TO THE SAME.
'DEAR SIR,
'To talk of coming to you, and not yet to come, has an air of trifling which I would not willingly have among you; and which, I believe, you will not willingly impute to me, when I have told you, that since my promise, two of our partners[848] are dead, and that I was solicited to suspend my excursion till we could recover from our confusion.
'I have not laid aside my purpose; for every day makes me more impatient of staying from you. But death, you know, hears not supplications, nor pays any regard to the convenience of mortals. I hope now to see you next week; but next week is but another name for to-morrow, which has been noted for promising and deceiving.
'I am, &c.
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
'[London,] June 24, 1755.'
To THE SAME.
'DEAR SIR,
'I told you, that among the manuscripts are some things of Sir Thomas More. I beg you to pass an hour in looking on them, and procure a transcript of the ten or twenty first lines of each, to be compared with what I have; that I may know whether they are yet published. The manuscripts are these: