LETTER CCXCVII.

To Mrs. T HRALE.

DEAR MADAM,

London, June 5, 1783.

WHY do you write fo feldom? I was very

glad of your letter. You were ufed formerly to write more, when I know not why you fhould have had much more to fay. Do not please yourself with fhowing me that you can forget me, who do not forget you.

Mr. Defmoulin's account of my health rather wants confirmation. But complaints are ufeless.

I have, by the migration of one of my ladies, more peace at home; but I remember an old fa vage chief that fays of the Romans with great indignation-ubi folitudinem faciunt, pacem appel

lant.

Mr. was not calamity, it was his fifter, to whom I am afraid the term is now ftrictly ap plicable, for the feems to have fallen fome way into obfcurity; I am afraid by a palfy.

Whence your pity arifes for the thief that has made the hangman idle, I cannot difcover. I am forry indeed for every fuicide, but I fuppofe he would have gone to the gallows without being lamented.

if the

You will foon fee that Mifs Hfinds countenance, and gets fcholars, will conquer her vexations. Is not Sufy likewife one of her pupils? I owe Sufy a letter, which I purpose to pay next time.

I can tell you of no new thing in town, but Dr. Maxwell, whofe lady is by ill health detained with two little babies at Bath.

You give a cheerful account of your way of life. I hope you will fettle into tranquillity. When I can repay you fuch a narrative of my felicity, you fhall fee defcription.

I am, &'c.

LETTER CCXCVIII.

To Mrs. THRAL E.

DEAR MADAM,

YES

Oxford, June 11, 1783.

ESTERDAY I came to Oxford without fatigue or inconvenience. I read in the coach before dinner. I dined moderately, and flept well; but find my breath not free this morning.

Dr. Edwards, to whom I wrote word of my purpose to come, has defeated his own kindnefs by its excefs. He has gone out of his own rooms for my reception, and therefore I cannot decently stay long, unless I can change my abode, which it will not be very easy to do: nor do I know what attractions I fhall find here. Here is Mifs Moore at Dr. Adams's, with whom I fhall dine to-morrow. Of my adventures and obfervations I fhall inform you, and beg you to write to me at Mr. Parker's, bookfeller.

I hope Queeney has got rid of her influenza, and that you efcape it. If I had Queeney here, how would I fhew her all the places. I hope, however, I fhall not want company in my stay

here.

I am, Dear Madam,

Your, &c.

LETTER CCXCIX.

To Mrs. THRAL E.

DEAR MADAM,

YESTER

London, June 13, 1783.

ESTERDAY were brought hither two parcels directed to Mrs. Thrale, to the care of Dr. Jobnfon. By what the touch can discover, they contain fomething of which cloaths are made; and 1 fufpect them to be Mufgrave's long-expected prefent. You will order them to be called for, or let me know whither I fhall fend them.

Crutchley has had the gout, but is abroad again, Seward called on me yesterday. He is going only for a few weeks; first to Paris, and then to Flanders, to contemplate the pictures of Claude Loraine; and he asked me if that was not as good a way as any of spending time-that time which returns no more-of which however a great part feems to be very foolishly fpent, even by the wifeft and the best.

That

That time at least is not loft in which the evils of life are relieved, and therefore the moments which you bestow on Mifs Hare properly employed. She feems to make an uncommon impreffion upon you. What has fhe done or fuffered out of the common course of things? I love a little fecret hiftory.

Poor Dr. Lawrence and his youngest fon died almoft on the fame day.

Mrs. Dobfon, the directrefs of rational converfation, did not tranflate Petrarch, but epitomifed a very bulky French Life of Petrarch. She tranflated, I think, the Memoirs of D'Aubigné.

Your laft letter was very pleafing; it expreffed kindness to me, and fome degree of placid acquiefcence in your prefent mode of life, which is, I think, the best which is at prefent within your reach.

My powers and attention have for a long time been almost wholly employed upon my health, I hope not wholly without fuccefs, but folitude is very tedious.

I am, Madam, Your, &

Coo

LETTER CCC.

Mrs. THRALE to Dr. JOHNSON.

Bath, June 15, 1783.

I BELIEVE it is too true, my dear Sir, that

you think on little except yourself and your own health, but then they are subjects on which every

one

one else would think too-and that is a great confolation.

I am willing enough to employ all my thoughts upon myself, but there is nobody here who wishes to think with or about me, so I am very fick and a little fullen, and disposed now and then to fay like king David, My lovers and my friends have been put away from me, and my acquaintance bid out of my fight. If the last letter I wrote fhewed fome degree of placid acquiefcence in a fituation, which, however difpleafing, is the best I can get at just now ;-I pray God to keep me in that dif pofition, and to lay no more calamity upon me which may again tempt me to murmur and complain. In the mean time affure yourself of my undiminished kindness and veneration: they have been long out of accident's power either to leffen or increase.

So Mr. Seward is going abroad again. I fee no harm in his refolution, though the manner of expreffing it was likely enough to offend you: yet he is not a man whom any one can juftly reproach with negligence of duty; he does more good than almost any perfon of twice his fortune, and while he is looking at the works of Claude Loraine he will certainly be doing no mischief.

The profeffors of Ennui are a very dangerous race of mortals; for, preferring any occupation to none, they are liable to make many people unhappy by their officious affiduities, while to themfelves they stand perfectly exculpated by the remark that a man must do fomething-or be killed with Ennui: how fortunate for fociety when like Seward they feek only to give away their money all winter to perfons who want it, and go to Flanders in fummer to look at the Claude Loraines!

What