Page:Johnsonian Miscellanies II.djvu/145

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

their church, and performed, in the most respectful manner, all the honours due to the memory of so great a man z .

His body, enclosed in a leaden coffin, is deposited in the south transept of the abbey, near the foot qf Shakespeare's monument, and close to the coffin of his friend Garrick. Agree able to his request, a stone of black marble 2 covers his grave, thus inscribed :

SAMUEL JOHNSON, L.L.D. Obiit XIII die Decembris,

Anno Domini M DCC LXXXIV, ^Etatis suae LXXV. (Page 594.)

The truth of the matter is, that his whole life was a conflict with his passions and humours, and that few persons bore repre hension with more patience than himself. After his decease, I found among his papers an anonymous letter, that seemed to have been written by a person who had long had his eye on him, and remarked the offensive particulars in his behaviour, his propensity to contradiction, his want of deference to the opinions of others, his contention for victory over those with whom he disputed, his local prejudices and aversions, and other his evil habits in conversation/ which made his acquaintance

see post in G. Steevens's Anecdotes, Earl of Upper Ossory.

and Letters, ii. 434. Of the members' Bishop Marlay.

of the Literary Club who did not Earl Spencer,

attend the following is the list in the Bishop Shipley,

order of their seniority : Lord Eliot.

Bishop Percy. Thomas Warton.

Sir Robert Chambers. Earl of Lucan.

Earl of Charlemont. Sir William Hamilton.

Sir William Jones (absent in India). Viscount Palmerston.

Agmondesham Vesey. Dr. Warren was elected a member

James Boswell. three days after the funeral.

Charles James Fox. * This is Hawkins's reply to the

Dr. George Fordyce. charge of neglect brought against

Edward Gibbon. them and him. Ante, i. 449 n. ;

Adam Smith. Life, iv. 420 n.

Bishop Barnard. 2 Boswell correctly describes it as

Dr. Joseph Warton. a large blue flag-stone.' Life, iv.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan. 419.

shunned

�� �