lose the other. But surely there is a higher and better comfort to be drawn from the consideration of that Providence which watches over all, and a belief that the living and the dead are equally in the hands of God, who will reunite those whom he has separated, or who sees that it is best not to reunite. I am, dear Sir, &c. "SAM. JOHNSON.'

LETTER 367. TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.

"April 8. 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 an other will not often be found among mankind. (2) He

(2) "His conversation could scarcely be equalled. He pos sessed an exquisite taste, various accomplishments, and the most perfect good breeding. He was eccentric-often querulous entertaining a contempt for the generality of the world, which the politeness of his manners could not always conceal; but to those whom he liked, most generous and friendly. Devoted at one moment to pleasure, and at another to literature, sometimes absorbed in play, and sometimes in books, he was, altogether, one of the most accomplished, and, when in good humour, and

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. (1)

"Dr. Percy, notwithstanding all the noise of the newspapers, has had no literary loss. (2) 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 desirous 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,

surrounded by those who suited his fancy, one of the most agreeable men that could possibly exist.". LORD CHARLEMONT, } Life, vol. i. p. 344. — C.

(1) His library was sold by public auction in April and May, 1781, for 5,011. — M.

(2) By a fire in Northumberland House, where he had an apartment in which I have passed many an agreeable hour.

"On Sunday I dined with poor Lawrence, who is deafer than ever. 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 (1), and Wraxall (2) till I drove him away. .... 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. Barnard, 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 òver. 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

(1) Afterwards Sir W. W. Pepys, a Master in Chancery; a great friend of Mrs. Thrale's, and, what is more to his honour, of Hannah More.

- C.

(2) Nathaniel Wraxall, who published some volumes of travels and history, and latterly Memoirs of his own Life; for a passage in which, reflecting on Count Woronzow, he was convicted of a libel, and imprisoned in Newgate. He was born in 1751, and created a Baronet in 1813.- - Č.

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 (1)? Such were the transitions of the ancients, which now seem abrupt because the intermediate idea is lost to modern understandings."

"April 15. 1780.

"I thought to have finished Rowe's Life to-day, but I have had five or six visiters who hindered me; and I have not been quite well. Next week I hope to despatch four or five of them."

"April 18. 1780. You make verses, and they are read in public, and I know nothing about them. This very crime, I think, broke the link of amity between Richardson and Miss M (2), after a tenderness and confidence of many years."

April 25. 1780.- How do you think I live? On Thursday I dined with Hamilton (3), and went thence to Mrs. Ord. (4) On Friday, with much com

(1) Compare this with two former phrases, in which Shak-wh speare and Mrs. Montagu are mentioned (antè, Vol. III. p. 89. and p. 90.), and wonder at the inconsistencies to which the greatest genius and the highest spirit may be reduced! — C.

(2) Miss Mulso, afterwards Mrs. Chapone, one of Richardson's female côterie. When about three and twenty, she had been one of the few contributors to the Rambler. She was born in 1727, married Mr. Chapone in 1760, and died in 1801. She was much connected with Mrs. Carter and Mrs. Montagu, and all the Blues. — C.

(3) Probably the Right Hon. W. G. Hamilton.-C.

(4) This lady (a celebrated blue stocking of her day) was Miss Anne Dillingham, the only daughter of an eminent surgeon. She was early married to Mr. Ord, of Northumberland, who

r. in cronica lol.

;

pany, at Mrs. Reynolds's. On Saturday at Dr. Bell's. On Sunday at Dr. Burney's, with your two sweets from Kensington, 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; Friday Saturday at the Academy (1); Sunday with Mr. Ramsay. 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 being now at Bath with her husband, the correspondence between Johnson and her was carried on briskly. I shall present my readers with one of her original letters to him at this time, which will amuse them probably more than those wellwritten 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." (2)

left her a very large property. She died in May, 1808, at the age of eighty-two.-C.

(1) The annual dinner on opening the Exhibition. — C.

(2) 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.-C.