Note 1042 — THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. (continued 6)

Windham says (Diary, p. 34) that when Dr. Brocklesby made this offer 'Johnson pressed his hands and said, "God bless you through Jesus Christ, but I will take no money but from my sovereign." This, if I mistake not, was told the King through West.' Dr. Brocklesby wrote to Burke, on July 2, 1788, to make him 'an instant present of £1000, which,' he continues, 'for years past, by will, I had destined as a testimony of my regard on my decease.' Burke, accepting the present, said:—'I shall never be ashamed to have it known, that I am obliged to one who never can be capable of converting his kindness into a burthen.' Burke's Corres. iii.78. See ante, p. 263, for the just praise bestowed by Johnson on physicians in his Life of Garth.