six
months will I not bestow upon that subject; you shall not have in me
a valetudinary correspondent, _who is always writing such letters,
that to read the labels tied on bottles by an apothecary's boy would
be more eligible and amusing_; nor will I live, like Flavia in 'Law's
Serious Call,' who spends half her time and money on herself, with
sleeping draughts, and waking draughts, and cordials and broths. My
desire is always to determine against my own gratification, so far as
shall be possible for my body to co-operate with my mind, and you
will not suspect me of wearing blisters, and living wholly upon
vegetables for sport. If that will do, the disorder may be removed;
but if health is gone, and gone for ever, we will act as Zachary
Pearce the famous bishop of Rochester did, when he lost the wife he
loved so--call for one glass to the health of her who is departed,
never more to return--and so go quietly back to the usual duties of
life, and forbear to mention her again from that time till the last
day of it."

Instead of acting on the same principle, he perseveres in addressing
his "ideal Urania" as if she had been a consulting physician:

"London, June 20th, 1783.

"DEAREST MADAM,--I think to send you for some time a regular diary.
You will forgive the gross images which disease must necessarily
present. Dr. Lawrence said that medical treatises should be always in
Latin. The two vesicatories did not perform well," &c. &c.

"June 23, 1783.

"_Your offer, dear Madam, of coming to me, is charmingly kind_; but I
will lay it up for future use, and then let it not be considered as
obsolete; _a time of dereliction may come, when I may have hardly any
other friend_, but in the present exigency I cannot name one who has
been deficient in civility or attention. What man can do for man has
been done for me. Write to me very often."

That the offer was serious and heartfelt, is clear from "Thraliana":

"_Bath, June 24th_, 1783.--A stroke of the palsy has robbed Johnson
of his speech, I hear. Dreadful event! and I at a distance. Poor
fellow! A letter from himself, _in his usual style_, convinces me
that none of his faculties have failed, and his physicians say that
all present danger is over."

He writes:

"June 24th, 1783.

"Both Queeny's letter and yours gave me, to-day, great pleasure.
Think as well and as kindly of me as you can, but do not flatter me.
Cool reciprocations of esteem are the great comforts of l