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remaining with us, and taking a bed at our house during your stay.

"If my grief for the loss of my first and best friend were less excessive, I might endeavour to moderate your's; but I want consolation too much myself to offer it to others.

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"My wife joins in my request to you and Mrs. Johnson, and we both remain ever your faithful but disconsolate friends,

"SOPHIA AND HENRY FUSELI."

"Joseph Johnson, Esq."

Mr. Johnson was regretted not only by a numerous circle of private friends, but by the literary world in general. Many authors now living, and others who have paid the debt of nature, were fostered by his bounty, and but for his encouragement the world would have been deprived of most of the beautiful poems of Cowper; for, when "The Task,” not being appreciated by the public, met with a very tardy sale, its author had made up his mind to write no more. Mr. Johnson, who was well aware of the merits of this poem, urged him to proceed, stating, that he had no doubt it would finally receive that favour from the public which it so justly merited. This expecta

tion was afterwards realized to its utmost extent, and the author received from his publisher a handsome but unexpected gratuity.*

Mr. Johnson was a man of probity, liberality, and sound sense, with an acute judgment. The author of this memoir, who witnessed the urbanity of his manners, and partook of the hospitality of his table at least once a-week for some years, can bear testimony to these, as well as to the good sense which he exercised, and the prudence with which he allayed the occasional contests of his irritable guests, many of whom were distinguished men of letters, of various characters, and conflicting opinions. And although the conversation took a free range, yet the placid equanimity of their host regulated in some degree its freedom, and kept it within due bounds. Fuseli was always a favoured guest at this table; when absent, which rarely happened, a gloom for the time pervaded the company: but, when present, his acute taste in poetry, oratory, and the fine arts; his original opinions, singular ideas, and poignant wit, enlivened the conversation, and rendered him a

* Mr. Johnson made Cowper a present of one thousand pounds over and above their agreement.

delightful companion. On these occasions, however, Johnson was rather a listener than a contributor; but he enjoyed the animated remarks and retorts of his amusing friend, and in his will left him a handsome legacy.

Fuseli wrote the following epitaph, which gives a just and unvarnished character of this amiable man, and which is placed on his tomb in the church-yard of Fulham :

HERE LIE THE REMAINS OF

JOSEPH JOHNSON, LATE OF ST. PAUL'S, LONDON, WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE ON THE 20TH DAY OF

DECEMBER, 1809, AGED 72 YEARS.

A MAN

EQUALLY DISTINGUISHED BY PROBITY, INDUSTRY,

AND

DISINTERESTEDNESS

IN HIS INTERCOURSE WITH THE PUBLIC, AND EVERY DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL VIRTUE IN LIFE; BENEFICENT WITHOUT OSTENTATION, EVER READY TO PRODUCE MERIT AND TO RELIEVE DISTRESS; UNASSUMING IN PROSPERITY, NOT APPALLED BY MISFORTUNE; INEXORABLE TO HIS OWN, INDULGENT TO THE WANTS OF OTHERS; RESIGNED AND CHEERFUL UNDER THE TORTURE OF A MALADY WHICH HE SAW GRADUALLY DESTROY HIS LIFE.

The death of Opie, which took place rather unexpectedly, in 1807, after he had delivered only four lectures at the Royal Academy, in which he availed himself of several remarks of Fuseli in his unpublished discourses, caused a vacancy in the Professorship, which was filled by the election of Mr. Tresham. This appointment he held until the early part of the year 1810, and then tendered his resignation, declining to lecture under the plea of indisposition. The Academicians met for the purpose of electing a Professor of Painting; but no one offering himself, all being aware of the great talents of Fuseli in this particular, they came to a resolution, that a law which forbids the same person to hold two situations, should be dormant in his case; he was therefore re-elected Professor of Painting on the 10th of February, 1810, and was allowed to retain the joint offices of Keeper of the Academy and Professor of Painting during the remainder of his life. A higher compliment than this could not have been paid to any man, and it marked in an extraordinary manner the estimation in which his talents were held.

CHAPTER XI.

Fuseli's prefatory Address to his resumed Lectures.-His second Edition of Pilkington.-He suffers from a nervous fever, and visits Hastings in company with the Biographer. -His Picture of Marcus Curius, and Letter relative to it.

Letter from Mr. Roscoe.-Canova's Intercourse with Fuseli.-Anecdotes of Fuseli and Harlow.-Letters from Fuseli to the Biographer.-Republication of his Lectures, with additions. - Death of Professor Bonnycastle, and Anecdote concerning him.- Death of Fuseli's friend and patron, Mr. Coutts. An agreeable party at Fuseli's house.

ON the 26th of February 1810, Fuseli resumed his course of lectures, and prefaced them by the following address:

"Mr. President, and Gentlemen,

"Sincere as my gratitude and pleasing as my emotions must be on being, by the indulgence of the Academy, appointed to address you again, I should feel myself unworthy of this honour were I not to regret the infirm

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