after another! I am now very much recovered, and hope still to be better. What happiness it is that Mrs. Boswell has escaped. "My Lives are reprinting, and I have forgotten the authour of Gray's character': write immediately, and it may be perhaps yet inserted. "Of London or Ashbourne you have your free choice; at any place I shall be glad to see you. I am, dear sir, yours, &c. "SAM. JOHNSON." On the 30th August, I informed him that my honoured father had died that morning; a complaint under which he had long laboured having suddenly come to a crisis, while I was upon a visit at the seat of Sir Charles Preston, from whence I had hastened the day before, upon receiving a letter by express. “TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. "London, 7th Sept. 1782. "DEAR SIR,-I have struggled through this year with so much infirmity of body, and such strong impressions of the fragility of life, that death, whenever it appears, fills me with melancholy; and I cannot hear without emotion of the removal of any one, whom I have known, into another state. "Your father's death had every circumstance that could enable you to bear it; it was at a mature age, and it was expected; and as his general life had been pious, his thoughts had doubtless for many years past been turned upon eternity. That you did not find him sensible must doubtless grieve you; his disposition towards you was undoubtedly that of a kind, though not of a fond father. Kindness, at least actual, is in our power, but fondness is not; and if by negligence or imprudence you had extinguished his fondness, he could not at will rekindle it. Nothing then remained between you but mutual forgiveness of each other's faults, and mutual desire of each other's happiness. "I shall long to know his final disposition of his fortune. "You, dear sir, have now a new station, and have therefore new cares, and new employments. Life, as Cowley seems to say, ought to resemble a well-ordered poem; of which one rule generally received is, that the exordium should be simple, and The Rev. Mr. Temple, vicar of St. Gluvias, Cornwall.-BOSWELL. should promise little. Begin your new course of life with the ast show, and the least expense possible: you may at pleasure increase both, but you cannot easily diminish them. Do not think your estate your own, while any man can call upon you for money which you cannot pay: therefore, begin with timorous parsimony. Let it be your first care not to be in any man's debt. "When the thoughts are extended to a future state, the present life seems hardly worthy of all those principles of condact and maxims of prudence which one generation of men has transmitted to another; but upon a closer view, when it is perceived how much evil is produced and how much good is impeded by embarrassment and distress, and how little room the expedients of poverty leave for the exercise of virtue, it grows manifest that the boundless importance of the next life enforces soce attention to the interests of this. "Be kind to the old servants, and secure the kindness of the agents and factors. Do not disgust them by asperity, or unwelcome gaiety, or apparent suspicion. From them you must learn the real state of your affairs, the characters of your tenants, and the value of your lands. “Make my compliments to Mrs. Boswell. I think her expectations from air and exercise are the best that she can form. I hope she will live long and happily. "I forgot whether I told you that Rasay has been here. We dined cheerfully together. I entertained lately a young gentleman from Corrichatachin. "I received your letters only this morning. I am, dear sir, yours, &c. "SAM. JOHNSON." In answer to my next letter, I received one from Em, dissuading me from hastening to him as I had proposed. What is proper for publication is the following paragraph, equally just and tender: "One expense, however, I would not have you to spare: let nothing be omitted that can preserve Mrs. Boswell, though it should be necessary to transplant her for a time into a softer dimate. She is the prop and stay of your life. How much must your children suffer by losing her!" My wife was now so much convinced of his sin VOL. V. D Piozzi, p. 109. cere friendship for me, and regard for her, that without any suggestion on my part, she wrote him a very polite and grateful letter. "DR. JOHNSON TO MRS. BOSWELL. "London, 7th September, 1782. “Dear Lady,—I have not often received so much pleasure as from your invitation to Auchinleck. The journey thither and back is, indeed, too great for the latter part of the year; but if my health were fully recovered, I would suffer no little heat and cold, nor a wet or a rough road, to keep me from you. I am, indeed, not without hope of seeing Auchinleck again; but to make it a pleasant place I must see its lady well, and brisk, and airy. For my sake, therefore, among many greater reasons, take care, dear madam, of your health, spare no expense, and want no attendance that can procure ease or preserve it. Be very careful to keep your mind quiet; and do not think it too much to give an account of your recovery to, madam, yours, "SAM. JOHNSON." &c. [In the autumn of this year he accompanied Mrs. Thrale to Brighthelmstone, where, having got a little French print of some people skating, with these lines written under "Sur un mince chrystal l'hyver conduit leurs pas : Le précipice est sous la glace. Telle est de nos plaisirs la légère surface: Glissez, mortels; n'appuyez pas-" she begged translations from every body. Dr. Johnson gave her this: "O'er ice the rapid skaiter flies, With sport above and death below: Thus lightly touch and quickly go."