at the expence of about fifty ounces of blood, I hope I am now
recovering.

'You, dear Sir, have, I hope, a more cheerful scene; you see George fond
of his book, and the pretty misses airy and lively, with my own little
Jenny[459] equal to the best[460]: and in whatever can contribute to
your quiet or pleasure, you have Lady Rothes ready to concur. May
whatever you enjoy of good be encreased, and whatever you suffer of evil
be diminished.

I am, dear Sir,
Your humble servant,
'SAM. JOHNSON.'

'Bolt-court, Fleet-street,
March 20, 1782.'

'To MR. HECTOR, IN BIRMINGHAM[461].

'DEAR SIR,

'I hope I do not very grossly flatter myself to imagine that you and
dear Mrs. Careless[462] will be glad to hear some account of me. I
performed the journey to London with very little inconvenience, and came
safe to my habitation, where I found nothing but ill health, and, of
consequence, very little cheerfulness. I then went to visit a little way
into the country, where I got a complaint by a cold which has hung eight
weeks upon me, and from which I am, at the expence of fifty ounces of
blood, not yet free. I am afraid I must once more owe my recovery to
warm weather, which seems to make no advances towards us.

'Such is my health, which will, I hope, soon grow better. In other
respects I have no reason to complain. I know not that I have written
any thing more generally commended than the _Lives of the Poets_; and
have found the world willing enough to caress me, if my health had
invited me to be in much company; but this season I have been almost
wholly employed in nursing myself.

'When summer comes I hope to see you again, and will not put off my
visit to the end of the year. I have lived so long in London, that I did
not remember the difference of seasons.

'Your health, when I saw you, was much improved. You will be prudent
enough not to put it in danger. I hope, when we meet again, we shall all
congratulate each other upon fair prospects of longer life; though what
are the pleasures of the longest life, when placed in comparison with a
happy death?

'I am, dear Sir,

'Yours most affectionately,

'SAM. JOHNSON.'

'London, March 21, 1782.'

To THE SAME.

[Without a date, but supposed to be about this time.][463]

'DEAR SIR,

'That you and dear Mrs. Careless should have care or curiosity about my
health, gives me that pleasure which every man feels from finding
himself n