formidable. He will, if the forwardness of his spring be not blasted, be a credit to you, and to the University. He brings some of my plays1 with him, which he has my permission to show you, on condition you will hide them from every body else. I am, dear Sir, &c. "SAM. JOHNSON."

TO BENNET LANGTON, ESQ., AT LANGTON, NEAR SPILSBY, LINCOLNSHIRE.2

"DEAR SIR,

3

"I should be sorry to think that what engrosses the attention of my friend, should have no part of mine. Your mind is now full of the fate of Dury; but his fate is past, and nothing remains but to try what reflection will suggest to mitigate the terrors of a violent death, which is more formidable at the first glance, than on a nearer and more steady view. A violent death is never very painful; the only danger is, lest it should be unprovided. But if a man can be supposed to make no provision for death in war, what can be the state that would have awakened him to the care of futurity? When would that man have prepared himself to die, who went to seek death without preparation? What then can be the reason why we lament more him that dies of a wound, than him that dies of a fever? A man that languishes with disease, ends his life with more pain, but with less virtue : he leaves no example to his friends, nor bequeaths any honour to his descendants. The only reason why we lament a soldier's death, is, that we think he might have lived longer; yet this cause of grief is common to many other kinds of death, which are not so passionately bewailed. The truth is, that every death is violent which is the effect of accident; every death which is not gradually brought on by the miseries of age, or when life is

1 Part of the impression of the Shakspeare, which Dr. Johnson conducted alone, and published by subscription. This edition came out in 1765.-Warton.

2 Inserted in the third edition, vol. i., p. 299.-Editor.

3

Major-General Alexander Dury, of the First Regiment of Foot Guards, who fell in the gallant discharge of his duty, near St. Cas, in the well-known unfortunate expedition against France, in 1758. His lady and Mr. Langton's mother were sisters. He left an only son, LieutenantColonel Dury, who has a company in the same regiment.

extinguished for any other reason than that it is burnt out. He that dies before sixty, of a cold or consumption, dies, in reality, by a violent death; yet his death is borne with patience, only because the cause of his untimely end is silent and invisible. Let us endeavour to see things as they are, and then inquire whether we ought to complain. Whether to see life as it is, will give us much consolation, I know not; but the consolation which is drawn from truth, if any there be, is solid and durable: that which may be derived from error must be, like its original, fallacious and fugitive. I am, dear Sir, your most humble servant,

66 'SAM. JOHNSON."

TO THE SAME.1

1

"DEAREST SIR,

"Jan. 9. 1758 (1759).

"I must have indeed slept very fast, not to have been awakened by your letter. None of your suspicions are true; I am not much richer than when you left me; and what is worse, my omission of an answer to your first letter will prove that I am not much wiser. But I go on as I formerly did, designing to be some time or other both rich and wise; and yet cultivate neither mind nor fortune. Do you take notice of my example and learn the danger of delay. When I was as you are now, towering in [the] confidence of twenty-one, little did I suspect that I should be, at forty-nine what I now am.

"But you do not seem to need my admonition.

You are busy

in acquiring and in communicating knowledge, and while you are studying, enjoy the end of study, by making others wiser and happier. I was much pleased with the tale that you told me of being tutor to your sisters. I, who have no sisters nor brothers, look with some degree of innocent envy on those who may be said to be born to friends; 2 and cannot see, without wonder, how rarely

1 Inserted in the third edition, vol. i., p. 287, but transposed to its present position.-Editor.

2 Gibbon, in his Memoirs, alludes to this subject with good taste and feeling :-"From my childhood to the present hour, I have deeply and sincerely regretted my sister, whose life was somewhat prolonged, and whom I remember to have seen an amiable infant. The relation of a brother and a sister, particularly if they do not marry, appears to me of a very singular nature. It is a familiar and tender friendship with a female much about our own age; an affection perhaps softened by the

that native union is afterwards regarded. It sometimes, indeed, happens, that some supervenient cause of discord may overpower this original amity; but it seems to me more frequently thrown away with levity, or lost by negligence, than destroyed by injury or violence. We tell the ladies that good wives make good husbands; I believe it is a more certain position that good brothers make good sisters.

"I am satisfied with your stay at home, as Juvenal with his friend's retirement to Cumæ: I know that your absence is best, though it be not best for me.

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'Quamvis digressu veteris confusus amici,

Laudo tamen vacuis quod sedem figere Cumis
Destinet, atque unum civem donare Sibyllæ.''

Langton is a good Cumæ, but who must be Sibylla? Mrs. Langton is as wise as Sibyl, and as good; and will live, if my wishes can prolong life, till she shall in time be as old. But she differs in this, that she has not scattered her precepts in the wind, at least not those which she bestowed upon you.

