer, whom the physical race consider as authour of one of the best books upon it, panted on to ninety, as was supposed. And why were we content with supposing a fact so interesting of a man so conspicuous? Because he corrupted, at perhaps seventy or eighty, the register, that he might pass for younger than he was. He was not much [Mr. Fox was returned for Westminster, after a sharp election and a tedious scrutiny.-ED.] VOL. V. M less than eighty, when to a man of rank, who modestly asked his age, he answered, Go look;' though he was in general a man of civility and elegance. "The ladies, I find, are at your house all well, except Miss Langton, who will probably soon recover her health by light suppers. Let her eat at dinner as she will, but not take a full stomach to bed. Pay my sincere respects to dear Miss Langton in Lincolnshire; let her know that I mean not to break our league of friendship, and that I have a set of Lives for her, when I have the means of sending it.” "8th April. "I am still disturbed by my cough; but what thanks have I not to pay, when my cough is the most painful sensation that I feel? and from that I expect hardly to be released, while winter continues to gripe us with so much pertinacity. The year has now advanced eighteen days beyond the equinox, and still there is very little remission of the cold. When warm weather comes, which surely must come at last, I hope it will help both me and your young lady. "The man so busy about addresses is neither more nor less than our own Boswell, who had come as far as York towards London, but turned back on the dissolution, and is said now to stand for some place. Whether to wish him success his best friends hesitate. "Let me have your prayers for the completion of my recovery. I am now better than I ever expected to have been. May God add to his mercies the grace that may enable me to use them according to his will. My compliments to all." "13th April. "I had this evening a note from Lord Portmore, desiring that I would give you an account of my health. You might have had it with less circumduction. I am, by God's blessing, I believe, free from all morbid sensations, except a cough, which is only troublesome. But I am still weak, and can have no great hope of strength till the weather shall be softer. The summer, if it be kindly, will, I hope, enable me to support the winter. God, who has so wonderfully restored me, can preserve me in all seasons. Let me inquire in my turn after the state of your family, great and little. I hope Lady Rothes and Miss Langton are both well. That is a good basis of content. Then how goes George on with his studies? How does Miss Mary? And how does my own Jenny? I think I owe Jenny a letter, which I will take care to pay. In the mean time tell her that I acknowledge the debt. "Be pleased to make my compliments to the ladies. If Mrs. Langton comes to London, she will favour me with a visit, for I am not well enough to go out." To Lord Portmore's note, mentioned in the foregoing extract, Johnson returned this answer: “TO THE RIGHT HON. EARL OF PORTMORE. "Bolt-court, Fleet-street, 13th April, 1784. "Dr. Johnson acknowledges with great respect the honour of Lord Portmore's notice. He is better than he was; and will, as his lordship directs, write to Mr. Langton." "TO OZIAS HUMPHRY, ESQ '. "5th April, 1784. SIR,-Mr. Hoole has told me with what benevolence you listened to a request which I was almost afraid to make, of leave to a young painter to attend you from time to time in your painting-room, to see your operations, and receive your instructions. "The young man has perhaps good parts, but has been without a regular education. He is my godson, and therefore I interest myself in his progress and success, and shall think myself much favoured if I receive from you a permission to send him. "My health is, by God's blessing, much restored, but I am not yet allowed by my physicians to go abroad; nor, indeed, do I think myself yet able to endure the weather. I am, sir, your most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." ■ The eminent painter, representative of the ancient family of Homfrey (now Humphry) in the west of England; who, as appears from their arms which they have invariably used, have been (as I have seen authenticated by the best authority) one of those among the knights and esquires of honour, who are represented by Holinshed as having issued from the tower of London on coursers apparelled for the justes, accompanied by ladies of honour, leading every one a knight, with a chain of gold, passing through the streets of London into Smithfield, on Sunday, at three o'clock in the afternoon, being the first Sunday after Michaelmas, in the fourteenth year of King Richard the Second. This family once enjoyed large possessions, but, like others, have lost them in the progress of ages. Their blood, however, remains to them well ascertained; and they may hope, in the revolution of events, to recover that rank in society for which, in modern times, fortune seems to be an indispensable requisite.