“All these exactnesses in a man who was nothing less than exact himself, made him extremely impracticable as an inmate, though most instructive as a companion, and useful as a friend.  Mr. Thrale too could sometimes overrule his rigidity, by saying coldly, ’There, there, now we have had enough for one lecture, Dr. Johnson, we will not be upon education any more till after dinner, if you please,’—­or some such speech; but when there was nobody to restrain his dislikes, it was extremely difficult to find any body with whom he could converse, without living always on the verge of a quarrel, or of something too like a quarrel to be pleasing.  I came into the room, for example, one evening, where he and a gentleman, whose abilities we all respected exceedingly, were sitting; a lady who had walked in two minutes before me had blown ’em both into a flame, by whispering something to Mr. S——­d, which he endeavoured to explain away, so as not to affront the Doctor, whose suspicions were all alive.  ’And have a care, Sir,’ said he, just as I came in; ’the old lion will not bear to be tickled.’[1] The other was pale with rage, the lady wept at the confusion she had caused, and I could only say with Lady Macbeth,

  ’So! you’ve displaced the mirth, broke the good meeting
  With most admir’d disorder.’

“Such accidents, however, occurred too often, and I was forced to take advantage of my lost lawsuit, and plead inability of purse to remain longer in London or its vicinage.  I had been crossed in my intentions of going abroad, and found it convenient, for every reason of health, peace, and pecuniary circumstances, to retire to Bath, where I knew Mr. Johnson would not follow me, and where I could for that reason command some little portion of time for my own use; a thing impossible while I remained at Streatham or at London, as my hours, carriage, and servants, had long been at his command, who would not rise in the morning till twelve o’clock perhaps, and oblige me to make breakfast for him till the bell rung for dinner, though much displeased if the toilet was neglected, and though much of the time we passed together was spent in blaming or deriding, very justly, my neglect of economy, and waste of that money which might make many families happy.  The original reason of our connexion, his particularly disordered health and spirits[2], had been long at an end, and he had no other ailments than old age and general infirmity, which every professor of medicine was ardently zealous and generally attentive to palliate, and to contribute all in their power for the prolongation of a life so valuable.