,
which he had breathed out for the averting of that calamity. The lines
were not good, but he knew that they were not so, and concluded his
faculties to be unimpaired. Soon after he was conscious of having
suffered a paralytic stroke, which had taken away his speech. "I had no
pain," he observed afterwards, "and so little dejection in this dreadful
state, that I wondered at my own apathy, and considered, that perhaps
death itself, when it should come, would excite less horror than seems
now to attend it." In hopes of stimulating the vocal organs, he
swallowed two drams, and agitated his body into violent motion, but it
was to no purpose; whereupon he returned to his bed, and, as he thought,
fell asleep. In the morning, finding that he had the use of his hand, he
was in the act of writing a note to his servant, when the man entered.
He then wrote a card to his friend and neighbour, Mr. Allen, the
printer, but not without difficulty, his hand sometimes, he knew not
why, making a different letter from that which he intended; his next
care was to acquaint Dr. Taylor, his old schoolfellow, and now a
prebendary of Westminster, with his condition, and to desire he would
come and bring Dr. Heberden with him. At the same time, he sent in for
Dr. Brocklesby, who was his near neighbour. The next day his speech was
restored, and he perceived no deterioration, either in his memory or
understanding. In the following month he was well enough to pass a week
at Rochester, with Mr. Langton, and to appear again at the Literary
Club; and at the end of August, to make a visit to Mr. Bowles, at Heale,
near Salisbury, where he continued about three weeks.

On his return to London, he was confined to the house by a fit of the
gout, a disorder which had once attacked him, but with less violence,
ten years before, and to which he was now reconciled, by being taught to
consider it as an antagonist to the palsy. To this was added, a
sarcocele, which, as it threatened to render excision necessary, caused
him more uneasiness, though he looked forward to the operation with
sufficient courage; but the complaint subsided of itself.

When he was able to go about again, that society might be insured to him
at least three days in the week, another club was founded at the Essex
Head, in Essex street, where an old servant of Mr. Thrale's was the
landlord. "Its principles (he said) were to be laid in frequency and
frugality; and he drew up a set of rules,