Autograph letter signed with initials : London, to [William Johnson] Temple, 1788 Feb. 24-25.

Thanking him for a loan that enabled him to "keep [his] credit entire, in a place where any suspicion against it is very fatal"; telling him that he does not think it will be easy for Temple's niece to find a position as a companion or a governess; remarking, "except in some of the very great families, a governess is treated little better than a common servant"; discussing how they can get Temple's nephew into Christ's Hospital and recommending that they get Sir Joshua Reynolds involved; noting that "[William] Mason's Life of [Thomas] Gray is excellent, because it is interspersed with letters which show us the man. His life of [William] Whitehead is not a life at all, for there is neither a letter nor a saying from first to last"; boasting of his Life of [Samuel] Johnson: "I am absolutely certain that my mode of biography, which gives not only a History of Johnson's visible progress through the world, and of his publications, but a view of his mind in his letters and conversations, is the most perfect that can be conceived, and will be more of a Life than any work that has ever yet appeared"; adding that he has been "wretchedly dissipated" but plans to "resume [his] pen" and "labour vigorously."