days in the week, he instituted a club at the Essex Head, in Essex-street, then kept by Samuel Greaves, an old servant of Mr. Thrale's.

"TO SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.

Dec. 4, 1783.

"DEAR SIR, "It is inconvenient to me to come out; I should else have waited on you with an account of a little evening Club which we are establishing in Essexstreet, in the Strand, and of which you are desired to be one. It will be held at the Essex Head, now kept by an old servant of Thrale's. The company is numerous, and, as you will see by the list, miscellaneous. The terms are lax, and the expenses light. Mr. Barry was adopted by Dr. Brocklesby, who joined with me in forming the plan. We meet thrice a week, and he who misses forfeits twopence.

"If you are willing to become a member, draw a line under your name. Return the list. We meet for the first time on Monday at eight.

"I am, &c.,

"SAM. JOHNSON."

It did not suit Sir Joshua to be one of this club. But when I mention only Mr. Daines Barrington, Dr. Brocklesby, Mr. Murphy, Mr. John Nichols, Mr. Cooke, Mr. Joddrel, Mr. Paradise, Dr. Horsley, Mr. Windham,1 I shall sufficiently obviate the misrepresentation of it by Sir John Hawkins, as if it had been a low ale-house association, by which Johnson was degraded. Johnson himself, like his namesake Old Ben, composed the Rules of his Club.2

John

1 I was in Scotland when this Club was founded, and during all the winter. son, however, declared I should be a member, and invented a word upon the occasion; "Boswell," said he, "is a very clubable man." When I came to town, I was proposed by Mr. Barrington, and chosen. I believe there are few societies where there is better conversation or more decorum. Several of us resolved to continue it after our great founder was removed by death. Other members were added; and now, above eight years since that loss, we go on happily.-BosWELL.

"To-day deep thoughts with me resolve to drench

In mirth, which after no repenting draws."-MILTON.

"The Club shall consist of four-and-twenty.

"The meetings shall be on the Monday, Thursday, and Saturday of every week; but in the week before Easter there shall be no meeting.

"Every member is at liberty to introduce a friend once a week, but not oftener.

"Two members shall oblige themselves to attend in their turn every night from eight

to ten, or to procure two to attend in their room.

"Every member present at the Club shall spend at least sixpence; and every member who stays away shall forfeit threepence.

"The master of the house shall keep an account of the absent members: and deliver to the President of the night a list of the forfeits incurred.

"When any member returns after absence, he shall immediately lay down his forfeits; which, if he omits to do, the President shall require.

"There shall be no general reckoning, but every man shall adjust his own expenses. "The night of indispensable attendance will come to every member once a month. Whoever shall for three months together omit to attend himself, or by substitution, nor shall make any apology in the fourth month, shall be considered as having abdicated the Club.

"When a vacancy is to be filled, the name of the candidate, and of the member

In the end of this year he was seized with a spasmodic asthma of such violence, that he was confined to the house in great pain, being sometimes obliged to sit all night in his chair, a recumbent posture being so hurtful to his respiration, that he could not endure lying in bed; and there came upon him, at the same time, that oppressive and fatal disease, a dropsy. It was a very severe winter, which probably aggravated his complaints; and the solitude in which Mr. Levett and Mrs. Williams had left him, rendered his life very gloomy. Mrs. Desmoulins, who still lived, was herself so very ill, that she could contribute very little to his relief. He, however, had none of that unsocial shyness which we commonly see in people afflicted with sickness. He did not hide his head from the world, in solitary abstraction; he did not deny himself to the visits of his friends and acquaintances; but at all times, when he was not overcome by sleep, was ready for conversation as in his best days.

"TO MRS. LUCY PORTER, IN LICHFIELD.

London, Nov. 29, 1783.

:

"DEAR MADAM, "You may perhaps think me negligent that I have not written to you again upon the loss of your brother; but condolences and consolations are such common and such useless things, that the omission of them is no great crime and my own diseases occupy my mind, and engage my care. My nights are miserably restless, and my days, therefore, are heavy. I try, however, to hold up my head as high as I can.

"I am sorry that your health is impaired; perhaps the spring and the summer may, in some degree, restore it; but if not, we must submit to the inconveniences of time, as to the other dispensations of Eternal Goodness. Pray for me, and write to me, or let Mr. Pearson write for you.

"I am,

&c.,

"SAM. JOHNSON."

recommending him, shall stand in the Club-room three nights. On the fourth he may be chosen by ballot; six members at least being present, and two-thirds of the ballot being in his favour; or the majority, should the numbers not be divisible by three.

"The master of the house shall give notice, six days before, to each of those members whose turn of necessary attendance is come.

"The notice may be in these words: Sir, On, the

be your turn of presiding at the Essex Head. Your company is therefore earnestly requested.'

"One penny shall be left by each member for the waiter." Johnson's definition of a Club in this sense, in his Dictionary, is "An assembly of good fellows, meeting under certain conditions."-BOSWELL.

