’Dear sir,—­I have had, indeed, a very heavy blow; but god, who yet spares my life, I humbly hope will spare my understanding, and restore my speech.  As I am not at all helpless, I want no particular assistance, but am strongly affected by Mrs. Davies’s tenderness; and when I think she can do me good, shall be very glad to call upon her.  I had ordered friends to be shut out; but one or two have found the way in; and if you come you shall be admitted:  for I know not whom I can see, that will bring more amusement on his tongue, or more kindness in his heart.  I am, &c.

‘June 18, 1783.’

‘Sam.  Johnson.’

It gives me great pleasure to preserve such a memorial of Johnson’s regard for Mr. Davies, to whom I was indebted for my introduction to him.  He indeed loved Davies cordially, of which I shall give the following little evidence.  One day when he had treated him with too much asperity, Tom, who was not without pride and spirit, went off in a passion; but he had hardly reached home when Frank, who had been sent after him, delivered this note:—­’Come, come, dear Davies, I am always sorry when we quarrel; send me word that we are friends.’

Such was the general vigour of his constitution, that he recovered from this alarming and severe attack with wonderful quickness; so that in July he was able to make a visit to Mr. Langton at Rochester, where he passed about a fortnight, and made little excursions as easily as at any time of his life.  In August he went as far as the neighbourhood of Salisbury, to Heale, the seat of William Bowles, Esq., a gentleman whom I have heard him praise for exemplary religious order in his family.  In his diary I find a short but honourable mention of this visit:—­’August 28, I came to Heale without fatigue. 30, I am entertained quite to my mind.’

While he was here he had a letter from Dr. Brocklesby, acquainting him of the death of Mrs. Williams, which affected him a good deal.  Though for several years her temper had not been complacent, she had valuable qualities, and her departure left a blank in his house.  Upon this occasion he, according to his habitual course of piety, composed a prayer.

I shall here insert a few particulars concerning him, with which I have been favoured by one of his friends.

’He spoke often in praise of French literature.  “The French are excellent in this, (he would say,) they have a book on every subject.”  From what he had seen of them he denied them the praise of superiour politeness, and mentioned, with very visible disgust, the custom they have of spitting on the floors of their apartments.  “This, (said the Doctor), is as gross a thing as can well be done; and one wonders how any man, or set of men, can persist in so offensive a practice for a whole day together; one should expect that the first effort towards civilization would remove it even among savages.”