et
verborum ponderibus admirabili.' Yet these words, 'energetic and
sonorous' though they were, 'fill one with a secret and invincible
loathing, because they tend to introduce into the epitaph a character of
magnificence.' With every fresh objection he rose in importance. He
wrote for the approbation of real scholars of generations yet unborn.
'That the epitaph was written by such or such a man will, from the
publicity of the situation, and the popularity of the subject, be long
remembered.' Johnstone's _Life of Parr_, iv. 694-712. No objection seems
to have been raised to the five pompous lines of perplexing dates and
numerals in which no room is found even for Johnson's birth and
birth-place.

'After I had written the epitaph,' wrote Parr to a friend, 'Sir Joshua
Reynolds told me there was a scroll. I was in a rage. A scroll! Why,
Ned, this is vile modern contrivance. I wanted one train of ideas. What
could I do with the scroll? Johnson held it, and Johnson must speak in
it. I thought of this, his favourite maxim, in the Life of Milton,
[Johnson's _Works_, vii. 77],

"[Greek: Otti toi en megaroisi kakon t agathon te tetuktai.]."

In Homer [_Odyssey_, iv. 392] you know--and shewing the excellence of
Moral Philosophy. There Johnson and Socrates agree. Mr. Seward, hearing
of my difficulty, and no scholar, suggested the closing line in the
_Rambler_ [_ante_, i. 226, note 1]; had I looked there I should have
anticipated the suggestion. It is the closing line in Dionysius's
_Periegesis_,

"[Greek: Anton ek makaron antaxios eiae amoibae.]."

I adopted it, and gave Seward the praise. "Oh," quoth Sir William Scott,
"_[Greek: makaron]_ is Heathenish, and the Dean and Chapter will
hesitate." "The more fools they," said I. But to prevent disputes I have
altered it.

"[Greek: En makaressi ponon antaxios ein amoibae]."
Johnstone's _Life of Parr_, iv. 713.

Though the inscription on the scroll is not strictly speaking part of
the epitaph, yet this mixture of Greek and Latin is open to the censure
Johnson passed on Pope's Epitaph on Craggs.

'It may be proper to remark,' he said, 'the absurdity of joining in the
same inscription Latin and English, or verse and prose. If either
language be preferable to the other, let that only be used; for no
reason can be given why part of the information should be given in one
tongue and part in another on a tomb more than in any other place, or on
any other