3

"The two Wartons just looked into the town, and were taken to see 'Cleone,' where David says, they were starved for want of company to keep them warm. David and Doddy 2 have had a new quarrel, and, I think, cannot conveniently quarrel any more. 'Cleone' was well acted by all the characters, but Bellamy left nothing to be desired. I went the first night, and supported it as well as I might; for Doddy, you know, is my patron, and I would not desert him. The play was very well received. Doddy, after the danger was over, went every night to the stage-side, and cried at the distress of poor Cleone.

4

"I have left off housekeeping, and therefore made presents of the game which you were pleased to send me. The pheasant I gave to Mr. Richardson, the bustard to Dr. Lawrence, and the pot I placed with Miss Williams, to be eaten by myself. She desires that her compliments and good wishes may be accepted by the family; and I make the same request for myself.

secret influence of the sex, but pure from any mixture of sensual desire -the sole species of Platonic love that can be indulged with truth, and without danger." Miscell. Works, vol. i. p. 17. London, 1796.— Croker. Sat. iii. 1-3.

2 Mr. Dodsley, the author of Cleone, first played 2nd Dec., 1758. 3 The well-known Miss George Ann Bellamy, who played the heroine. -Croker. 4 The author of Clarissa.

"Mr. Reynolds has within these few days raised his price to twenty guineas a head,' and Miss is much employed in miniatures. I know not any body [else] whose prosperity has increased since you left them.

"Murphy is to have his 'Orphan of China' acted next month; and is therefore, I suppose, happy. I wish I could tell you of any great good to which I was approaching, but at present my prospects do not much delight me; however, I am always pleased when I find that you, dear Sir, remember your affectionate, humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON."

In 1759, in the month of January, his mother died, at the great age of ninety, an event which deeply affected him; not that "his mind had acquired no firmness by the contemplation of mortality; but that his reverential affection for her was not abated by years, as indeed he retained all his tender feelings even to the latest period of his life. I have been told, that he regretted much his not having gone to visit his mother, for several years previous to her death. But he was constantly engaged in literary labours which confined him to London; and though he had not the comfort of seeing his aged parent, he contributed liberally to her support.

1 At Devonport, before his visit to Italy, his price was three guineas a head; in 1752, when he first returned, it was five guineas. When he settled in London he raised his charge to twelve guineas for a head, twenty-four guineas a half-length, forty-eight guineas for a whole length. A few years later the prices were fifteen, thirty, and sixty guineas. In 1764 his prices reached the maximum of thirty, fifty, and one hundred and fifty guineas, half of which was required to be paid at the first sitting. -Particulars collected from the Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds by G. R. Leslie and Tom Taylor. Walpole-quoted by Mr. Croker-says, "Sir Joshua, in his old age, became avaricious. He had one thousand guineas for my picture of the three Ladies Waldegrave:" and this picture, which Walpole seems to have thought overpaid, would fetch now more than five times the original sum paid. (Walpoliana). But see Life of Reynolds, vol. ii., p. 295.-Editor.

2 Hawkins, Life of Johnson, p. 365.

TO MRS. JOHNSON, LICHFIELD.1

"HONOURED MADAM,

"13th Jan. 1758.2

"The account which Miss [Porter] gives me of your health pierces my heart. God comfort and preserve you and save you, for the sake of Jesus Christ.

"I would have Miss read to you from time to time the Passion of our Saviour, and sometimes the sentences in the Communion Service, beginning, Come unto me, all ye that travail and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

66

Do,

"I have just now read a physical book, which inclines me to think that a strong infusion of the bark would do you good. dear mother, try it.

"Pray, send me your blessing, and forgive all that I have done amiss to you. And whatever you would have done, and what debts you would have paid first, or any thing else that you would direct, let Miss [Porter] put it down; I shall endeavour to obey you.

"I have got twelve guineas to send you, but unhappily am at a loss how to send it to-night. If I cannot send it to-night, it will come by the next post.

66

Pray, do not omit any thing mentioned in this letter. God bless you for ever and ever.-I am your dutiful son,

"SAM. JOHNSON."

1 Since the publication of the third edition of this work, the following letters of Dr. Johnson, occasioned by the last illness of his mother, were obligingly communicated to Mr. Malone by the Rev. Dr. Vyse. They are placed here agreeably to the chronological order almost uniformly observed by the author; and so strongly evince Dr. Johnson's piety and tenderness of heart, that every reader must be gratified by their insertion. Malone.

2 Written by mistake for 1759, as the subsequent letters show. On the outside of the letter of the 13th was written by another handPray acknowledge the receipt of this by return of post, without fail." -- Malone.

66

3 Six of these twelve guineas Johnson appears to have borrowed from Mr. Allen, the printer. See Hawkins's Life of Johnson, p. 366 n.— Malone.