of a man of business, regulating what was then regarded as a princely fortune.  The brewery was sold after a time, and Johnson bustled about with an ink-horn and pen in his button-hole.  When asked what was the value of the property, he replied magniloquently, “We are not here to sell a parcel of boilers and vats, but the potentiality of growing rich beyond the dreams of avarice.”  The brewery was in fact sold to Barclay, Perkins, and Co. for the sum of 135,000_l_., and some years afterwards it was the largest concern of the kind in the world.

The first effect of the change was probably rather to tighten than to relax the bond of union with the Thrale family.  During the winter of 1781-2, Johnson’s infirmities were growing upon him.  In the beginning of 1782 he was suffering from an illness which excited serious apprehensions, and he went to Mrs. Thrale’s, as the only house where he could use “all the freedom that sickness requires.”  She nursed him carefully, and expressed her feelings with characteristic vehemence in a curious journal which he had encouraged her to keep.  It records her opinions about her affairs and her family, with a frankness remarkable even in writing intended for no eye but her own.  “Here is Mr. Johnson very ill,” she writes on the 1st of February;....  “What shall we do for him?  If I lose him, I am more than undone—­friend, father, guardian, confidant!  God give me health and patience!  What shall I do?” There is no reason to doubt the sincerity of these sentiments, though they seem to represent a mood of excitement.  They show that for ten months after Thrale’s death Mrs. Thrale was keenly sensitive to the value of Johnson’s friendship.

A change, however, was approaching.  Towards the end of 1780 Mrs. Thrale had made the acquaintance of an Italian musician named Piozzi, a man of amiable and honourable character, making an independent income by his profession, but to the eyes of most people rather inoffensive than specially attractive.  The friendship between Mrs. Thrale and Piozzi rapidly became closer, and by the end of 1781 she was on very intimate terms with the gentleman whom she calls “my Piozzi.”  He had been making a professional trip to the Continent during part of the period since her husband’s death, and upon his return in November, Johnson congratulated her upon having two friends who loved her, in terms which suggest no existing feeling of jealousy.  During 1782 the mutual affection of the lady and the musician became stronger, and in the autumn they had avowed it to each other, and were discussing the question of marriage.