' _Gent.
Mag._ 1784, pp. 260, 893.
[505] He was attacked, says Northcote (_Life of Reynolds_, ii. 131), 'by
a slight paralytic affection, after an almost uninterrupted course of
good health for many years.' Miss Burney wrote on Dec. 28 to one of her
sisters:--'How can you wish any wishes [matrimonial wishes] about Sir
Joshua and me? A man who has had two shakes of the palsy!' Mme.
D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 218.
[506] Dr. Patten in Sept. 1781 (Croker's _Boswell_, p. 699) informed
Johnson of Wilson's intended dedication. Johnson, in his reply,
said:--'What will the world do but look on and laugh when one scholar
dedicates to another?'
[507] On the same day he wrote to Dr. Taylor:-'This, my dear Sir, is the
last day of a very sickly and melancholy year. Join your prayers with
mine, that the next may be more happy to us both. I hope the happiness
which I have not found in this world will by infinite mercy be granted
in another.' _Notes and Queries_, 6th S. v. 462.
[508] 'Jan. 4, 1783. Dr. Johnson came so very late that we had all given
him up; he was very ill, and only from an extreme of kindness did he
come at all.
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