I owned to him, that
having accidentally seen them, I had read a great deal in them; and
apologizing for the liberty I had taken, asked him if I could help it.
He placidly answered, 'Why, Sir, I do not think you could have helped
it.' I said that I had, for once in my life, felt half an inclination to
commit theft. It had come into my mind to carry off those two volumes,
and never see him more. Upon my inquiring how this would have affected
him, 'Sir, (said he,) I believe I should have gone mad.'
During his last illness, Johnson experienced the steady and kind
attachment of his numerous friends. Mr. Hoole has drawn up a narrative
of what passed in the visits which he paid him during that time, from
the 10th of November to the 13th of December, the day of his death,
inclusive, and has favoured me with a perusal of it, with permission to
make extracts, which I have done. Nobody was more attentive to him than
Mr. Langton, to whom he tenderly said, Te teneam moriens deficiente
manu.
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