h; and now, finding them
together and jealously scrutinising their tone and manner towards
each, he imagined all to be as well as formerly.[1] That they were on
the point of living apart, and of keeping up their habitual
interchange of mind exclusively by letters, is no proof that either
was capriciously or irrecoverably estranged.

[Footnote 1: "Now on March 21, 1783, fifteen months before the
marriage in question, Boswell speaks of the severance of the old
friendship as effected: 'appearances of friendship,' he says, 'were
still maintained between them.' Boswell was at feud with the lady
when he wrote, as we all know. But his evidence is surely sufficient
as to the fact of the rupture, though not as to its causes."--_(Edin.
Rev._ p. 510.) Boswell's concluding evidence, that to the best of his
knowledge and observation, there was no change or rupture, is
suppressed!]

The pleasures of intimacy in friendship depend far more on external
circumstances than people of a sentimental turn of mind are willing
to concede; and when constant companionship ceases to suit the
convenience of both parties, the chances are that it will be dropped
on the first favourable opportunity. Admiration, esteem, or affection
may continue to be felt for one whom, from altered habits or new
ties, we can no longer receive as an inmate or an established member
of the family. Johnson was now in his seventy-fourth year, haunted by
the fear of death, and fond of dwelling nauseously on his ailments
and proposed remedies. From what passed at Brighton, it would seem
that there were moods in which he was positively unbearable, and
could not be received in a house without driving every one else out
of it. In a roomy mansion like Streatham he might be endured, because
he could be kept out of the way; but in an ordinary town-house or
small establishment, such a guest would resemble an elephant in a
private menagerie.

There is also a very great difference, when arrangements are to be
made for the domestication of a male visitor, between a family with a
male head, and one consisting exclusively of females. Let any widow
with daughters make the case her own, and imagine herself
domesticated in Argyll or Harley Street with the lexicographer. The
manly authority of Thrale was required to keep Johnson in order quite
as much as to steady the imputed flightiness of the lady; and his
idolaters must really remember that she was a sentient being, with
feelings an