inherit nothing; all that you receive must pay for the past. You must get a place, or pine in penury, with the empty name of a great estate. Poverty, my dear friend, is so great an evil, and pregnant with so much temptation, and so much misery, that I cannot but earnestly enjoin you to avoid it. Live on what you have; live if you can on less; do not borrow either for vanity or pleasure; the vanity will end in shame, and the pleasure in regret: stay therefore at home, till you have saved money for your journey hither. "The Beauties of Johnson are said to have got money to the collector; if the Deformities have the same success, I shall be still a more extensive benefactor. "Make my compliments to Mrs. Boswell, who is I hope reconciled to me; and to the young people whom I never have offended. "You never told me the success of your plea against the solicitors. I am, dear sir, your most affectionate, "SAM. JOHNSON." ["TO MRS. GASTRELL AND MRS. ASTON. "London, Bolt-court, Fleet-street, 30th March, 1782. Pemb. "DEAREST LADIES,-The tenderMSS. ness expressed in your kind letter makes me think it necessary to tell you that they who are pleased to wish me well, need not be any longer particularly solicitous about me. I prevailed on my physician to bleed me very copiously, almost against his inclination. However, he kept his finger on the pulse of the other hand, and, finding that I bore it well, let the vein run on. From that time I have mended, and hope I am now well. I went yesterday to church without inconvenience, and hope to go to-morrow. "Here are great changes in the great world; but I cannot tell you more than you will find in the papers. The men have got in whom I have endeavoured to keep out; but I hope they will do better than their predecessors: it will not be easy to do worse. "Spring seems now to approach, and I feel its benefit, which I hope will extend to dear Mrs. Aston. "When Dr. Falconer saw me, I was at home only by accident, for I lived much with Mrs. Thrale, and had all the care from her that she could take or could be taken. But I have never been ill enough to want attendance; my disorder has been rather tedious than violent; rather irksome than painful. He needed not have made such a tragical representation. Revn MSS. "DR. JOHNSON TO MISS REYNOLDS. "8th April, 1782. "DEAREST MADAM,-Your work 1 is full of very penetrating meditation, and very forcible sentiments. read it with a full perception of the sublime, with wonder and terrour; but I cannot think of any profit from it; it seems not born to be popular. "Your system of the mental fabrick is exceedingly obscure, and, without more attention than will be willingly bestowed, is unintelligible. The plans of Burnaby will be more safely understood, and are often charming. I was delighted with the different bounty of different ages. "I would make it produce something if I could, but I have indeed no hope. If a bookseller would buy it at all, as it must be published without a name, he would give nothing for it worth your acceptance. I am, my dearest dear, your most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." p. 237. ["26th] April, [1782.] "I have been very much out of Lett. order since you sent me away; but vol. ii. why should I tell you, who do not care, nor desire to know. I dined with Mr. Paradise on Monday, with the Bishop of St. Asaph yesterday, with the Bishop of Chester I dine to-day, and with the academy on Saturday, with Mr. Hoole on Monday, and with Mrs. Garrick on Thursday, the 2d of May, and then-what care you?-. what then? "The news run that we have taken seventeen French transports; that Langton's lady is lying down with her eighth child, all alive; and Mrs. Carter's Miss Sharpe is going to marry a schoolmaster sixty-two years old." TO MRS. THRALE. "S0th April, 1782. "I have had a fresh cola, and been very poorly. But I was yesterday at Mr. Hoole's, where were Miss Reynolds and many others. I am going to the club. "Since Mrs. Garrick's invitation I have a letter from Miss More 2, to engage me for the evening. I have an appointment to Miss Menkton, and another with lady Sheffield' at Mrs. Way's. 4 [Probably the "Essay on Taste," already "I am now well enough to flatter my-mentioned, ante, p. 307.-ED.] self with some hope of pleasure from the 2 [Miss Hannah More.-ED.] summer. How happy would it be if we could see one another, and be all tolerably well. [The first wife of the first Lord Sheffield. ED.] 4 [Wife of Daniel Wav, Esq. of the Excheque! "Two days ago Mr. Cumberland had | pers; but an opinion so weighty an his third night'1, which, after all expenses, put into his own pocket five pounds. He has lost his plume. serious as yours has determined me to do, what I should without your seasonable admonition have omitted: and I will direct my thought to be shown in its true state 4. If I could find the passage I would direct you to it. I suppose the tenour is this:Acute diseases are the immediate and inevitable strokes of Heaven; but of them the pain is short, and the conclusion speedy; chronical disorders, by which we are sus "Mrs. S- 2 refused to sing, at the Duchess of Devonshire's request, a song to the Prince of Wales. They pay for the 3 neither principal nor interest; and poor Garrick's funeral expenses are yet unpaid, though the undertaker is broken. Could you have a better purveyor for a little scandal? But I wish I was at Streat-pended in tedious torture between life and ham."] Notwithstanding his afflicted state of body and mind this year, the following correspondence affords a proof not only of his benevolence and conscientious readiness to relieve a good man from errour, but by his clothing one of the sentiments in his "Rambler," in