'SIR,
'Miss Reynolds has a mind to send the Epitaph to Dr. Beattie; I am very
willing, but having no copy, cannot immediately recollect it. She tells
me you have lost it. Try to recollect and put down as much as you
retain; you perhaps may have kept what I have dropped. The lines for
which I am at a loss are something of _rerum civilium sivè
naturalium_.'[238] It was a sorry trick to lose it; help me if you can. I
am, Sir,
'Your most humble servant,
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
'June 22, 1776.
'The gout grows better but slowly[239].'
It was, I think, after I had left London this year, that this Epitaph
gave occasion to a _Remonstrance_ to the MONARCH OF LITERATURE, for an
account of which I am indebted to Sir William Forbes, of Pitsligo.
That my readers may have the subject more fully and clearly before them,
I shall first insert the Epitaph.
OLIVARII GOLDSMITH,
_Poetae, Physici, Historici,
Qui nullum ferè scribendi genus
Non tetigit,
Nullum quod tetigit non ornavit.[240]
Sive risus essent movendi,
Sive lacrymae,
Affectuum potens at lenis dominator:
Ingenio sublimis, vividus, versatilis,
Oratione grandis, nitidus, venustus:
Hoc monumento memoriam coluit
Sodalium amor,
Amicorum fides,
Lectorum veneratio.
Natus in Hiberniâ Forniae Longfordiensis,
In loco cui nomen Pallas,
Nov. XXIX. MDCCXXXI[241];
Eblanae literis institutus;
Obiit Londini,
April IV, MDCCLXXIV.'