’Death, my dear, is very dreadful; let us think nothing worth our care but how to prepare for it:  what we know amiss in ourselves let us make haste to amend, and put our trust in the mercy of GOD, and the intercession of our Saviour.  I am, dear Madam,

’Your most humble servant,

‘SAM.  JOHNSON.’

‘Feb. 23, 1784.’

TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.

’DEAR SIR,

’I have just advanced so far towards recovery as to read a pamphlet; and you may reasonably suppose that the first pamphlet which I read was yours.  I am very much of your opinion, and, like you, feel great indignation at the indecency with which the King is every day treated.  Your paper contains very considerable knowledge of history and of the constitution, very properly produced and applied.  It will certainly raise your character[813], though perhaps it may not make you a Minister of State.

’I desire you to see Mrs. Stewart once again, and tell her, that in the letter-case was a letter relating to me, for which I will give her, if she is willing to give it me, another guinea[814].  The letter is of consequence only to me.

’I am, dear Sir, &c.  ‘SAM.  JOHNSON.’  ‘London, Feb. 27, 1784.’

In consequence of Johnson’s request that I should ask our physicians about his case, and desire Sir Alexander Dick to send his opinion, I transmitted him a letter from that very amiable Baronet, then in his eighty-first year, with his faculties as entire as ever; and mentioned his expressions to me in the note accompanying it:  ’With my most affectionate wishes for Dr. Johnson’s recovery, in which his friends, his country, and all mankind have so deep a stake:’  and at the same time a full opinion upon his case by Dr. Gillespie, who, like Dr. Cullen, had the advantage of having passed through the gradations of surgery and pharmacy, and by study and practice had attained to such skill, that my father settled on him two hundred pounds a year for five years, and fifty pounds a year during his life, as an honorarium to secure his particular attendance.  The opinion was conveyed in a letter to me, beginning, ’I am sincerely sorry for the bad state of health your very learned and illustrious friend, Dr. Johnson, labours under at present.’

’TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.  ’DEAR SIR,

’Presently after I had sent away my last letter, I received your kind medical packet.  I am very much obliged both to you and your physicians for your kind attention to my disease.  Dr. Gillespie has sent me an excellent consilium medicum, all solid practical experimental knowledge.  I am at present, in the opinion of my physicians, (Dr. Heberden and Dr. Brocklesby,) as well as my own, going on very hopefully.  I have just begun to take vinegar of squills.  The powder hurt my stomach so much, that it could not be continued.

’Return Sir Alexander Dick my sincere thanks for his kind letter; and bring with you the rhubarb[815] which he so tenderly offers me.