ng again. The case, as you now describe it, is worse
than I conceived it, when I read your first letter. It is still,
however, not apoplectick, but seems to have something worse than
hysterical--a tendency to a palsy, which, I hope, however, is now over.
I am glad that you have Heberden, and hope we are all safer. I am the
more alarmed by this violent seizure, as I can impute it to no wrong
practices, or intemperance of any kind, and, therefore, know not how any
defence or preservative can be obtained. Mr. Thrale has, certainly, less
exercise than when he followed the foxes; but he is very far from
unwieldiness or inactivity, and further still from any vitious or
dangerous excess. I fancy, however, he will do well to ride more.

Do, dear madam, let me know, every post, how he goes on. Such sudden
violence is very dreadful; we know not by what it is let loose upon us,
nor by what its effects are limited.

If my coming can either assist or divert, or be useful to any purpose,
let me but know: I will soon be with you. Mrs. Kennedy, Queeney's
Baucis, ended, last week, a long life of disease and poverty. She had
been married about fifty years.

Dr. Taylor is not much amiss, but always complaining. I am, &c.

XLI.--To MR. THRALE.

Lichfield, June 23, 1779.

DEAR SIR,--To show how well I think of your health, I have sent you a
hundred pounds, to keep for me. It will come within one day of
quarterday, and that day you must give me. I came by it in a very
uncommon manner, and would not confound it with the rest.

My wicked mistress talks as if she thought it possible for me to be
indifferent or negligent about your health or hers. If I could have done
any good, I had not delayed an hour to come to you; and I will come very
soon, to try if my advice can be of any use, or my company of any
entertainment.

What can be done, you must do for yourself: do not let any uneasy
thought settle in your mind. Cheerfulness and exercise are your great
remedies. Nothing is, for the present, worth your anxiety. "Vivite
laeti" is one of the great rules of health. I believe it will be good to
ride often, but never to weariness, for weariness is, itself, a
temporary resolution of the nerves, and is, therefore, to be avoided.
Labour is exercise continued to fatigue--exercise is labour used only,
while it produces pleasure.

Above all, keep your mind quiet: do not think with earnestness even of
your health; but think on such things as ma