Johnson, being eased of his dropsy, began to entertain hopes that the vigour of his constitution was not entirely broken.  For the sake of conversing with his friends, he established a conversation club, to meet on every Wednesday evening; and, to serve a man whom he had known in Mr. Thrale’s household for many years, the place was fixed at his house, in Essex street, near the Temple.  To answer the malignant remarks of sir John Hawkins, on this subject, were a wretched waste of time.  Professing to be Johnson’s friend, that biographer has raised more objections to his character, than all the enemies to that excellent man.  Sir John had a root of bitterness that “put rancours in the vessel of his peace.”  Fielding, he says, was the inventor of a cant phrase, “Goodness of heart, which means little more than the virtue of a horse or a dog.”  He should have known, that kind affections are the essence of virtue:  they are the will of God implanted in our nature, to aid and strengthen moral obligation; they incite to action:  a sense of benevolence is no less necessary than a sense of duty.  Good affections are an ornament, not only to an author, but to his writings.  He who shows himself upon a cold scent for opportunities to bark and snarl throughout a volume of six hundred pages, may, if he will, pretend to moralise; but goodness of heart, or, to use that politer phrase, “the virtue of a horse or a dog,” would redound more to his honour.  But sir John is no more:  our business is with Johnson.  The members of his club were respectable for their rank, their talents, and their literature.  They attended with punctuality, till about Midsummer, 1784, when, with some appearance of health, Johnson went into Derbyshire, and thence to Lichfield.  While he was in that part of the world, his friends, in town, were labouring for his benefit.  The air of a more southern climate, they thought, might prolong a valuable life.  But a pension of three hundred pounds a year was a slender fund for a travelling valetudinarian, and it was not then known that he had saved a moderate sum of money.  Mr. Boswell and sir Joshua Reynolds undertook to solicit the patronage of the chancellor.  With lord Thurlow, while he was at the bar, Johnson was well acquainted.  He was often heard to say, “Thurlow is a man of such vigour of mind, that I never knew I was to meet him, but—­I was going to say, I was afraid, but that would not be true, for I never was afraid of any man; but I never knew that I was to meet Thurlow, but I knew I had something to encounter.”  The chancellor undertook to recommend Johnson’s case; but without success.  To protract, if possible, the days of a man, whom he respected, he offered to advance the sum of five hundred pounds.  Being informed of this at Lichfield, Johnson wrote the following letter: