visiting the sick?-Shall we ever have another frolick like our journey to the Hebrides? "I hope that dear Mrs. Boswell will surmount her complaints; in losing her you will lose your anchor, and be tost, without stability, by the waves of life.' I wish both her and you very many years, and very happy. "For some months past I have been so withdrawn from the world, that I can send you nothing particular. All your friends, however, are well, and will be glad of your return to London. I am, dear sir, "January 5, 1782." "Yours most affectionately, At a time when he was less able than he had once been to sustain a shock, he was suddenly deprived of Mr. Levett, which event he thus communicated to Dr. Lawrence. "SIR, "OUR old friend, Mr. Levett, who was last night eminently cheerful, died this morning. The man who lay in the same room, hearing an uncommon noise, got up and tried to make him speak, but without effect. He then called Mr. Holder, the apothecary, who, though when he came he thought him dead, opened a vein, but could draw no blood. has ended the long life of a very useful and very blameless man. I am, sir, "Jan. 17, 1782." So "Your most humble servant, 1 The truth of this has been proved by sad experience. [Mrs. Boswell died June 4, 1789. M.] In one of his memorandum-books in my possession, is the following entry: "January 20, Sunday. Robert Levett was buried in the church-yard of Bridewell, between one and two in the afternoon. He died on Thursday 17, about seven in the morning, by an instantaneous death. He was an old and faithful friend; I have known him from about 46. Commendavi. May God have mercy on him. May he have mercy on me." Such was Johnson's affectionate regard for Levett,' that he honoured his memory with the following pathetick verses: " CONDEMN'D to Hope's delusive mine, By sudden blast or slow decline Our social comforts drop away. Well try'd through many a varying year, Of every friendless name the friend. Yet still he fills affection's eye, Obscurely wise, and coarsely kind, Nor, letter'd arrogance, deny When fainting Nature call'd for aid, His vigorous remedy display'd The power of art without the show. 1 See an account of him in "The Gentleman's Magazine,” Feb. 1785. 2 In both editions of Sir John Hawkins's Life of Dr. Johnson, "letter'd ignorance," is printed. In Misery's darkest caverns known, Where hopeless Anguish pour'd his groan, No summons mock'd by chill delay, The toil of every day supply'd. His virtues walk'd their narrow round, The busy day, the peaceful night, His frame was firm, his powers were bright, Then, with no throbs of fiery pain, No cold gradations of decay, And freed his soul the nearest way." In one of Johnson's registers of this year, there occurs the following curious passage: "Jan. 20. The Ministry is dissolved. I prayed with Francis,' and gave thanks."2 It has been the subject of discussion, whether there are two distinct particulars mentioned here? Or that we are to understand the giving of thanks to be in consequence of the dissolution of the Ministry? In support of the last of these conjectures may be urged his mean opinion of that Ministry, 1 Johnson repeated this line to me thus: "And Labour steals an hour to die." But he afterwards altered it to the present reading. 2 Prayers and Meditations, p. 209. which has frequently appeared in the course of this work; and it is strongly confirmed by what he said on the subject to Mr. Seward:-" I am glad the ministry is removed. Such a bunch of imbecility never disgraced a country. If they sent a messenger into the City to take up a printer, the messenger was taken up instead of the printer, and committed by the sitting Alderman. If they sent one army to the relief of another, the first army was defeated and taken before the second arrived. I will not say that what they did was always wrong; but it was always done at a wrong time." "MRS. WILLIAMS shewed me your kind letter. This little habitation is now but a melancholy place, clouded with the gloom of disease and death. Of the four inmates, one has been suddenly snatched away; two are oppressed by very afflictive and dangerous illness; and I tried yesterday to gain some relief by a third bleeding, from a disorder which has for some time distressed me, and I think myself to-day much better. "I am glad, dear madam, to hear that you are so far recovered as to go to Bath. Let me once more entreat you to stay till your health is not only obtained, but confirmed. Your fortune is such as that no moderate expense deserves your care; and you have a husband, who, I believe, does not regard it. Stay, therefore, till you are quite well. I am, for my part, very much deserted; but complaint is useless. I hope GoD will bless you, and I desire you to form the same wish for me. I am, dear madam, "Feb. 4, 1782." VOL. V. "Your most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." D SIR, rr TO EDMOND MALONE, ESQ. "I HAVE for many weeks been so much out of order, that I have gone out only in a coach to Mrs. Thrale's, where I can use all the freedom that sickness requires. Do not, therefore, take it amiss, that I am not with you and Dr. Farmer. I hope hereafter to see you often. I am, sir, "Feb. 27, 1782." "Your most humble servant, "6 DEAR SIR, TO THE SAME. "I HOPE I grow better, and shall soon be able to enjoy the kindness of my friends. I think this wild adherence to Chatterton 1 more unaccountable than the obstinate defence of Ossian. In Ossian there is a national pride, which may be forgiven, though it cannot be applauded. In Chatterton there 1 [This Note was in answer to one which accompanied one of the earliest pamphlets on the subject of Chatterton's forgery, entitled "Cursory Observations on the Poems attributed to Thomas Rowley," &c. Mr. Thomas Warton's very able" Inquiry" appeared about three months afterwards: and Mr. Tyrwhitt's admirable "Vindication of his Appendix," in the summer of the same year, left the believers in his daring imposture nothing but "the resolution to say again what had been said before." Daring, however, as this fiction was, and wild as was the adherence to Chatterton, both were greatly exceeded in 1795 and the following year, by a still more audacious imposture, and the pertinacity of of one of its adherents, who has immortalized his name by publishing a bulky volume, of which the direct and manifest object was, to prove the authenticity of certain papers attributed to Shakspeare, after the fabricator of the spurious trash had publickly acknowledged the imposture! M.] |