the next door. Dr. Brocklesby arrived in a short time, and by his care, and that of Dr. Heberden, Johnson soon recovered. During his illness the writer of this narrative visited him, and found him reading Dr. Watson's Chemistry x . Articulating with difficulty, he said, { From this book, he who knows nothing may learn a great deal ; and he who knows, will be pleased to find his knowledge recalled to his mind in a manner highly pleasing.' In the month of August he set out for Lichfield, on a visit to Mrs. Lucy Porter, the daughter of his wife by her first husband ; and in his way back paid his respects to Dr. Adams at Oxford 2 . Mrs. Williams died at his house in Bolt-court in the month of September, during his absence 3 . This was another shock to a mind like his, ever agitated by the thoughts of futurity. The contemplation of his own approaching end was constantly before his eyes; and the prospect of death, he declared, was terrible 4 . For many years, when he was not disposed to enter into the conversation going forward, whoever sat near his chair, might hear him repeating, from Shakspeare,
Ay, but to die and go we know not where ; To lie in cold obstruction and to rot ; This sensible warm motion to become A kneaded clod, and the delighted spirit To bathe in fiery floods 5 .
And from Milton,
Who would lose, For fear of pain, this intellectual being 6 ?
1 ' Murphy is just gone from me ; when she died. Life, iv. 235.
he visits me very kindly.' Letters, ii. 4 16. ii. 106, 298 ; Letters, ii. 369,
313. For Dr. Watson see Life, iv. 380.
118 ; Letters, i. 183, *. I. 5 Measure for Measure, Act m.
2 Johnson did not visit Lichfield or sc. i.
Oxford this year. Murphy has been ' Though full of pain, c. -Pa- misled, perhaps, by an error on radise Lost, ii. 146. Mrs. Thrale's part, who misdates by 'Talking to himself was, indeed, a year one of Johnson's letters writ- one of Johnson's singularities ever ten at Oxford, and fabricates her since I knew him. I was certain answer to include both it and one that he was frequently uttering pious written twelve months and two days ejaculations; for fragments of the later. Letters, ii. 257, *. 2, 258, *. 3. Lord's Prayer have been distinctly
3 He was at Heale, near Salisbury, overheard.' Life, i. 483.
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