o quit his close habitation in the court and come with us
to Streatham, where I undertook the care of his health, and had the
honour and happiness of contributing to its restoration. This task,
though distressing enough sometimes, would have been less so had not my
mother and he disliked one another extremely, and teased me often with
perverse opposition, petty contentions, and mutual complaints. Her
superfluous attention to such accounts of the foreign politics as are
transmitted to us by the daily prints, and her willingness to talk on
subjects he could not endure, began the aversion; and when, by the
peculiarity of his style, she found out that he teased her by writing in
the newspapers concerning battles and plots which had no existence, only
to feed her with new accounts of the division of Poland, perhaps, or the
disputes between the States of Russia and Turkey, she was exceedingly
angry, to be sure, and scarcely, I think, forgave the offence till the
domestic distresses of the year 1772 reconciled them to and taught them
the true value of each other, excellent as _they both_ were, far beyond
the excellence of any other man and woman I ever yet saw. As her
conduct, too, extorted his truest esteem, her cruel illness excited all
his tenderness, nor was the sight of beauty, scarce to be subdued by
disease, and wit, flashing through the apprehension of evil, a scene
which Dr. Johnson could see without sensibility. He acknowledged himself
improved by her piety, and astonished at her fortitude, and hung over her
bed with the affection of a parent, and the reverence of a son. Nor did
it give me less pleasure to see her sweet mind cleared of all its latent
prejudices, and left at liberty to admire and applaud that force of
thought and versatility of genius, that comprehensive soul and benevolent
heart, which attracted and commanded veneration from all, but inspired
peculiar sensations of delight mixed with reverence in those who, like
her, had the opportunity to observe these qualities stimulated by
gratitude, and actuated by friendship. When Mr. Thrale's perplexities
disturbed his peace, dear Dr. Johnson left him scarce a moment, and tried
every artifice to amuse as well as every argument to console him: nor is
it more possible to describe than to forget his prudent, his pious
attentions towards the man who had some years before certainly saved his
valuable life, perhaps his reason, by half obliging him to change the