riches.

I was quite enchanted at Chester, so that I could with difficulty quit it. But the enchantment was the reverse of that of Circé; for so far was there from being anything sensual in it, that I was all mind. I do not mean all reason only; for my fancy was kept finely in play. And why not? If you please I will send you a copy or an abridgment of my Chester journal, whica is truly a log-book of felicity.

2

"The Bishop treated me with a kindness which was very flattering. I told him that you regretted you had seen so little of Chester. His Lordship bade me tell you, that he should be glad to show you more of it. I am proud to find the friendship with which you honour me is known in so many places. I arrived here late last night. Our friend the Dean' has been gone from hence some months; but I am told at my inn, that he is very populous (popular). However, I found Mr. Law, the Archdeacon, son to the Bishop, and with him I have breakfasted and dined very agreeably. I got acquainted with him at the assizes here, about a year and a half ago. He is a man of great variety of knowledge, uncommon genius, and, I believe sincere religion. I received the holy sacrament in the cathedral in the morning, this being the first Sunday in the month; and was at prayers there in the evening. It is divinely cheering to me to think that there is a cathedral so near Auchinleck, and I now leave Old England in such a state of mind as I am thankful to God for granting me.

"The black dog that worries me at home I cannot but dread; yet as I have been for some time past in a military train, I trust I shall repulse him. To hear from you will animate me like the sound of a trumpet; I therefore hope, that soon after my return to the northern field, I shall receive a few lines from you.

"Colonel Stuart did me the honour to escort me in his carriage to show me Liverpool, and from thence back again to Warrington, where we parted. In justice to my valuable wife, I must inform you she wrote to me, that as I was so happy, she would not be so selfish as to wish me to return sooner than business absolutely required my presence. She made my clerk write to me a post or two after to the same purpose, by commission from her; and this day a kind letter from her met me at the post-office here, acquainting me that she and the little ones were well, and expressing all their wishes for my return home. I am, more and more, my dear Sir, your affectionate and obliged humble servant, JAMES ROSWELL."

1 Dr. Percy.-0.

2 Dr. Edmond Law, master of St. Peter's College, Cambridge, Bishop of Carlisle, in which see he died in 1787.-0.

3 His regiment was afterwards ordered to Jamaica, where he accompanied it, and almost Jost his life by the climate. This impartial order I should think a sufficient refutation of the idle rumour *bat "there was still something behind the throne greater than the throne itself."

LETTER 864.

TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.

"London, Nov. 18, 1779. "DEAR SIR,-Your last letter was not only kind, but fond. But I wish you to get rid of all intellectual excesses, and neither to exalt your pleasures, nor aggravate your vexations, beyond their real and natural state. Why should you not be as happy at Edinburgh as at Chester? In culpa est animus, qui se non effugit usquam. Please yourself with your wife and children, and studies, and practice

"I have sent a petition' from Lucy Porter, with which I leave it to your discretion whether it is proper to comply. Return me her letter, which I have sent, that you may know the whole case, and not be seduced to anything that you may afterwards repent. Miss Doxy perhaps you know to be Mr. Garrick's niece.

"If Dean Percy can be popular at Carlisle, he may be very happy. He has in his disposal two livings, each equal or almost equal in value to the deanery; he may take one himself, and give the other to his son.

"How near is the cathedral to Auchinleck, that you are so much delighted with it? It is, I suppose, at least an hundred and fifty miles off. However, if you are pleased, it is so far well. Let me know what reception you have from your father, and the state of his health. Please him as much as you can, and add no pain to his last years.

"Of our friends here I can recollect nothing to tell you. I have neither seen nor heard of Langton. Beauclerk is just returned from Brighthelmstone, I am told, much better. Mr. Thrale and his family are still there; and his health is said to be visibly improved. He has not bathed, but hunted. At Bolt Court there is much malignity, but of late little open hostility. I have had a cold, but it is gone. Make my compliments to Mrs. Boswell, &c. I am, SAM. JOHNSON."

&c.

