private prayer and the reading of Erasmus on the New Testa ment I , Dr. Clarke's sermons 2 , and such other books as had a tendency to calm and comfort him.
In this state of his body and mind, he seemed to be very anxious in the discharge of two offices that he had hitherto neglected to perform : one was, the communicating to the world the names of the persons concerned in the compilation of the Universal History; the other was, the rescuing from oblivion the memory of his father and mother, and also, of his brother : the former of these he discharged, by delivering to Mr. Nichols the printer, in my presence, a paper containing the information above-mentioned, and directions to deposit it in the British Museum 3 . The other, by composing a memorial of his deceased parents and his brother, intended for their tomb-stone, which, whether it was ever inscribed thereon or not, is extant in the Gentleman's Magazine for January I785 4 .
He would also have written, in Latin verse, an epitaph for Mr. Garrick, but found himself unequal to the task of original poetic composition in that language.
Nevertheless, he succeeded in an attempt to render into Latin metre, from the Greek Anthologia, sundry of the epigrams therein contained, that had been omitted by other translators, alledging as a reason, which he had found in Fabricius 5 , that Henry Stephens, Buchanan, Grotius, and others, had paid a like tribute to literature. The performance of this task was the employ ment of his sleepless nights, and, as he informed me, it afforded him great relief 6 .
1 * The Paraphrase and Notes of 3 Life, iv. 382 ; Letters, ii. 431. Erasmus, in my judgment, was the 4 It seems likely that the stone was most important Book even of his day. never set up. Life, iv. 393, n. 3. We must remember that it was almost 5 In the Sale Catalogue of Johnson's legally adopted by the Church of Library, Lot 78 is Fabricii bibliotheca England.' Milman's Latin Chris ft- Graeca in 6 vols., and Lot 300 the anity, ed. 1855, vi. 624. same work in 8 vols.
' In the reign of Elizabeth it was 6 On April 19, 1784, he wrote to
commanded that in every church Mrs. Thrale: ' When I lay sleepless,
there should be a copy of this book I used to drive the night along by
on a desk for the use of the congre- turning Greek epigrams into Latin.'
gation.' Jortin's Erasmus, p. 155. Letters^ ii. 391. See also Life, iv.
2 Life, iv. 416 ; ante, i. 38. 384.
His
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