THE LAST YEAR OF JOHNSON'S LIFE-" BURTON'S BOOKS"-THE ESSEX HEADCORRESPONDENCE-JOHNSON'S CONTINUED ILL-HEALTH-DRS. GILLESPIE, HKBERDEN, CULLEN, HOPE, AND MUNRO-JOHNSON'S ADVICE TO BOSWELL-LORD PORTMORE - MR. OZIAS HUMPHRY-JOHNSON'S MELANCHOLY THOUGHTS AT THE APPROACH OF DEATH HIS ADVICE TO MISS LANGTON-BOSWELL'S ARRIVAL IN LONDONCOLONEL VALLANCY-JOHNSON ON EARNEST DISPUTATION-DINES AT THE ESSEX HEAD CLUB WITH A CONSTELLATION OF LADIES MRS. MONTAGU-FOOTEMRS. THRALE'S ALTERED CONDUCT-BISHOP DOUGLAS - CAPEL LOFFT-THOMAS A KEMPIS-MISS HELEN MARIA WILLIAMS.

AN

ND now I am arrived at the last year of the life of SAMUEL JOHNSON; a year in which, although passed in severe indisposition, he nevertheless gave many evidences of the continuance of those wondrous powers of mind, which raised him so high in the intellectual world. His conversation and his letters of this year were in no respect inferior to those of former years.

The following is a remarkable proof of his being alive to the most minute curiosities of literature.

"TO MR. DILLY, BOOKSELLER, IN THE POULTRY.

"SIR, Jan. 6, 1784. "There is in the world a set of books which used to be sold by the booksellers on the bridge, and which I must entreat you to procure me. They are called • Burton's Books;'1 the title of one is 'Admirable Curiosities,' 'Rarities,' and 'Wonders in England.' I believe there are about five or six of them; they seem very proper to allure backward readers: be so kind as to get them for me, and send me them with the best printed edition of 'Baxter's Call to the Unconverted.'

"I am, &c.,

"SAM. JOHNSON."

"TO MR. PERKINS.

Jan. 21, 1784.

"DEAR SIR,

"I was very sorry not to see you when you were so kind as to call on me; but to disappoint friends, and if they are not very good-natured, to disoblige them, is one of the evils of sickness. If you will please to let me know which of the afternoons in this week I shall be favoured with another visit by you and Mrs. Perkins, and the young people, I will take all the measures that I can to be pretty well at that time. I am, dear Sir,

"Your most humble servant,

"SAM. JOHNSON."

His attention to the Essex Head Club appears from the following letter to Mr. Alderman Clark, a gentleman for whom he deservedly entertained a great regard.

"TO RICHARD CLARK, ESQ.

Jan. 27,

1784.

"DEAR SIR, "You will receive a requisition, according to the rules of the Club, to be at the house as president of the night. This turn comes once a month, and the member is obliged to attend, or send another in his place. You were enrolled in the Club by my invitation, and I ought to introduce you; but as I am hindered by sickness, Mr. Hoole will very properly supply my place as introductor, or yours as president. I hope in milder weather to be a very constant attendant. "I am, Sir, &c.,

"SAM. JOHNSON."

The following list comprises several of these books; but probably is incomplete :

"You ought to be informed that the forfeits began with the year, and that every night of non-attendance incurs the mulct of threepence; that is, ninepence a week."

On the 8th of January I wrote to him, anxiously inquiring as to his health, and enclosing my "Letter to the People of Scotland, on the present State of the Nation."

"I trust," said I, "that you will be liberal enough to make allowance for my differing from you on two points (the Middlesex election and the American war), when my general principles of government are according to your own heart, and when, at a crisis of doubtful event, I stand forth with honest zeal as an ancient and faithful Briton. My reason for introducing those two points was, that as my opinions with regard to them had been declared at the periods when they were least favourable, I might have the credit of a man who is not a worshipper of ministerial power."

"DEAR SIR,

"TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.

Feb. 11, 1784.

"I hear of many inquiries which your kindness has disposed you to make after me. I have long intended you a long letter, which perhaps the imagination of its length hindered me from beginning. I will, therefore, content myself with a shorter.

"Having promoted the institution of a new Club in the neighbourhood, at the house of an old servant of Thrale's, I went thither to meet the company, and was seized with a spasmodic asthma, so violent, that with difficulty I got to my own house, in which I have been confined eight or nine weeks, and from which I know not when I shall be able to go even to church. The asthma, however, is not the worst. A dropsy gains ground upon me; my legs and thighs are very much swollen with water, which I should be content if I could keep there, but I am afraid that it will soon be higher. Mỹ nights are very sleepless and very tedious. And yet I am extremely afraid of dying.

'My physicians try to make me hope, that much of my malady is the effect of cold, and that some degree at least of recovery is to be expected from vernal breezes and summer suns. If my life is prolonged to autumn, I should be glad to try a warmer climate; though how to travel with a diseased body, without a companion to conduct me, and with very little money, I do not well see. Ramsay has recovered his limbs in Italy; and Fielding was sent to Lisbon, where, indeed, he died; but he was, I believe, past hope when he went. Think for me what I can do.

"I received your pamphlet, and when I write again may perhaps tell you some opinion about it; but you will forgive a man struggling with disease his neglect of disputes, politics, and pamphlets. Let me have your prayers. My compliments to your lady, and young ones. Ask your physicians about my case: and desire Sir Alexander Dick to write me his opinion.

"I am, dear Sir, &c.,

"SAM. JOHNSON."