��Prayers and Meditations.
��150.
��1782.
��January 20, Sunday. Robert Levett was buried in the church-yard of Bridewell, between one and two in the afternoon. He died on Thursday 17, about seven in the morning, by an instantaneous death. He was an old and faithful friend ; I have known him from about 46. CommendavL May God have mercy on him. May he have mercy on me T .
��151.
��1782, March 18.
��Having been, from the middle of January, distressed by a cold which made my respiration very laborious, and from which I was but little relieved by being blooded three times, having tried to ease the oppression of my breast by frequent opiates, which kept me waking in the night and drowsy the next day, and subjected me to the tyranny of vain imaginations ; Having to all this added frequent catharticks, sometimes with mercury ; I at last persuaded Dr. Laurence on Thursday March 14 to let me bleed more copiously. Sixteen ounces were taken away, and from that time my breath has been free, and my breast easy. On that day I took little food, and no flesh 2 . On Thursday night I slept with great tranquillity. On the next night (15) I took diacodium 3 and had a most restless night. Of the next day I remember nothing but that I rose in the afternoon, and saw Mrs. Lennox 4 and Sheward 5 .
��1 Life, iv. 137, where are quoted the beautiful lines which Johnson wrote on Levett. For Johnson's ' re commendation ' of the dead, see ante, p. 14.
2 He wrote to Mrs. Thrale on the day on which he was bled : ' I think the loss of blood has done no harm ; whether it has done good time will tell. I am glad that I do not sink without resistance.' Letters, ii. 247. Miss Burney in the previous Sep tember had been alarmed at 'his strange discipline starving, mer cury, opium. 5 Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, ii. 107.
��3 Syrup of poppies. Reconsidered diacodium an English word, for he gives it in his Dictionary.
4 Mrs. Lennox he pronounced su perior to Mrs. Carter, Hannah More, and Fanny Burney. Life, iv. 275. Miss Burney looked upon this state ment as one of 'those occasional sallies of Dr. Johnson, which uttered from local causes and circumstances, but all retailed verbatim by Mr. Bos- well are filling all sort of readers with amaze, except the small party to whom Dr. Johnson was known.' Mme. D'Ar blay's Diary, v. 212.
5 Mentioned ante, p. 80.
17 Sunday.
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