him. Whether her attachment to him was already divided by another object, I am unable to ascertain; but it is plain that Jolinson's penetration was alive to her neglect or forced attention; for on the 6th of October this year we find him making a "parting use of the library" at Streatham, and pronouncing a prayer which he composed on leaving Mr. Thrale's family.

p. 214.

"Almighty God, Father of all mercy, help me by thy grace, Prayers that I may, with humble and sincere thankfulness, remember & Med. the comforts and conveniences which I have enjoyed at this place; and that I may resign them with holy submission, equally trusting in thy protection when thou givest and when thou takest away. Have mercy upon me, O Lord! have mercy upon me! To thy fatherly protection, O Lord, I commend this family. Bess, guide, and defend them, that they may so pass through this world, as finally to enjoy in thy presence everlasting happiness, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen."

One cannot read this prayer without some emotions not very favourable to the lady whose conduct occasioned it'.

The next day, October 7, he made the following Lemorandum:

p. 212.

"I was called early. I packed up my bundles, and used the & Med. Sregoing prayer, with my morning devotions somewhat, I think, larged. Being earlier than the family, I read St. Paul's farewell in the Acts, and then read fortuitously in the Gospels, which was my parting use of the library.”

And in one of his memorandum-books I find, "Sunday, went to church at Streatham. Templo valedixi tum osculo."

Mr. Boswell's dislike of Mrs. Thrale has led him here into a series of ders and misrepresentations. Dr. Johnson meant nothing of what Mr. Bowell attributes to him he makes a parting use of the library-makes a valeAs to the church, and pronounces a prayer on quitting "a place where he joyed so much comfort," not because Mrs. Thrale made him less welcome but because she, and he with her, were leaving Streatham We shall see brand by, that when Mr. Boswell came to town, six months after this, he found inand domiciliated in Mrs. Thrale's new residence in Argyll-street.—ED.]

He met Mr. Philip Metcalfe often at Sir Joshua Reynolds's and other places, and was a good deal with him at Brighthelmstone this autumn, being pleased at once with his excellent table and animated conversation. Mr. Metcalfe showed him great respect, and sent him a note that he might have the use of his carriage whenever he pleased. Johnson (3d October, 1782) returned this polite answer: "Mr. Johnson is very much obliged by the kind offer of the carriage, but he has no desire of using Mr. Metcalfe's carriage, except when he can have the pleasure of Mr. Metcalfe's company." Mr. Metcalfe could not but be highly pleased that his company was thus valued by Johnson, and he frequently attended him in airings. They also went together to Chichester, and they visited Petworth, and Cowdry, the venerable seat of the Lords Montacute1. "Sir," said Johnson," I should like to stay here four-and-twenty hours. We see here how our ancestors lived."

That his curiosity was still unabated appears from two letters to Mr. John Nichols, of the 10th and 20th of October this year. In one he says, "I have looked into your Anecdotes,' and you will hardly thank a lover of literary history for telling you that he has been much informed and gratified. I wish

This venerable mansion has since [Sept. 1793] been totally destroyed by fire.-MALONE. [There is a popular superstition that this inheritance is accursed, for having been part of the plunder of the church at the Dissolution; and some lamentable accidents have given countenance to the vulgar prejudice. When the Editor visited the ruins of Cowdray twenty years ago, he was reminded (in addition to older stories) that the curse of fire and water had recently fallen on Cowdray; its noble owner, Viscount Montague, the last male of his ancient race, having been drowned in the Rhine at Schaffausen, within a few days of the destruction of Cowdray: and the good folks of the neighbourhood did not scruple to prophesy that it would turn out a fatal inheritance. At that period the present possessor, Mr. Poyntz, who had married Lord Montague's sister and heiress, had two sons, who seemed destined to inherit Cowdray; but, on the 7th July, 1815, these young gentlemen boating off Bognor with their father on a very fine day, the boat was unaccountably upset, and the two youths perished; and thus were once more fulfilled the forebodings of superstition. See some curious observations on the subject of the fatality attending the inheritance of confiscated church property in Sir Henry Spelman's Treatise on the "History and Fall of Sacrilege."-ED.]

you would add your own discoveries and intelligence to those of Dr. Rawlinson', and undertake the Supplement to Wood. Think of it." In the other, "I wish, sir, you could obtain some fuller information of Jortin, Markland 3, and Thirlby. They were three contemporaries of great eminence."

"TO SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.

"Brighthelmstone, 14th Nov. 1782. DEAR SIR,-I heard yesterday of your late disorder, and should think ill of myself if I had heard of it without alarm. I heard likewise of your recovery, which I sincerely wish to be complete and permanent. Your country has been in danger of losing one of its brightest ornaments, and I of losing one of my oldest and kindest friends; but I hope you will still live long, for the honour of the nation; and that more enjoyment of yar elegance, your intelligence, and your benevolence is still reserved for, dear sir, your most affectionate, &c.

"SAM. JOHNSON."

The Reverend Mr. Wilson having dedicated to

[Dr. Richard Rawlinson, an eminent antiquary, and a great benefactor to University of Oxford. He founded the Anglo-Saxon professorship there, and bequeathed to it all his collection of MSS., medals, antiquities, and curiosiand amongst them large collections for a supplement to Wood's Athenæ fenses, to which Dr. Johnson refers. He died in 1754, æt. 65.-ED.] [Dr. John Jortin, a voluminous and respectable writer on general subjects, vel as an eminent divine. He died in August, 1770, Archdeacon of London Vicar of Kensington; where his piety and charity, greater even than his at learning and talents, are still remembered. His laconic epitaph in Kenchurchyard, dictated by himself, contains a new turn of that thought ich must be common to all epitaphs," Johannes Jortin mortalis esse desiit, 4.S. 1770, æt. 72." John Jortin ceased to be mortal, &c.-En.]

} [Jeremiah Markland was an eminent critic, particularly in Greek literature; the shyness of his disposition and the almost ascetic scclusion of his long Hirited at once his utility and his fame.-See ante, vol. iv. p. 377. He died 21776, æt. 83.-ED.]

[Styan Thirlby; a critic of at least as much reputation as he deserves. He aded successively divinity, medicine, and law. He seems to have been of a per at once perverse and indolent, and to have dimmed and disgraced his as by habits of intoxication. He complains, in a strain of self-satisfaction, the: when a man (meaning himself) thus towers by intellectual exaltation re his cotemporaries, he is represented as drunken, or lazy, or capricious." He died in 1753, æt. 61.-ED.]

5A just and concise character of Mr. Wilson is given by Dr. Whitaker in Se dedication of a plate, in the History of Whalley. "Viro Reverendo Thomæ Wilson STB ecclesiæ de Clitheroe, ministro-sodali jucundissimo-agx102öza i-felici juvenum institutori." Mr. Wilson died in 1813, aged sixty—J. H. MARKLAND.]

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 1: 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 least 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 conduct 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 some 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 him, dissuading me from hastening to him as I had proposed. What is proper for publication is the following paragraph, equally just and tender:

you to

spare:

let

"One expense, however, I would not have nothing be omitted that can preserve Mrs. Boswell, though it should be necessary to transplant her for a time into a softer climate. 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