Farewell. May God that delighteth in mercy have had mercy on
thee. I had constantly prayed for him some time before his death. The
decease of him from whose friendship I had obtained many opportunities
of amusement, and to whom I turned my thoughts as to a refuge from
misfortunes, has left me heavy. But my business is with myself.' The
passage enclosed in brackets I have copied from the original MS. Mr.
Strahan, the editor, omitted it, no doubt from feelings of delicacy.
What a contrast in this to the widow who published a letter in which she
had written:--'I wish that you would put in a word of your own to Mr.
Thrale about eating less!' _Piozzi Letters_, ii.130. Baretti, in a note
on _Piozzi Letters_, ii.142, says that 'nobody ever had spirit enough to
tell Mr. Thrale that his fits were apoplectic; such is the blessing of
being rich that nobody dares to speak out.' In Johnson's _Works_ (1787),
xi.203, it is recorded that 'Johnson, who attended Thrale in his last
moments, said, "His servants would have waited upon him in this awful
period, and why not his friend?"'
[280] Johnson's letters to the widow show how much he felt Thrale's
death.
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