Nor is it justly given,
That angels sing to them on earth
Who slight the road to heaven.'

"He tells me--Piozzi does--that his own country manners greatly
disgusted him, after having been used to ours; but Milan is a
comfortable place, I find. If he does not fix himself for life here,
he will settle to lay his bones at Milan. The Marquis D'Araciel, his
friend and patron, who resides there, divides and disputes his heart
with me: I shall be loth to resign it."

[Footnote 1: This mode of expression did not imply then what it might
now. See _ante_, p. 92, where Johnson writes to "my Baretti."]

[Footnote 2: "Capello is a Venetian poet."]

"_17th December, 1781._--Dear Mr. Johnson is at last returned; he has
been a vast while away to see his country folks at Litchfield. My
fear is lest he should grow paralytick,--there are really some
symptoms already discoverable, I think, about the mouth particularly.
He will drive the gout away so when it comes, and it must go
_somewhere_. Queeny works hard with him at the classicks; I hope she
will be _out_ of leading-strings at least before he gets _into_ them,
as poor women say of their children."

"_1st January, 1782._--Let me not, while censuring the behaviour of
others, however, give cause of censure by my own. I am beginning a
new year in a new character. May it be worn decently yet lightly! I
wish not to be rigid and fright my daughters by too much severity. I
will not be wild and give them reason to lament the levity of my
life. Resolutions, however, are vain. To pray for God's grace is the
sole way to obtain it--'Strengthen Thou, O Lord, my virtue and my
understanding, preserve me from temptation, and acquaint me with
myself; fill my heart with thy love, restrain it by thy fear, and
keep my soul's desires fixed wholly on that place where only true
joys are to be found, through Jesus Christ our Lord,--Amen.'"

_January_, 1782.--(After stating her fear of illness and other ills.)
"_If_ nothing of all these misfortunes, however, befall one; _if_ for
my sins God should take from me my monitor, my friend, my inmate, my
dear Doctor Johnson; _if_ neither I should marry, nor the brewhouse
people break; _if_ the ruin of the nation should not change the
situation of affairs so that one could not receive regular
remittances from England: and _if_ Piozzi should not pick him up a
wife and fix his abode in this country,--_if_, therefore, and _if_
and _if_ and _if_ aga