'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: