[446] Johnson wrote on March 30:—­’The men have got in whom I have endeavoured to keep out; but I hope they will do better than their predecessors; it will not be easy to do worse.’  Croker’s Boswell, p. 706.

[447] This note was in answer to one which accompanied one of the earliest pamphlets on the subject of Chatterton’s forgery, entitled Cursory Observations on the Poems attributed to Thomas Rowley, &c.  Mr. Thomas Warton’s very able Inquiry appeared about three months afterwards; and Mr. Tyrwhitt’s admirable Vindication of his Appendix in the summer of the same hear, left the believers in this daring imposture nothing but ’the resolution to say again what had been said before.’  MALONE.

[448] Pr. and Med. p. 207.  BOSWELL.

[449] He addressed to him an Ode in Latin, entitled Ad Thomam Laurence, medicum doctissimum, quum filium peregre agentem desiderio nimis tristi prosequeretur.  Works, i. 165.

[450] Mr. Holder, in the Strand, Dr. Johnson’s apothecary.  BOSWELL.

[451] ’Johnson should rather have written “imperatum est.”  But the meaning of the words is perfectly clear.  “If you say yes, the messenger has orders to bring Holder to me.”  Mr. Croker translates the words as follows:-"If you consent, pray tell the messenger to bring Holder to me.”  If Mr. Croker is resolved to write on points of classical learning, we would advise him to begin by giving an hour every morning to our old friend Corderius.’  Macaulay’s Essays, ed. 1843, i 366.  In The Answers to Mr. Macaulay’s Criticism, prefixed to Croker’s Boswell, p. 13, it is suggested that Johnson wrote either imperetur or imperator.  The letter may be translated:  ’A fresh chill, a fresh cough, and a fresh difficulty in breathing call for a fresh letting of blood.  Without your advice, however, I would not submit to the operation.  I cannot well come to you, nor need you come to me.  Say yes or no in one word, and leave the rest to Holder and to me.  If you say yes, let the messenger be bidden (imperetur) to bring Holder to me.  May 1, 1782.  When you have left, whither shall I turn?’

[452] Soon after the above letter, Dr. Lawrence left London, but not before the palsy had made so great a progress as to render him unable to write for himself.  The folio wing are extracts from letters addressed by Dr. Johnson to one of his daughters:—­

’You will easily believe with what gladness I read that you had heard once again that voice to which we have all so often delighted to attend.  May you often hear it.  If we had his mind, and his tongue, we could spare the rest.

’I am not vigorous, but much better than when dear Dr. Lawrence held my pulse the last time.  Be so kind as to let me know, from one little interval to another, the state of his body.  I am pleased that he remembers me, and hope that it never can be possible for me to forget him.  July 22, 1782.’