202 SAMUEL JOHNSON

what you shall prove. You may print this if you will.

SAM. JOHNSON.

Extracts from Mrs. Thrale's collection

You have more than once wondered at my complaint of solitude when you hear that I am crowded with visits. Inopem me copia fecit. Visitors are no proper companions in the chamber of sickness. They come when I could sleep or read, they stay till I am weary, they force me to attend when my mind calls for relaxation, and to speak when my powers will hardly actuate my tongue. The amusements and consolations of languor and depression are conferred by familiar and domestic com- panions, which can be visited or called at will and can occasionally be quitted or dismissed, who do not obstruct accommodation by cere- mony, or destroy indolence by awakening effort.

Those that have loved longest love best. A sudden blaze of kindness may by a single blast of coldness be extinguished, but that fondness which length of time has connected with many circumstances and occasions, though it may for a while be suppressed by disgust

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