different language, not inferior to that of the original, shows his extraordinary command of clear and forcible expression. A clergyman at Bath wrote to him, that in "The Morning Chronicle," a passage in "The Beauties of Johnson," article Death, had been pointed out as supposed by some readers to recommend suicide, the words being "To die is the fate of man; but to die with lingering anguish is generally his folly; " and respectfully suggesting to him, that such an erroneous notion of any sentence in the writings of an acknowledged friend of religion and virtue should not pass uncontradicted. Johnson thus answered this clergyman's letter: "TO THE REVEREND MR. BATH. AT "15th May, 1782. "SIR,-Being now in the country in a state of recovery, as I hope, from a very oppressive disorder, I cannot neglect the acknowledgment of your Christian letter. The book called The Beauties of Johnson' is the production of I know not whom I never saw it but by casual inspection, and considered myself as utterly disengaged from its consequences. Of the passage you mention, I remember some notice in some paper: but knowing that it must be misrepresented, I thought of it no more, nor do I know where to find it in my own books. I am accustomed to think little of newspaOffice, of whom there is so copious an account in Nicholls's continuation of Bowyer's Anecdotes.ED.] 1 [The play of the Walloons, acted about this time; but the third night was the 2d of May. -ED.] 2 [Sheridan.-ED.] death, are commonly the effect of our own misconduct and intemperance. To die, &c.'-This, sir, you see is all true and al blameless. I hope some time in the next week to have all rectified. My health has been lately much shaken; if you favour me with any answer, it will be a comfort to me to know that I have your prayers. I am, &c. "SAM. JOHNSON." This letter, as might be expected, had its full effect, and the clergyman acknowledged it in grateful and pious terms 5. The following letters require no extracts from mine to introduce them. "TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. "London, 3d June, 1782. "DEAR SIR,-The earnestness and tenderness of your letter is such, that I cannot think myself showing it more respect than it claims, by sitting down to answer it the day on which I received it. This year has afflicted me with a very irksome and severe disorder. My respiration has been much impeded, and much blood has been taken away. I am now harassed by a catarrhous cough, from which my purpose is to seek relief by change of air; and I am, therefore, preparing to go to Oxford. "Whether I did right in dissuading you 4 What follows appeared in the Morning Chronicle of May 29, 1782." A correspondent having mentioned in the Morning Chronicle of December 12, the last clause of the following paragraph, as seeming to favour suicide; we are requested to print the whole passage, that its true meaning may appear, which is not to recommend suicide but exercise. Exercise cannot secure us from that dissolution to which we are decreed; but while the soul and body continue united, it can make the association pleasing, and give probable hopes that they shall be disjoined by an easy separation. It was a principle among the ancients, that acute diseases are from Heaven, and chronical from ourselves; the dart of death, indeed, falls from Heaven, but we poison it by our own misconduct: to die is the fate of man; but to die with lingering anguish is generally his folly.”— BOSWELL. The correspondence may be seen at length 3 [Theatre, Drury-lane, sold by Garrick to in the Gentleman's Magazine, Feb. 1786.-BosSheridan ED.] WELL. I took yester "This morning to my bed-side came dear Sir Richard [Jebb]. I told him of the opium, and he approved it, and told me, if I went to Oxford, which he rather advised, that I should strengthen the constitution by the bark, tame the cough with opium, keep the body open, and support myself by liberal nutriment. from coming to London this spring, I will by opium or any means. not determine. You have not lost much day half an ounce of bark, and knew not by missing my company; I have scarcely whether opium would counteract it, but been well for a single week. I might have remembering no prohibition in the medical received comfort from your kindness; but books, and knowing that to quiet the cough you would have seen me afflicted, and, with opium was one of Lawrence's last or perhaps, found me peevish. Whatever ders, I took two grains, which gave me not might have been your pleasure or mine, I sleep indeed, but rest, and that rest has know not how I could have honestly ad-given me strength and courage. vised you to come hither with borrowed money. Do not accustom yourself to consider debt only as an inconvenience; you will find it a calamity. Poverty takes away so many means of doing good, and produces so much inability to resist evil, both natural and moral, that it is by all virtuous means to be avoided. Consider a man whose fortune is very narrow; whatever be his rank by birth, or whatever his reputation by intellectual excellence, what can he do? or what evil can he prevent? That he cannot help the needy is evident; he has nothing to spare. But, perhaps, his advice or admonition may be useful. His poverty will destroy his influence: many more can find that he is poor, than that he is wise; and few will reverence the understanding that is of so little advantage to its owner. I say nothing of the personal wretchedness of a debtor, which, however, has passed into a proverb. Of riches it is not necessary to write the praise. Let it, however, be remembered, that he who has money to spare, has it always in his power to benefit others; and of such power a good man must always be desirous. "I am pleased with your account of Easter!. We shall meet, I hope, in tumn, both well and both cheerful; and part each the better for the other's company. "As to the journey I know not that it will be necessary-desine mollium tandem querularum.” "Sunday, 8th June 2, 1782. "I have this day taken a passage to Oxford for Monday-not to frisk, as you express it with very unfeeling irony, but to catch at the hopes of better health. The change of place may do something. To leave the house where so much has been suffered affords some pleasure.” cc 'Oxford, 12th June, 1782. "I find no particular salubrity in this air; my respiration is very laborious; my appetite is good, and my sleep commonly long and quiet; but a very little motion disables me. "I dine to-day with Dr. Adams, and toau-morrow with Dr. Wetherel 3. Yesterday Dr. Edwards 4 invited some men from Exeter college, whom I liked very well These variations of company help the mind, though they cannot do much for the body. But the body receives some help from a cheerful mind." "Make my compliments to Mrs. Boswell, and to the young charmers. I am, &c. "SAM. JOHNSON." vol. ii. p. ["TO MRS. THRALE. 'London, 4th June, 1782. "Wisely was it said by him Letters, who said it first, that this world is 241, 243, all ups and downs. You know, 249. dearest lady, that when I pressed your hand at parting, I was rather down. When I came hither, I ate my dinner well, but was so harassed by the cough, that Mr. Strahan said, it was an extremity which he could not have believed without the sensible and true avouch' of his own observation. I was indeed almost sinking under it, when Mrs. Williams happened to cry out that such a cough should be stilled 1 Which I celebrated in the Church of England chapel at Edinburgh, founded by Lord Chief Baron Smith, of respectable and pious memory.— BOSWELL "TO MR. PERKINS. "28th July, 1782. "DEAR SIR,—I am much pleased that you are going a very long journey, which may by proper conduct restore your health and prolong your life. "Observe these rules: "1. Turn all care out of your head as soon as you mount the chaise. "2. Do not think about frugality; your health is worth more than it can cost. "3. Do not continue any day's journey to fatigue. 4. Take now and then a day's rest. 5. Get a smart sea-sickness, if you can. "6. Cast away all anxiety, and keep your mind easy. "This last direction is the principal; with an unquiet mind, neither exercise, nor diet, nor physick, can be of much use. "I wish you, dear sir, a prosperous journey, and a happy recovery. I am, dear sir, your most affectionate, humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." 66 TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. "24th August, 1782. "DEAR SIR,-Being uncertain whether I should have any call this autumn into the country, I did not immediately answer your kind letter. I have no call; but if you desire to meet me at Ashbourne, I believe I can come thither; if you had rather come to London, I can stay at Streatham: take your choice. "This year has been very heavy. From the middle of January to the middle of June, I was battered by one disorder 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 choic; at any place I shall be glad to see you. Í 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 etter by express. " TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. "London, 7th Sept. 1782. "DEAR SIR,-I have struggled through 1 The Rev. Mr. Temple, vicar of St. Gluvias, Cornwall.-BOSWELL 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 circum stance 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 sta-tion, 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 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, be-, gin 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 to getner. 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: "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 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 sincere 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, &c. p. 109. "SAM. JOHNSON." [In the autumn of this year he acPiozzi, companied 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, stant and zealous was his friendship for Mr. Lowe. "" TO MR. LOWE. "22d October, 1781. "SIR,-I congratulate you on the good that has befallen you. I al- MS. ways 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. MS. “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 foreseeing 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."] 66 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, whither I came in a state of so much weakness. that I rested four times in walking between the inn and the lodging. By physick and abstinence I grew better, and am now rea-sonably easy, though at a great distance. from health. I am afraid, however, that. health begins, after seventy, and long before, to have a meaning different from that which it had at thirty. But it is culpable to mur-mur at the established order of the creation,, as it is vain to oppose it. He that lives: must grow old; and he that would ratherr 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, since now you are the head of With sport above and death below: your house, think it worth your while to try: Where mischief lurks in gay disguise, whether you or your friend can live longer Thus lightly touch and quickly go."] without writing; nor suspect, after so many [The following letters 1 prove how con-years of friendship, that when I do not write to you I forget you. Put all such useless: 1[Communicated by J. H. Markland, Esq.-jealousies out of your head, and disdain to, ED.] 41 regulate your own practice by the practice |