Page:Johnsonian Miscellanies I.djvu/256

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238 Anecdotes.

Hie conditur quod reliquum est

HENRICI THRALE,

Qui res seu civiles, seu domesticas, ita egit, Ut vitam illi longiorem multi optarent j

Ita sacras,

Ut quam brevem esset habiturus prascire videretur; Simplex, apertus, sibique semper similis, Nihil ostentavit aut arte fictum aut cura

Elaboratum. In senatu x , regi patriceque

Fideliter studuit; Vulgi obstrepentis contemptor animosus^

Domi inter mille mercaturcE negotia

Literarum elegantiam minimi neglexit*.

Amicis quocunque modo laborantibus,

Const Ins, auctoritate, muneribus adfuit.

Inter familiares, comites, convivas, hospiles,

Tarn facili fuit morum suavitate Ut omnium animos ad se alliceretj

Tarn felici sermonis libertate Ut nulli adulatus, omnibus placeret.

Natus 1724. Ob. 1781.

Consorfes tumuli habet Rodolphum patrem 3 , strenuum

fortemque virum, et Henricum filium unicum,

quern spei parentttm mors inopina decennem

prcEripuit"".

Ita

Domus felix et opulenta, quam erexit Avus, auxitque pater, cum nepote decidit.

Abi viator* /

Et vicibus rerum humanarum perspectis, dLternitatem cogita !

1 He was member for Southwark given in the Life, i. 490. He died for more than fourteen years. on April 8, 1758, aged 60. Man-

2 ' On Mr. Barclay becoming a ning and Bray's History of Sussex, partner in the brewery Johnson ad- vol. xxiii. p. 392.

vised him not to allow his commer- 4 Life, ii. 468. Another son,

cial pursuits to divert his attention Ralph, had died in infancy. Letters,

from his studies. "A mere literary i. 353.

man," said the Doctor, "is a dull 5 In his Essay on Epitaphs (Works,

man ; a man who is solely a man of v. 263), Johnson says : ' It is im-

business is a selfish man ; but when proper to address the epitaph to the

literature and commerce are united passenger, a custom which an inju-

they make a respectable man."' dicious veneration for antiquity intro-

Croker's Boswell, ed. 1835, x. 122. duced again at the revival of letters/

For respectable see Life, iii. 241, n. 2. He defines passenger as ' a traveller ;

3 An account of Ralph Thrale is one who is upon the road.'

Here

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