'If you are now able to comprehend that I might neglect to write without
diminution of affection, you have taught me, likewise, how that neglect
may be uneasily felt without resentment. I wished for your letter a long
time, and when it came, it amply recompensed the delay. I never was so
much pleased as now with your account of yourself; and sincerely hope,
that between publick business, improving studies, and domestick
pleasures, neither melancholy nor caprice will find any place for
entrance. Whatever philosophy may determine of material nature, it is
certainly true of intellectual nature, that it _abhors a vacuum_: our
minds cannot be empty; and evil will break in upon them, if they are not
pre-occupied by good. My dear Sir, mind your studies, mind your
business, make your lady happy, and be a good Christian. After this,

'tristitiam et metus
Trades protervis in mare Creticum
Portare ventis[414].'

'If we perform our duty, we shall be safe and steady, "_Sive per_[415],"
&c., whether we climb the Highlands, or are tost among the Hebrides; and
I hope the time will come when we may try our powers both with cliffs
and water. I see but little of Lord Elibank[416], I know not why; perhaps
by my own fault. I am this day going into Staffordshire and Derbyshire
for six weeks[417].

'I am, dear Sir,
'Your most affectionate,
'And most humble servant,
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
'London, June 20, 1771.'