} [The following letters' prove how constant and zealous was his friendship for Mr. Lowe. [Communicated by J. H. Markland, esq.-ED.] "TO MR. LOWE. "22d October, 1782. "SIR,-I congratulate you on the good that has befallen you. I always told you that it would come. I would not, however, have you flatter yourself too soon with punctuality. You must not expect the other half year at Christmas. You may use the money as your needs require; but save what you can. "You must undoubtedly write a letter of thanks to your benefactor in your own name. I have put something on the other side. I am, sir, your most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." "TO LORD SOUTHWELL. 'MY LORD,—The allowance which you are pleased to make me. I received on the by Mr. Paget. Of the joy which it brought your lordship cannot judge, because you cannot imagine my distress. It was long since I had known a morning without solicitude for noon, or lain down at night without foreing with terror the distresses of the morning. My debts were small but many; my creditors were poor, and therefore troublesome. Of this misery your lordship's bounty has given. me an intermission. May your lordship live long to do much good, and to do for many what you have done for, my lord, your lordship's, &c. "M. LOWE."] "TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. "London, 7th December, 1782. "DEAR SIR,-Having passed almost this whole year in a succession of disorders, I went in October to Brighthelmstone, Thither I came in a state of so much weakness, that I rested Sur times in walking between the inn and the lodging. By physick and abstinence I grew better, and am now reasonably y, though at a great distance from health. I am afraid, bowever, that health begins, after seventy, and long before, to have a meaning different from that which it had at thirty. But tis culpable to murmur at the established order of the creation, it is vain to oppose it. He that lives must grow old; and be that would rather grow old than die has God to thank for the infirmities of old age. "At your long silence I am rather angry. You do not, ce now you are the head of your house, think it worth your hile to try whether you or your friend can live longer withwriting; nor suspect, after so many years of friendship, MS. MS. that when I do not write to you I forget you. Put all such useless jealousies out of your head, and disdain to regulate your own practice by the practice of another, or by any other principle than the desire of doing right. "Your economy, I suppose, begins now to be settled; your expenses are adjusted to your revenue, and all your people in their proper places. Resolve not to be poor. Whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness: it certainly destroys liberty; and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult. "Let me know the history of your life since your accession to your estate; - how many houses, how many cows, how much land in your own hand, and what bargains you make with your tenants. "Of my Lives of the Poets' they have printed a new edition in octavo, I hear, of three thousand. Did I give a set to Lord Hailes? If I did not, I will do it out of these. What did you make of all your copy? "Mrs. Thrale and the three misses are now, for the winter, in Argyll-street. Sir Joshua Reynolds has been out of order, but is well again; and I am, dear sir, your affectionate humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." "TO DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON. "Edinburgh, 20th Dec. 1782. “DEAR SIR,—I was made happy by your kind letter, which gave us the agreeable hopes of seeing you in Scotland again. "I am much flattered by the concern you are pleased to take in my recovery. I am better, and hope to have it in my power to convince you by my attention, of how much consequence I esteem your health to the world and to myself. I remain, sir, with grateful respect, your obliged and obedient servant, "MARGARET Boswell." The death of Mr. Thrale had made a very material alteration with respect to Johnson's reception in that family. The manly authority of the husband not longer curbed the lively exuberance of the lady; and as her vanity had been fully gratified, by having the Colossus of Literature attached to her for many years, she gradually became less assiduous to please |