apprehension he writes to me, Ask your physicians about my case.' "This, you see, is not authority for a regular consultation: but I have no doubt of your readiness to give your advice to a man so eminent, and who, in his Life of Garth, has paid your profession a just and elegant compliment: I believe every man has found in physicians great liberality and dignity of sentiment, very prompt effusions of beneficence, and willingness to exert a lucrative art where there is no hope of lucre.' "Dr. Johnson is aged seventy-four. Last summer he had a stroke of the palsy, from which he recovered almost entirely. He had, before that, been troubled with a catarrhous cough. This winter he was seized with a spasmodick asthma, by which he has been confined to his house about three months. Dr. Brocklesby writes to me, that upon the least admission of cold, there is such a constriction upon his breast, that he cannot lie down in his bed, but is obliged to sit up all night, and gets rest, and sometimes sleep, only by means of laudanum and syrup of poppies; and that there are dematous tumours in his legs and thighs. Dr. Brocklesby trusts a good deal to the return of mild weather. Dr. Johnson says that a dropsy gains ground upon him; and he seems to think that a warmer climate would do him good. I understand he is now rather better, and is using vinegar of squills. I am, with great esteem, dear sir, your most obedient humble servant, "JAMES BOSWELL." All of them paid the most polite attention to my letter and its venerable object. Dr. Cullen's words concerning him were, "It would give me the greatest pleasure to be of any service to a man whom the publick properly esteem, and whom I esteem and respect as much as I do Dr. Johnson." Dr. Hope's, "Few people have a better claim on me than your friend, as hardly a day passes that I do not ask his opinion about this or that word." Dr. Monro's, "I most sincerely join you in sympathizing with that very worthy and ingenious character, from whom his country has derived much instruction and entertainment." Dr. Hope corresponded with his friend Dr. Brocklesby. Doctors Cullen and Monro wrote their opinions and prescriptions to me, which I afterwards carried with me to London, and, so far as they were encouraging, communicated to Johnson. The liberality on one hand, and grateful sense of it on the other. I have great satisfaction in recording. ["DR. JOHNSON TO MRS. LUCY PORTER. "Bolt-court, Fleet-street, 10th March, 1784. Pearson MSS. "MY DEAREST LOVE,-I will not suppose that it is for want of kind ness that you did not answer my last letter; and I therefore write agair to tell you that 1 have, by God's great mercy, still continued to grow better. My asthma is seldom troublesome, and my dropsy has ran itself almost away, in a manner which my physician says is very uncommon. "I have been confined from the 14th of December, and shall not soon venture abroad; but I have this day dressed myself as I was before my sickness. "If it be inconvenient to you to write, desire Mr. Pearson to let me know how you do, and how you have passed this long winter. I am now not without hopes that we shall once more see one another. "Make my compliments to Mrs. Cobb and Miss Adey, and to all my friends, particularly to Mr. Pearson. I am, my dear, your most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." Pemb MS. "DR. JOHNSON TO MRS. GASTRELL AND MISS ASTON. "Bolt-court, Fleet-street, London, 11th March, 1784. "DEAR LADIES,-The kind and speedy answer with which you favoured me to my last letter encourages me to hope that you will be glad to hear again that my recovery advances. My disorders are an asthma and dropsy. The asthma gives me no great trouble when I am not in motion, and the water of the dropsy has passed away in so happy a manner, by the goodness of God, as Dr. Heberden declares himself not to have known more than four times in all his practice. I have been confined to the house from December the 14th, and shall not venture out till the weather is settled; but I have this day dressed myself as before I became ill. Join with me in returning thanks, and pray for me that the time now granted me may not be ill spent. "Let me now, dear ladies, have some account of you. Tell me how you have endured this long and sharp winter, and give me hopes that we may all meet again with kindness and cheerfulness. I am, dear ladies, your most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON."] "TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. "London, 18th March, 1784. "DEAR SIR,-I am too much pleased with the attention which you and your dear lady show to my welfare, not to be diligent in letting you know the progress which I make towards health. The dropsy, by God's blessing, has now run almost totally away by natural evacuation: and the asthma, if not irritated by cold, gives me 1 Who had written him a very kind letter. BOSWELL. hopes. little role. While I am writing this I am, as my chirurgeon expressed it, amazinghave any sensation of debility or disease.ly better. Heberden seems to have great But I do not yet venture out, having been confined to the house from the 13th of Deember, now a quarter of a year. "When it will be fit for me to travel as far us Auchinleck I am not able to guess; but such a letter as Mrs. Boswell's might draw any man not wholly motionless a great way. Pray tell the dear lady how much her civility and kindness have touched and gratified Letters, vol. ii. p. 354. "SAM. JOHNSON." "TO MRS. THRale. "London, 20th March, 1784. "MADAM,-Your last letter had something of tenderness. The accounts which you have had of my danger and distress were I suppose not aggravated. I have been confined ten weeks with an asthma and dropsy. But I am now better. God has in his mercy granted me a reprieve; for how much time his mercy must determine. "On the 19th of last month I evacuated twenty pints of water, and I think I reckon exactly. From that time the tumour has subsided, and I now begin to move with some freedom. You will easily believe that I am still at a great distance from health; but I "Write to me no more about dying with 4 grace. When you feel what I have felt in approaching eternity-in fear of soon hearing the sentence of which there is no revocation-you will know the folly my wish is that you may know it sooner. The distance between the grave and the remotest part of human longevity is but a very little ; and of that little no path is certain. You know all this, and I thought that I knew it too; but I know it now with a new conviction. May that new conviction not be vain! "I am now cheerful. I hope this approach to recovery is a token of the Di vine