n in these it had not fair play, for Westminster
Abbey was so full, that the recent monuments appeared ridiculous being
stuck up in odd holes and corners. On the other hand St. Paul's looked
forlorn and desolate. Here monuments should be erected, under the
direction of the Royal Academy. He took advantage of Johnson's death to
make a beginning with the plan which he had here sketched, and induced
his friends to give up their intention of setting up the monument in the
Abbey. Reynolds's _Works_, ed. 1824, ii. 248. 'He asked Dr. Parr--but in
vain--to include in the epitaph Johnson's title of Professor of Ancient
Literature to the Royal Academy; as it was on this pretext that he
persuaded the Academicians to subscribe a hundred guineas.' Johnstone's
_Parr_, iv. 686. See _ante_, ii. 239, where the question was raised
whose monument should be first erected in St. Paul's, and Johnson
proposed Milton's.

[1282] The Reverend Dr. Parr, on being requested to undertake it, thus
expressed himself in a letter to William Seward, Esq.:

'I leave this mighty task to some hardier and some abler writer. The
variety and splendour of Johnson's attainments, the peculiarities of his
character, his private virtues, and his literary publications, fill me
with confusion and dismay, when I reflect upon the confined and
difficult species of composition, in which alone they can be expressed,
with propriety, upon his monument.'

But I understand that this great scholar, and warm admirer of Johnson,
has yielded to repeated solicitations, and executed the very difficult
undertaking. BOSWELL. Dr. Johnson's Monument, consisting of a colossal
figure leaning against a column, has since the death of our authour been
placed in St. Paul's Cathedral. The Epitaph was written by the Rev. Dr.
Parr, and is as follows:

SAMVELI IOHNSON
GRAMMATICO ET CRITICO
SCRIPTORVM ANGLICORVM LITTERATE PERITO
POETAE LVMINIBVS SENTENTIARVM
ET PONDERIBVS VERBORVM ADMIRABILI
MAGISTRO VIRTVTIS GRAVISSIMO
HOMINI OPTIMO ET SINGVLARIS EXEMPLI
QVI VIXIT ANN LXXV MENS IL. DIEB XIII
DECESSIT IDIB DECEMBR ANN CHRIST cIo Iocc LXXXIIII
SEPVLT IN AED SANCT PETR WESTMONASTERIENS
XIII KAL IANVAR ANN CHRIST cIo Iocc LXXXV
AMICI ET SODALES LITTERARII
PECVNIA CONLATA
H M FACIVND CVRAVER.

On a scroll in his hand