On November 22 and December 21, I wrote to him from Edinburgh, giving a very favourable report of the family of Miss Doxy's lover ;-that after a good deal of inquiry I had discovered the sister of Mr. Francis Stewart, one of his amanuenses when writing his Dictionary ;-that I had, as desired by him, paid her a guinea for an old pocket-book of her brother's, which he had retained;-and that the good woman, who was in very moderate circumstances, but contented and placid, wondered at his scrupulous and liberal honesty, and received the guinea as if sent her by Providence ;—that I had repeatedly begged of him to keep his promise to send me his letter

1 Requesting me to inquire concerning the family of a gentleman who was then paying his addresses to Miss Doxy.

to Lord Chesterfield; and that this memento, like Delenda est Car thago, must be in every letter that I should write to him, till I had obtained my object.

LETTER 365.

TO MRS. THRALE.

"London, Oct. 25, 1779.

"On Saturday I walked to Dover Street and back. Yesterday I dined with Sir Joshua. There was Mr. Eliot of Cornwall, who inquired after my master. At night I was bespoken by Lady Lucan; but she was taken ill, and the assembly was put off. I am to dine with Renny to-morrow. Some old gentlewomen at the next door are in very great distress. Their little annuity comes from Jamaica, and is therefore uncertain, and one of them has had a fall, and both are very helpless; and the poor have you to help them. Persuade my master to let me give them something for him. It will be bestowed upon real want."

1 First Lord Eliot. See post, sub 80 March, 1781. —Q.

"Lives of the Poets " completed-Dr. Lawrence-Loss of a Wife-Death of Topham Beauclerk -Letter-writing-Mr. Melmoth-Fitzosborne's Letters-Somerset-House Exhibition-Riote in London-Lord George Gordon-Mr. Akerman-Correspondence-Dr. Beattie-Davies's "Life of Garrick "-Advice to a Young Clergyman-Composition of Sermons-Borough Election-Lady Southwell-Mr. Alexander Macbean-Lord Thurlow-Langton's Collectanea-Dr. Franklin's "Demonax."

IN 1780, the world was kept in impatience for the completion of his "Lives of the Poets," upon which he was employed so far as his indolence allowed him to labour.

I wrote to him on January 1 and March 13, sending him my notes of Lord Marchmont's information concerning Pope;-complaining that I had not heard from him for almost four months, though he was two letters in my debt; that I had suffered again from melancholy ;--hoping that he had been in so much better company (the Poets'), that he had not time to think of his distant friends; for if that were the case, I should have some recompence for my uneasiness;—that the state of my affairs did not admit of my coming to London this year; and begging he would return me Goldsmith's two poems, with his lines marked.

His friend Dr. Lawrence having now suffered the greatest affliction to which a man is liable, and which Johnson himself had felt in the most severe manner, Johnson wrote to him in an admirable strain of sympathy and pious consolation.

LETTER 366.

TO DR. LAWRENCE.

"Jan. 20, 1780.

"DEAR SIR,-At a time when all your friends ought to show their kindness, and with a character which ought to make all that know you your friends, you may wonder that you have yet heard nothing from me. I have been hindered by a vexatious and incessant cough, for which within these ten days I have

beeɔ led once, fasted four or five times, taken physic five times, and opiates, I that, six. This day it seems to remit.

"The loss, dear Sir, which you have lately suffered, I felt many years ago, and know therefore how much has been taken from you, and how little help can be had from consolation. He that outlives a wife whom he has long loved, sees himself disjoined from the only mind that has the same hopes, and fears, and interest; from the only companion with whom he has shared much good or evil; and with whom he could set his mind at liberty, to retrace the past or anticipate the future. The continuity of being is lacerated; the settled course of sentiment and action is stopped; and life stands suspended and motionless, till it is driven by external causes into a new channel. time of suspense is dreadful.

But the

"Our first recourse in this distressed solitude is, perhaps for want of habitual piety, to a gloomy acquiescence in necessity. Of two mortal beings, one must 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, 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.1 He directed him

1 "His conversation could scarcely be equalled. He possessed an exquisite taste, various accomplishments, and the most perfect good breeding. He was eccentric-ofter 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 surrounded by those who suited his fancy, one of the most agreeable men that could possibly exist."-LORD CHARLEMONT, Life, vol ♣ p. 844