Amongst his Prayers and Meditations is
the following:
"_Good Friday, April 13th_, 1781.--On Wednesday, 11th, was buried my
dear friend Thrale, who died on Wednesday, 4th; and with him were
buried many of my hopes and pleasures. About five, I think, on
Wednesday morning, he expired. I felt almost the last flutter of his
pulse, and looked for the last time upon the face that for fifteen
years had never been turned upon me but with respect or benignity.
Farewell. May God, that delighteth in mercy, have had mercy on thee!
I had constantly prayed for him some time before his death. The
decease of him, from whose friendship I had obtained many
opportunities of amusement, and to whom I turned my thoughts as to a
refuge from misfortunes, has left me heavy. But my business is with
myself."
On the same paper is a note: "My first knowledge of Thrale was in
1765. I enjoyed his favours for almost a fourth part of my life."
On the 20th March, 1782, he wrote thus to Langton:
"Of my life, from the time we parted, the history is mournful. The
spring of last year deprived me of Thrale, a man whose eye for
fifteen years had scarcely been turned upon me but with respect or
tenderness; for such another friend, the general course of human
things will not suffer man to hope. I passed the summer at Streatham,
but there was no Thrale; and having idled away the summer with a
weakly body and neglected mind, I made a journey to Staffordshire on
the edge of winter. The season was dreary, I was sickly, and found
the friends sickly whom I went to see.
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