Life, a book, so full of contemporary history, that a literary man must find some of his old friends.  I thought that I could, now and then, have told you some hints worth your notice:  we, perhaps, may talk a life over.  I hope we shall be much together.  You must now be to me what you were before, and what dear Mr. Allen was besides.  He was taken unexpectedly away, but, I think, he was a very good man.  I have made very little progress in recovery.  I am very weak, and very sleepless; but I live on and hope.”

In that languid condition he arrived, on the 16th of November, at his house in Bolt court, there to end his days.  He laboured with the dropsy and an asthma.  He was attended by Dr. Heberden, Dr. Warren, Dr. Brocklesby, Dr. Butter, and Mr. Cruikshank, the eminent surgeon.  Eternity presented to his mind an awful prospect, and, with as much virtue as, perhaps, ever is the lot of man, he shuddered at the thought of his dissolution.  His friends awakened the comfortable reflection of a well-spent life; and, as his end drew near, they had the satisfaction of seeing him composed, and even cheerful, insomuch that he was able, in the course of his restless nights, to make translations of Greek epigrams from the Anthologia; and to compose a Latin epitaph for his father, his mother, and his brother Nathaniel.  He meditated, at the same time, a Latin inscription to the memory of Garrick; but his vigour was exhausted.

His love of literature was a passion that stuck to his last sand.  Seven days before his death he wrote the following letter to his friend Mr. Nichols: 

“Sir,—­The late learned Mr. Swinton, of Oxford, having one day remarked, that one man, meaning, I suppose, no man but himself, could assign all the parts of the Ancient Universal History to their proper authors, at the request of sir Robert Chambers, or myself, gave the account which I now transmit to you, in his own hand, being willing that of so great a work the history should be known, and that each writer should receive his due proportion of praise from posterity.

  I recommend to you to preserve this scrap of literary intelligence, in
  Mr. Swinton’s own hand, or to deposit it in the Museum[y], that the
  veracity of this account may never be doubted.

  I am, sir,

Your most humble servant,

Sam.  Johnson.

Dec. 6, 1784.”

Mr. Swinton.

The History of the Carthaginians. 
—­Numidians. 
—­Mauritanians. 
—­Gaetulians. 
—­Garamantes. 
—­Melano-Gaetulians. 
—­Nigritae. 
—­Cyrenaica. 
—­Marmarica. 
—­Regio Syrtica. 
—­Turks, Tartars, and Moguls. 
—­Indians. 
—­Chinese. 
The Dissertation on the peopling of America. 
The Dissertation on the Independency of the Arabs. 
The Cosmogony, and a small part of the History immediately following. 
By Mr. Sale. 
To the Birth of Abraham.  Chiefly by Mr. Shelvock. 
History of the Jews, Gauls, and Spaniards.  By Mr. Psalmanazai. 
Xenophon’s Retreat.  By the same. 
History of the Persians, and the Constantinopolitan Empire.  By Dr.
Campbell. 
History of the Romans.  By Mr. Bower[z].