Hampton, December, 1784.
Poor dear Johnson ! he is past all hope. The dropsy has brought him to the point of death ; his legs are scarified : but nothing will do. I have, however, the comfort to hear that his dread of dying is in a great measure subdued ; and now he says ' the bitterness of death is past V He sent the other day for Sir Joshua ; and after much serious conversation told him he had three favours to beg of him, and he hoped he would not refuse a dying friend, be they what they would. Sir Joshua promised. The first was that he would never paint on a Sunday ; the second that he would forgive him thirty pounds that he had lent him, as he wanted to leave them to a distressed family; the third was that he would read the bible whenever he had an opportunity ; and that he would never omit it on a Sunday. There was no difficulty but upon the first point ; but at length Sir Joshua promised to gratify him in all 2 . How delighted should I be to hear the dying discourse of this great and good man, especially now that faith has subdued his fears. I wish I could see him.
[As the very interesting particulars contained in the following letter, found among Mrs. H. More's papers, may not be generally known, we shall perhaps be excused for interrupting the series of her letters by its insertion. Note by Roberts.]
MY DEAR FRIEND,
I ought to apologize for delaying so long to gratify your wishes and fulfil my promise, by committing to paper a conversation
agitation, and said, " I '11 have no affecting. I never saw anything so
more on 't." ' Life, iv. 300. meek and so resigned. But it is
Mrs. Adams did not outlive him a heavy blow at almost eighty.'
many months. Early in the summer x * Surely the bitterness of death
of 1785 Hannah More records (Me- is past.' I Sam. xv. 32.
moirs, i. 404) : * The wife of Dr. ' The Doctor, from the time that
Adams is dead, and his friends pre- he was certain his death was near,
vailed on him to set out for London, appeared to be perfectly resigned.'
to be out of the way during the last Life, iv. 417 ; ante, i. 448 ; ii. 127.
sad ceremonies ; so he came to the 2 Boswell says that ' Sir Joshua
hotel next to us, in order for me to readily acquiesced.' Life, iv. 414.
devote myself to him as much as The first promise he did not keep,
possible. Our first meeting was very Ib. n. i. See ante, ii. 5.
which
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