--BoswELL. [Mr. Humphry died in 1810, æt. 68. His "eminence" as a painter was a goodnatured error of Mr. Boswell's.-ED.] * Son of Mr. Samuel Paterson, eminent for his knowledge of books.-BosWELL. [See ante, p. 108.—ED.] Reyn. "TO THE SAME. "10th April, 1784. SIR,-The bearer is my godson, whom I take the liberty of recommending to your kindness; which I hope he will deserve by his respect to your excellence, and his gratitude for your favours. I am, sir, your most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." ["DR. JOHNSON TO MISS REYNOLDS. "12th April, 1784. "DEAR MADAM,-I am not yet able to wait on you, but I can do your business commodiously enough. You must send me the copy to show the printer. If you will come to tea this afternoon, we will talk together about it. Pray send me word whether you will come. I am, madam, your most humble "SAM. JOHNSON."] gervant, "TO OZIAS HUMPHRY, ESQ. "31st May, 1784. "SIR,-I am very much obliged by your civilities to my godson, but must beg of you to add to them the favour of permitting him to see you paint, that he may know how a picture is begun, advanced, and completed. "If he may attend you in a few of your operations, I hope he will show that the benefit has been properly conferred, both by his proficiency and his gratitude. At least I shall consider you as enlarging your kindness to, sir, your humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." "TO THE REVEREND DR. TAYLOR, ASHBOURNE. "London, Easter-Monday, 12th April, 1784. "DEAR SIR,-What can be the reason that I hear nothing from you? I hope nothing disables you from writing. What I have seen, and what I have felt, gives me reason to fear every thing. Do not omit giving me the comfort of knowing, that after all my losses, I have yet a friend left. "I want every comfort. My life is very solitary and very cheerless. Though it has pleased God wonderfully to deliver me from the dropsy, I am yet very weak, and have not passed the door since the 13th of December. I hope for some help from warm weather, which will surely come in time. "I could not have the consent of the physicians to go to church yesterday; I therefore received the holy sacrament at home, in the room where I communicated with dear Mrs. Williams, a little before her death. O! my friend, the approach of death is very dreadful! I am afraid to think on that which I But "In the mean time, let us be kind to one another. I have no friend now living but you' and Mr. Hector, that was the friend of my youth. Do not neglect, dear sir, yours affectionately, "SAM. JOHNSON." ["TO MRS. THRALE. “London, 15th April, 1784. Letters, vol. ii. "Yesterday I had the pleasure of giving another dinner to P. 361. the remainder of the old club. We used to meet weekly about the year 1750, and we were as cheerful as in former times: only I could not make quite so much noise; for since the paralytick affliction, my voice is sometimes weak. "Metcalf and Crutchley, without knowing each other, are both members of parliament for Horsham in Sussex. Mr. Cator is chosen for Ipswich. "But a sick man's thoughts soon turn back upon himself. I am still very weak, though my appetite is keen, and my digestion potent; and I gratify myself more at table than ever I did at my own cost before. I have now an inclination to luxury which even your table did not excite; for till now my talk was more about the dishes than my thoughts. I remember you commended me for seeming pleased with my dinners when you had reduced your table. I am able to tell you with great veracity that I never knew when the reduction began, nor should have known that it was made had not you told me. I now think and consult to-day what I shall eat to-morrow. This disease will likewise, I hope, be cured. For there are other things-how different!-which ought to predominate in the mind of such a man as I: but in this world the body will have its part; and my hope is, that it shall have no more—my hope, but not my confidence; I have only the timidity of a christian to determine, not the wisdom of a stoick to secure me." "London, 19th April, 1784. "I received this morning your magnificent fish, and in the p 363. afternoon your apology for not sending it. I have invited the Hooles and Miss Burney to dine upon it to-morrow. This friend of Johnson's youth survived him somewhat more than three years, having died February 19, 1788.-MALONE. |