"TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.

"8th April, 1780.

"DEAR SIR,-Well, I had resolved to send you the Chesterfield letter 1, but I will write once again without it. Never impose tasks upon mortals. To require two things is the way to have them both undone.

"For the difficulties which you mention in your affairs, I am sorry; but difficulty is now very general: it is not therefore less grievous, for there is less hope of help. I pretend not to give you advice, not knowing the state of your affairs; and general counsels about prudence and frugality would do you little good. You are, however, in the right not to increase your own perplexity by a journey hither; and I hope that by staying at home you will please your father.

"Poor dear Beauclerk-nec, ut soles, dabis joca. His wit and his folly, his acuteness and maliciousness, his merriment and reasoning, are now over. Such another will not often be found among mankind. He directed himself to be buried by the side of his mother, an instance of tenderness which I hardly expected. He has left his children to the care of Lady Di, and if she dies, of Mr. Langton, and of Mr. Leicester his relation, and a man of good character. His library has been offered to sale to the Russian ambassador 2.

"Dr. Percy, notwithstanding all the noise of the newspapers, has had no literary loss. Clothes and moveables were burnt to the value of about one hundred pounds; but his papers, and I think his books, were all preserved.

"Poor Mr. Thrale has been in extreme danger from an apoplectical disorder, and recovered, beyond the expectation of his physicians: he is now at Bath, that his mind may be quiet, and Mrs. Thrale and Miss are with him.

"Having told you what has happened to your friends, let me say something to you of yourself. You are always complaining of melancholy, and I conclude from those complaints that you are fond of it. No man talks of that which he is de

[See it ante, vol. i. p. 249.-ED.]

2 His library was sold by publick auction in April and May, 1781, for £5011.-MALONE.

3 By a fire in Northumberland-house, where he had an apartment in which I have passed many an agreeable hour.-BosWELL. ["It has been asserted that Dr. Percy sustained great losses at the fire at Northumberland-house; but I was present when his apartments were in flames, and can explicitly declare that all his books and papers were safely removed.”—Cradock's Memoirs, p. 43. -ED.]

ED.

Letters, vol. ii. P. 96.

sirous to conceal, and every man desires to conceal that of which he is ashamed. Do not pretend to deny it; manifestum habemus furem. Make it an invariable and obligatory law to yourself, never to mention your own mental diseases. If you are never to speak of them, you will think on them but little; and if you think little of them, they will molest you rarely. When you talk of them, it is plain that you want either praise or pity: for praise there is no room, and pity will do you no good; therefore, from this hour speak no more, think no more, about them.

"Your transaction with Mrs. Stewart1 gave me great satisfaction. I am much obliged to you for your attention. Do not lose sight of her. Your countenance may be of great credit, and of consequence of great advantage to her. The memory of her brother is yet fresh in my mind: he was an ingenious and worthy man.

"Please to make my compliments to your lady and to the young ladies. I should like to see them, pretty loves! I am, dear sir, yours affectionately, "SAM. JOHNSON."

2

Mrs. Thrale being now at Bath with her husband, the correspondence between Johnson and her was carried on briskly, * * *2 [and affords us all the information which we have of this portion of his domestic life.]

["DR. JOHNSON TO MRS. THRALE.

"London, 6th April, 1780 3. "I have not quite neglected my Lives. Addison is a long one, but it is done. Prior is not short, and that is done too. I am upon Rowe, which cannot fill much paper.

"Seward (Mr. William) called on me one day and read Spence1. I dined yesterday at Mr. Jodrell's in a great deal of

1 [See ante, p. 295.-ED.]

[Here Mr. Boswell had prefaced the introduction of the letter of the 28th April by the following words: "I shall present my readers with one of her original letters to him at this time, which will amuse them probably more than those well-written but studied epistles which she has inserted in her collection, because it exhibits the easy vivacity of their literary intercourse. It is also of value as a key to Johnson's answer, which she has printed by itself, and of which I shall subjoin extracts." This insinuation against Mrs. Thrale is quite unfounded: her letters are certainly any thing but studied epistles; and that one which Mr. Boswell has published is not more easy and unaffected, nor in any respect of a different character from those she herself has given.-ED.]

3 [Dated in Mrs. Thrale's volume 1779 by mistake.-ED.]

[Spence's very amusing anecdotes, which had been lent Johnson in manu. script: they were not printed till 1820.—ED.]

company. On Sunday I dine with Dr. Lawrence, and at night go to Mrs. Vesey. I have had a little cold, or two, or three ; but I did not much mind them, for they were not very bad."]

["DR. JOHNSON TO MRS. LUCY PORTER.

"London, 8th April, 1780. "DEAR MADAM,-I am indeed but a sluggish correspondent, and know not whether I shall much mend: however, I will try. "I am glad that your oysters proved good, for I would have every thing good that belongs to you; and would have your health good, that you may enjoy the rest. My health is better than it has been for some years past; and, if I see Lichfield again, I hope to walk about it.

"Your brother's request I have not forgotten. I have bought as many volumes as contain about an hundred and fifty sermons, which I will put in a box, and get Mr. Mathias to send him. I shall add a letter.

He

"We have been lately much alarmed at Mr. Thrale's. has had a stroke, like that of an apoplexy; but he has at last got so well as to be at Bath, out of the way of trouble and business, and is likely to be in a short time quite well.

"I hope all the Lichfield ladies are quite well, and that every thing is prosperous among them.

