To his friends' children he liked to appear as a benevolent great-uncle; when Mrs Thrale was away from home, he would send her reports from the nursery:
"I went this afternoon to visit the two babies at Kensington, and found them indeed a little spotted with their disorder, but as brisk and gay as health and youth can make them. I took a paper of sweetmeats and spread them on the table. They took great delight to shew their governess the various animals that were made of sugar; and when they had eaten as much as was fit, the rest were laid up for to-morrow."
Here is another letter written in his seventy-fifth year—seven months before his death:
"To Miss Jane Langton.
May 10, 1784.
My Dearest Miss Jenny,
I am sorry that your pretty letter has been so long without being answered; but, when I am not pretty well, I do not always write plain enough for young ladies. I am glad, my dear, to see that you write so well, and hope that you mind your pen, your book, and your needle, for they are all necessary. Your books will give you knowledge, and make you respected; and your needle will find you useful employment when you do not care to read. When you are a little older, I hope you will be very diligent in learning arithmetick; and, above all, that through your whole life you will carefully say your prayers, and read your Bible.
I am, my dear, your most humble servant,
Sam. Johnson."
"He must have been a bold laugher," says Boswell "who would have ventured to tell Dr Johnson of any of his particularities."
But when a little girl asked him "Pray, Dr Johnson, why do you make such strange gestures?"