[a] This is the epitaph, that drew from Gibbon, sir J. Reynolds, Sheridan, Joseph Warton, &c. the celebrated _Round Robin_, composed by Burke, intreating Johnson to write an English epitaph on an English author. His reply was, in the genuine spirit of an old scholar, "he would never consent to disgrace the walls of Westminster abbey with an English inscription." One of his arguments, in favour of a common learned language, was ludicrously cogent: "Consider, sir, how you should feel, were you to find, at Rotterdam, an epitaph, upon Erasmus, _in Dutch_!" Boswell, iii. He would, however, undoubtedly have written a better epitaph in English, than in Latin. His compositions in that language are not of first rate excellence, either in prose or verse. The epitaph, in Stretham church, on Mr. Thrale, abounds with inaccuracies; and those who are fond of detecting little blunders in great men, may be amply gratified in the perusal of a review of Thrale's epitaph in the Classical Journal, xii. 6. His Greek epitaph on Goldsmith, is not remarkable in itself, but we will subjoin it, in this place, as a literary curiosity. [Greek:] Thon taphon eisoraas thon OLIBARIOIO, koniaen Aphrosi mae semnaen, xeine, podessi patei. Oisi memaele phusis, metron charis, erga palaion, Klaiete poiaetaen, istorikon, phusikon. --ED. IN STRETHAM CHURCH. Hie conditur quod reliquum est HENRICI THRALE, Qui res seu civiles, seu domesticas, ita egit, Ut vitam illi longiorem multi optarent; Ita sacras, Ut quam brevem esset habiturus praescire videretur; Simplex, apertus, sibique semper similis, Nihil ostentavit aut arte fictum, aut cura elaboratum. In senatu, regi patriaeque Fideliter studuit, Vulgi obstrepentis contemptor animosus; Domi, inter mille mercaturae negotia, Literarum elegantiam minime neglexit. Amicis, quocunque modo laborantibus, Consiliis, auctoritate, muneribus, adfuit. Inter familiares, comites, convivas, hospites, Tam facili fuit morum suavitate Ut omnium animos ad se alliceret; Tam felici sermonis libertate, Ut nulli adulatus, omnibus placeret. Natus 1724. Obijt 1781. Consortes tumuli habet Rodolphum, patrem, strenuum fortemque virum, et Henricum, filium unicum, quem spei parentum mors inopiua decennem proripuit. Ita Domus felix et opulenta quam erexit Avus, auxitque pater, cum nepote decidit. Abi, Viator, Et, vicibus rerum humanarum perspectis, Aeternitatem cogita! POEMATA MESSIA [a]. Ex alieno ingenio poeta, ex suo tantum versificator. SCALIG. Poet.