"A few weeks ago I sent you a little stuff-gown, such as is all the fashion at this time. Yours is the same with Mrs. Thrale's, and Miss bought it for us. These stuffs are very cheap, and

are thought very pretty.

"Pray give my compliments to Mr. Pearson, and to every body, if any such body there be, that cares about me.

"I am now engaged about the rest of the Lives, which I am afraid will take some time, though I purpose to use despatch; but something or other always hinders. I have a great number to do, but many of them will be short.

"I have lately had colds: the first was pretty bad, with a very troublesome and frequent cough; but by bleeding and physick it was sent away. I have a cold now, but not bad enough for bleeding.

"For some time past, and indeed ever since I left Lichfield last year, I have abated much of my diet, and am, I think, the better for abstinence. I can breathe and move with less difficulty; and I am as well as people of my age commonly are. I hope we shall see one another again some time this year. I am, dear love, your humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON."]

Pearson

MSS.

Letters, vol. ii. p. 99.

p. 100.

p. 102.

ever.

[“TO MRS. THRALE.

"11th April, 1780. "On Sunday I dined with poor Lawrence, who is deafer than When he was told that Dr. Moisy visited Mr. Thrale, he inquired for what, and said that there was nothing to be done which Nature would not do for herself. On Sunday evening I was at Mr. Vesey's, and there was inquiry about my master; but I told them all good. There was Dr. Barnard of Eton, and we made a noise all the evening: and there was Pepys, and Wraxal till I drove him away.

"[Miss] Burney said she would write-she told you a fib. She writes nothing to me. She can write home fast enough. I have a good mind not to let her know that Dr. Bernard, to whom I had recommended her novel', speaks of it with great commendation; and that the copy which she lent me has been read by Dr. Lawrence three times over. And yet what a gipsy it is! She no more minds me than if I were a Brangton.

*

"You are at all places of high resort, and bring home hearts by dozens; while I am seeking for something to say of men about whom I know nothing but their verses, and sometimes very little of them. Now I have begun, however, I do not despair of making an end. Mr. Nicholls holds that Addison is the most taking of all that I have done. I doubt they will not be done before you come away.

"Now you think yourself the first writer in the world for a letter about nothing. Can you write such a letter as this? so miscellaneous, with such noble disdain of regularity, like Shakspeare's works? such graceful negligence of transition, like the ancient enthusiasts? The pure voice of nature and of friendship. Now of whom shall I proceed to speak? Of whom but Mrs, Montagu? Having mentioned Shakspeare and Nature, does not the name of Montagu force itself upon me?? Such were the transitions of the ancients, which now seem abrupt because the intermediate idea is lost to modern understandings."

“15th April, 1780.

"I thought to have finished Rowe's Life to-day, but I have had

[Evelina.-ED.]

2 [Compare this with two former phrases, in which Shakspeare and Mrs. Montagu are mentioned (ante, vol. ii. p. 88 and p. 89), and wonder at the inconsistencies to which the greatest genius and the highest spirit may be reduced!—ED.]

five or six visiters who hindered me; and I have not been quite Letters. well. Next week I hope to despatch four or five of them."

"You make verses, and they are read in publick, and I know p. 105. nothing about them. This very crime, I think, broke the link of amity between Richardson and Miss M- -1, after a tenderness and confidence of many years."

"London, 25th April, 1780.

"How do you think I live? On Thursday I dined with Hamilton, and went thence to Mrs. Ord'. On Friday, with much company, at Mrs. Reynolds'. On Saturday at Dr. Bell's. On Sunday at Dr. Burney's, with your two sweets from Kennington, who are both well: at night came Mrs. Ord, Mr. Harris, and Mr. Greville, &c. On Monday with Reynolds; at night with Lady Lucan; to-day with Mr. Langton; to-morrow with the Bishop of St. Asaph; on Thursday with Mr. Bowles; FridayRamsay.

--; Saturday at the academy'; Sunday with Mr.

"I told Lady Lucan how long it was since she sent to me; but she said I must consider how the world rolls about her.

*

"I not only scour the town from day to day, but many visiters come to me in the morning, so that my work makes no great progress, but I will try to quicken it. I should certainly like to bustle a little among you, but I am unwilling to quit my post till I have made an end.”]

"MRS. THRALE TO DR. JOHNSON.

66

Bath, Friday, 28th April. "I had a very kind letter from you yesterday, dear sir, with a most circumstantial date".

"Yesterday's evening was passed at Mrs. Montagu's. There was Mr. Melmoth. I do not like him though, nor he me. It

[Probably Miss Mulso, afterwards Mrs. Chapone, one of Richardson's fe male coterie.-ED.]

• Probably the Right Honourable W. G. Hamilton.-ED.1

3 [This lady (a celebrated blue stocking of her day) was Miss Anne Dillingham, the only daughter of Mr. Dillingham, an eminent surgeon. She was early married to Mr. Ord, of Northumberland, who, on his decease, left her a very large property. She died in May, 1808, at the age of 82. See Gent. Mag. for July, 1808.-ED.]

[The annual dinner on opening the Exhibition.-En.]

[This alludes to Johnson's frequent advice to her and Miss Thrale to date their letters, a laudable habit, which, however, he himself did not always practise.-ED.]

6 [William Melmoth, the author of Fitzosborne's Letters, and the translator

VOL. IV.

X

p. 107.

p. 108.