I mention them not,
long and melancholy discourses with Dr. Johnson about our dear deceased
master, whom, indeed, he regrets incessantly.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_,
ii. 63. On his next birthday, he wrote:--'My first knowledge of Thrale
was in 1765. I enjoyed his favour for almost a fourth part of my life.'
_Pr. and Med._ p.191. One or two passages in Mrs. Thrale's Letters shew
her husband's affection for Johnson. On May 3, 1776, she writes:--'Mr.
Thrale says he shall not die in peace without seeing Rome, and I am sure
he will go nowhere that he can help without you.' _Piozzi Letters_,
i.317. A few days later, she speaks of 'our dear master, who cannot be
quiet without you for a week.' _Ib._ p.329. Johnson, in his fine epitaph
on Thrale (_Works_, i.153) broke through a rule which he himself had
laid down. In his _Essay on Epitaphs_ (_Ib._ v 263), he said:--'It is
improper to address the epitaph to the passenger [traveller], a custom
which an injudicious veneration for antiquity introduced again at the
revival of letters.' Yet in the monument in Streatham Church, we find
the same _Abi viator_ which he had censured in an epitaph on Henry IV
of France.

[281] Johnson's letters to Mrs. Thrale shew that he had long been well
acquainted with the state of her husband's business. In the year 1772,
Mr. Thrale was in money difficulties. Johnson writes to her almost as if
he were a partner in the business. 'The first consequence of our late
trouble ought to be an endeavour to brew at a cheaper rate...Unless this
can be done, nothing can help us; and if this be done, we shall not want
help.' _Piozzi Letters_, i.57. He urges economy in the household, and
continues:--'But the fury of housewifery will soon subside; and little
effect will be produced, but by methodical attention and even
frugality.' _Ib._ p.64. In another letter he writes:--'This year will
undoubtedly be an year of struggle and difficulty; but I doubt not of
getting through it; and the difficulty will grow yearly less and less.
Supposing that our former mode of life kept us on the level, we shall,
by the present contraction of expense, gain upon fortune a thousand a
year, even though no improvements can be made in the conduct of the
trade.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 66. Four years later, he writes:--'To-day I
went to look into my places at the Borough. I called on Mr. Perkins in
the counting-house. He crows and triumphs, as we go on we shall double
our business.' _Ib._ p. 33