She said that she was likewise
affected. I commended the Thrales with great good-will to God; may my
petitions have been heard.' Hawkins's _Life_, p. 553. This was not 'a
formal taking of leave,' as Hawkins says. She was going to Bath (Mme.
D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 264). On May-day he wrote to her on the death of
one of her little girls:--'I loved her, for she was Thrale's and yours,
and, by her dear father's appointment, in some sort mine: I love you
all, and therefore cannot without regret see the phalanx broken, and
reflect that you and my other dear girls are deprived of one that was
born your friend. To such friends every one that has them has recourse
at last, when it is discovered and discovered it seldom fails to be,
that the fortuitous friendships of inclination or vanity are at the
mercy of a thousand accidents.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 255. He was sadly
thinking how her friendship for him was rapidly passing away.
[623] Johnson modestly ended his account of the tour by saying:--'I
cannot but be conscious that my thoughts on national manners are the
thoughts of one who has seen but little.
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