438 Essay on
��disuse, there will not always be a Johnson to look back through a century, and give a body of critical and moral instruction. In April 1781, he lost his friend Mr. Thrale. His own words, in his diary, will best tell that melancholy event x . 'On Wednesday the nth of April, was buried my dear friend Thrale, who died on Wednesday the 4th, and with him were buried many of my hopes and pleasures. About five, I think, on Wednesday morn ing he expired. I felt almost the last flutter of his pulse, and looked for the last time upon the face, that for fifteen years had never been turned upon me but with respect and benignity. Farewel : may God, that delighteth in mercy, have had mercy on thee. I had constantly prayed for him [some time] before his death. The decease of him, from whose friendship I had obtained many opportunities of amusement, and to whom I turned my thoughts as to a refuge from misfortunes, has left me heavy. But my business is with myself.' From the close of his last work, the malady, that persecuted him through life, came upon him with alarming severity, and his constitution declined apace. In 1783 his old friend Levet expired without warning, and with out a groan 2 . Events like these reminded Johnson of his own mortality. He continued his visits to Mrs. Thrale at Streatham, to the 7th day of October, 1782, when having first composed a prayer for the happiness of a family, with whom he had for many years enjoyed the pleasures and comforts of life, he re moved to his own house in town. He says he was up early in the morning, and read fortuitously in the Gospel [gospels], which was his parting use of the library 3 . The merit of the family is manifested by the sense he had of it, and we see his heart overflowing with gratitude. He leaves the place with regret, and casts a lingering look behind*.
The few remaining occurrences may be soon dispatched. In the month of June, 1783, Johnson had a paralytic stroke, which affected his speech only 5 . He wrote to Dr. Taylor of West minster ; and to his friend Mr. Allen, the printer, who lived at
1 Life, iv. 84. Ante, p. 96. 4 ' Nor cast one longing lingering
a Life, iv. 137. Ante, p. 102. look behind.' Gray's Elegy, 1. 88.
3 Ib. iv. 158. Ante, p. 109. 5 Ante, p. in.
the
�� �
