6th S. v. 423.

[1243] Mr. Croker records 'the following communication from Mr. Hoole
himself':--'I must mention an incident which shews how ready Johnson was
to make amends for any little incivility. When I called upon him, the
morning after he had pressed me rather roughly to read _louder_, he
said, "I was peevish yesterday; you must forgive me: when you are as old
and as sick as I am, perhaps you may be peevish too." I have heard him
make many apologies of this kind.'

[1244] 'To his friend Dr. Burney he said a few hours before he died,
taking the Doctor's hands within his, and casting his eyes towards
Heaven with a look of the most fervent piety, "My dear friend, while you
live do all the good you can." Seward's _Biographiana,_ p. 601

[1245] Mr. Hoole, senior, records of this day:--'Dr. Johnson exhorted me
to lead a better life than he had done. "A better life than you, my dear
Sir:" I repeated. He replied warmly, "Don't compliment not." Croker's
_Boswell_, p. 844

[1246] See _ ante_, p. 293

[1247] The French historian, Jacques-Auguste de Thou, 1553-1617, author
of _Historia sui Temporis_ in 138 books.

[1248] See _ante,_ ii. 42, note 2.

[1249] Mr. Hutton was occasionally admitted to the royal breakfast-table.
"Hutton," said the King to him one morning, "is it true that you
Moravians marry without any previous knowledge of each other?" "Yes, may
it please your majesty," returned Hutton; "our marriages are quite
royal" Hannah More's _Memoirs_, i. 318. One of his female-missionaries
for North American said to Dr. Johnson:--'Whether my Saviour's service
may be best carried on here, or on the coast of Labrador, 'tis Mr.
Hutton's business to settle. I will do my part either in a brick-house
or a snow-house with equal alacrity.' Piozzi's _Synonymy_, ii. 120. He
is described also in the _Memoirs of Dr. Burney_, i. 251, 291.

[1250] _Ante_, ii. 402.

[1251] Burke said of Hussey, who was his friend and correspondent, that
in his character he had made 'that very rare union of the enlightened
statesman with the ecclesiastic.' Burke's _Corres_. iv. 270.

[1252] Boswell refers, I believe, to Fordyce's epitaph on Johnson in the
_Gent. Mag._ 1785, p. 412, or possibly to an _Ode_ on p. 50 of
his poems.

[1253] 'Being become very weak and helpless it was thought necessary
that a man should watch with him all night; and one was found in the
neighbourhood for half a crown a night.' Hawkins's _Life of Johnson_,
p. 589