'I have enclosed ten pounds, and Mrs. Porter will pay you ten more,
which I gave her for the same purpose. What more is wanted shall be
sent; and I beg that all possible haste may be made, for I wish to have
it done while I am yet alive. Let me know, dear Sir, that you
receive this.
'I am, Sir,
'Your most humble servant,
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
'Dec. 2, 1784.'
'To MRS. LUCY PORTER, IN LICHFIELD.
'DEAR MADAM,
'I am very ill, and desire your prayers. I have sent Mr. Green the
Epitaph, and a power to call on you for ten pounds.
'I laid this summer a stone over Tetty, in the chapel of Bromley, in
Kent[1198]. The inscription is in Latin, of which this is the English.
[Here a translation.]
'That this is done, I thought it fit that you should know. What care
will be taken of us, who can tell? May GOD pardon and bless us, for
JESUS CHRIST'S sake.
'I am, &c.
'SAM. JOHNSON[1199],'
'Dec. 2, 1784.'
My readers are now, at last, to behold SAMUEL JOHNSON preparing himself
for that doom, from which the most exalted powers afford no exemption to
man[1200]. Death had always been to him an object of terrour; so that,
though by no means happy, he still clung to life with an eagerness at
which many have wondered.
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