cted, but is more free than it was. Nights of watchfulness produce
torpid days; I read very little, though I am alone; for I am tempted to
supply in the day what I lost in bed. This is my history; like all other
histories, a narrative of misery. Yet am I so much better than in the
beginning of the year, that I ought to be ashamed of complaining. I now
sit and write with very little sensibility of pain or weakness; but when
I rise, I shall find my legs betraying me. Of the money which you
mentioned, I have no immediate need; keep it, however, for me, unless
some exigence requires it. Your papers I will shew you certainly when
you would see them, but I am a little angry at you for not keeping
minutes of your own _acceptum et expensum_[1122], and think a little
time might be spared from Aristophanes, for the _res familiares_.
Forgive me for I mean well. I hope, dear Sir, that you and Lady Rothes,
and all the young people, too many to enumerate, are well and happy. GOD
bless you all.'

To MR. WINDHAM:--

August. 'The tenderness with which you have been pleased to treat me,
through my long illness, neither health nor sickness can, I hope, make
me forget; and you are not to suppose, that after we parted you were no
longer in my mind. But what can a sick man say, but that he is sick? His
thoughts are necessarily concentered in himself; he neither receives nor
can give delight; his enquiries are after alleviations of pain, and his
efforts are to catch some momentary comfort. Though I am now in the
neighbourhood of the Peak, you must expect no account of its wonders, of
its hills, its waters, its caverns, or its mines; but I will tell you,
dear Sir, what I hope you will not hear with less satisfaction, that,
for about a week past, my asthma has been less afflictive.'

Lichfield. October 2[1123]. 'I believe you have been long enough
acquainted with the _phoenomena_ of sickness, not to be surprised that a
sick man wishes to be where he is not, and where it appears to every
body but himself that he might easily be, without having the resolution
to remove. I thought Ashbourne a solitary place, but did not come hither
till last Monday. I have here more company, but my health has for this
last week not advanced; and in the languor of disease how little can be
done? Whither or when I shall make my next remove I cannot tell; but I
entreat you, dear Sir, to let me know, from time to time, where you may
be found, for your residence is a