Dr. Burney had no greater enjoyment of the little leisure he could tear
from his work and his profession, than that which he could dedicate
to Dr. Johnson; and he now, at the Doctor’s most earnest invitation,
carried this Memorialist to Bolt Court, to pay a visit to the blind
poetess, Anna Williams.
They were received by Dr. Johnson with a kindness that irradiated
his austere and studious features into the most pleased and pleasing
benignity. Such, indeed, was the gentleness, as well as warmth, of his
partiality for this father and daughter, that their sight seemed to
give him a new physiognomy.[35]
It was in the apartment—a parlour—dedicated to Mrs. Williams, that the
Doctor was in this ready attendance to play the part of the master of
the ceremonies, in presenting his new guest to his ancient friend and
ally. Anna Williams had been a favourite of his wife, in whose life-time
she had frequently resided under his roof. The merit of her poetical
talents, and the misfortune of her blindness, are generally known; to
these were now super-added sickness, age, and infirmity: yet such was
the spirit of her character, that to make a new acquaintance thus rather
singularly circumstanced, seemed to her almost an event of moment; and
she had incessantly solicited the Doctor to bring it to bear.
Her look, air, voice, and extended hands of reception, evinced the most
eager, though by no means obtrusive curiosity. Her manner, indeed,
shewed her to be innately a gentlewoman; and her conversation always
disclosed a cultivated as well as thinking mind.
Dr. Johnson never appeared to more advantage than in the presence of
this blind poetess; for the obligations under which he had placed
her, were such as he sincerely wished her to feel with the pleasure
of light, not the oppression of weighty gratitude. All his best
sentiments, therefore, were strenuously her advocates, to curb what was
irritable in his temper by the generosity of his principles; and by
the congeniality, in such points, of their sensibility.
His attentions to soften the burthen of her existence, from the
various bodily diseases that aggravated the evil of her loss of sight,
were anxious and unceasing; and there was no way more prominent to
his favour than that of seeking to give any solace, or shewing any
consideration to Anna Williams.
Anna, in return, honouring his virtues and abilities, grateful for
his goodness, and intimately aware of his peculiarities, made it the
pride of her life to receive every moment he could bestow upon her,
with cordial affection; and exactly at his own time and convenience;
to soothe him when he was disposed to lament with her the loss of his
wife; and to procure for him whatever was in her power of entertainment
or comfort.
This introduction was afterwards followed, through Dr. Johnson’s
zealous intervention, by sundry other visits from the Memorialist; and
though minor circumstances made her compliance rather embarrassing, it
could not have been right, and it would hardly have been possible, to
resist an entreaty of Dr. Johnson. And every fresh interview at his own
home showed the steady humanity of his assiduity to enliven his poor
blind companion; as well as to confer the most essential services upon
two other distressed inmates of his charitable house, Mrs. Desmoulins,
the indigent daughter of Dr. Swinfen, a physician who had been
godfather to Dr. Johnson; and Mr. Levet, a poor old ruined apothecary,
both of whom he housed and supported with the most exemplary Christian
goodness.