' I said that I had, for once in my life, felt half an
inclination to commit theft. It had come into my mind to carry off those
two volumes, and never see him more. Upon my inquiring how this would
have affected him, 'Sir, (said he,) I believe I should have gone
mad[1235].'
During his last illness, Johnson experienced the steady and kind
attachment of his numerous friends. Mr. Hoole has drawn up a narrative
of what passed in the visits which he paid him during that time, from
the both of November to the 13th of December, the day of his death,
inclusive, and has favoured me with a perusal of it, with permission to
make extracts, which I have done. Nobody was more attentive to him than
Mr. Langton, to whom he tenderly said, _Te teneam moriens deficiente
manu_[1237]. And I think it highly to the honour of Mr. Windham, that
his important occupations as an active statesman[1238] did not prevent
him from paying assiduous respect to the dying Sage whom he revered. Mr.
Langton informs me, that, 'one day he found Mr. Burke and four or five
more friends sitting with Johnson. Mr.
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