Page:Johnsonian Miscellanies I.djvu/257

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��Here are deposited the remains of

HENRY THRALE,

Who managed all his concerns in the present world, public and private, in such a manner as to leave many wishing he had continued

longer in it ;

And all that related to a future world, ' as if he had been sensible how short a time he

was to continue in this.

Simple, open, and uniform in his manners,

his conduct was without either art or affectation.

In the senate steadily attentive to the true interests

of his king and country, He looked down with contempt on the clamours

of the multitude :

Though engaged in a very extensive business,

He found some time to apply to polite literature :

And was ever ready to assist his friends

labouring under any difficulties, with his advice, his influence, and his purse.

To his friends, acquaintance, and guests, he behaved with such sweetness of manners

as to attach them all to his person :

So happy in his conversation with them,

as to please all, though he flattered none.

He was born in the year 1724, and died in 1781.

In the same tomb lie interred his father

Ralph Thrale, a man of vigour and activity,

And his only son Henry, who died before his father,

Aged ten years.

Thus a happy and opulent family,

Raised by the grandfather, and augmented by the

father, became extinguished with the grandson.

Go, Reader, And reflecting on the vicissitudes of

all human affairs, Meditate on eternity.

I never recollect to have heard that Dr. Johnson wrote in scriptions for any sepulchral stones, except Dr. Goldsmith's in Westminster abbey, and these two in Streatham church 1 . He made four lines once, on the death of poor Hogarth, which

1 For his Latin epitaph on Gold- parents and brother, ib. iv. 393. For smith see Life, iii. 82 ; on his wife, his English epitaph on Mrs. Jane ib. i. 241, n.) and for those on his Bell see Works, i. 151.

were

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