mercy; My friends continue their kindness. I give a dinner to-morrow. I am, madam, your, &c. "SAM. JOHNSON."] I wrote to him, March 28, from York, informing him that I had a high gratification in the triumph of monarchical principles over aristocratical influence, in that great county, in an address to the king; that I was thus far on my way to him, but that news of the dissolution of parliament having arrived, I was to hasten back to my own county, where I had carried an address to his majesty by a great majority, and had some intention of being a candidate to represent the county in parliament. "Your solicitude for me gives me that pleasure which every man feels from the kindness of such a friend; and it is with delight I relieve it by telling that Dr. Brocklesby's account is true, and that I am, by the blessing of God, wonderfully relieved. "You are entering upon a transaction which requires much prudence. You must endeavour to oppose without exasperating; to practise temporary hostility, without producing enemies for life. This is, perhaps, hard to be done; yet it has been done by many, and seems most likely to be effected by opposing merely upon general principles, without descending to personal or particular censures or objections. One thing I must enjoin you, which is seldom observed in the conduct of elections; I must entreat you to be scrupulous in the use of strong liquors. One night's drunkenness may defeat the la bours 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 well, except Miss Langton, who will proba "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 comthan I ever expected to have been. May pletion of my recovery. I am now better God add to his mercies the grace that may enable me to use them according to his will. sometimes mischievous. I have, indeed, by My compliments to all." "13th April. standing carelessly at an open window, got a very troublesome cough, which it has been necessary to appease by opium, in larger "I had this evening a note from Lord quantities than I like to take, and I have not found it give way so readily as I expected: Portmore, desiring that I would give you its obstinacy, however, seems at last dispos- had it with less circumduction. I am, by an account of my health. You might have ed to submit to the remedy, and I know not whether I should then have a right to comGod's blessing, I believe, free from all morbid sensations, except a cough, which is plain of any morbid sensation. My asthma is, I am afraid, constitutional and incura- and can have no great hope of strength till only troublesome. But I am still weak, ble; but it is only occasional, and, unless it the weather shall be softer. The summer, be excited by labour or by cold, gives me no molestation, nor does it lay very close siege support the winter. God, who has so wonif it be kindly, will, I hope, enable me to to life; for Sir John Floyer, whom the phy-derfully restored me, can preserve me in all sickal 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 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 [Mr. Fox was returned for Westminster, afer a sharp election and a tedious scrutiny.-E3.j 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 answer: 1784.-ETAT. 75. "TO THE RIGHT HON. EARL OF PORT MORE. the foregoing extract, Johnson returned this itude for your favours. I am, sir, your "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 1. "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 2 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. 66 "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." 1 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; 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 good-natured error of Mr. Boswell's.-ED.] and ? Son of Mr. Samuel Paterson, eminent for his knowledge of books.-BOSWELL. [See ante, p. 349.--ED.] "TO OZIAS HUMPHRY, ESQ. Reyn. "31st May, 1784. 1 "SIR,-I am much obliged by your civery vilities 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 1 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 know I cannot avoid. It is vain to look round and round for that help which cannot be had. Yet we hope and hope, and fancy that he who has lived to day may live to-morBut let us learn to derive our hope only from God. "In the meantime, let us be kind to one another. I have no friend now living but you 3 and Mr. Hector, that was the friend of row. This friend of Johnson's youth survived my youth. Do not neglect, dear sir, yours affectionately, SAM. JOHNSON." Letters, ["TO MRS. THRALE. "London, 15th April, 1784. "Yesterday I had the pleasure of vol. ii. giving another dinner to the rep. 361-7. mainder of the old club. We used to meet weekly about the year 1750, and we were as cheerful as in former times only 1 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.' morrow. "The club which has lately been instituted is at Sam's; and there was I when I was last out of the house. But the people whom I mentioned in my letter are the remnant of a little club that used to meet in Ivy-lane about three and thirty years ago, out of which we have lost Hawkesworth and Dyer-the rest are yet on this side the grave. "London, 21st April, 1734. “I make haste to send you intelligence, which, if I do not flatter myself, you will him somewhat more than three years, having died February 19, 1788.-MALONE. 1 [See ante, vol. i. p. 75.-ED.] not reo ive without some degree of pleasure. After a confinement of one hundred and twenty-nine days, more than the third part of a year, and no inconsiderable part of human life, I this day returned thanks to God in St. Clement's church for my recovery; a recovery, in my seventy-fifth year, from a distemper which few in the vigour of youth are known to surmount; a recovery, of which neither myself, my friends, nor my physi cians, had any hope; for though they flattered me with some continuance of life, they never supposed that I could cease to be dropsical. The dropsy, however, is quite vanished; and the asthma so much mitigated, that I walked to-day with a more easy respiration than I have known, 1 think, for perhaps two years past. I hope the mercy that lightens my days will assist me to use them well. "The Hooles, Miss Burney, and Mrs. Hall (Wesley's sister), feasted yesterday with me very cheerfully on your noble salmon. Mr. Allen could not come, and I sent him a piece, and a great tail is still left. "Dr. Brocklesby forbids the club at present, not caring to venture the chillness of the evening; but I purpose to show myself on Saturday at the Academy's feast 2. I cannot publish my return to the world more effectually; for, as the Frenchman says, tout le monde s'y trouvera. |