o Mr. Garrick, from its appearing at
first with the signature G; but I have heard Mr. Garrick declare, that
it was written by Dr. Johnson, and give the following account of the
manner in which it was composed. Johnson and he were sitting together;
when, amongst other things, Garrick repeated an Epitaph upon this
Philips by a Dr. Wilkes, in these words:

'Exalted soul! whose harmony could please
The love-sick virgin, and the gouty ease;
Could jarring discord, like Amphion, move
To beauteous order and harmonious love;
Rest here in peace, till angels bid thee rise,
And meet thy blessed Saviour in the skies.'

Johnson shook his head at these common-place funereal lines, and said to
Garrick, 'I think, Davy, I can make a better.' Then, stirring about his
tea for a little while, in a state of meditation, he almost extempore
produced the following verses:

'Philips, whose touch harmonious could remove
The pangs of guilty power or hapless love;
Rest here, distress'd by poverty no more,
Here find that calm thou gav'st so oft before;
Sleep, undisturb'd, within this peaceful shrine,
Till angels wake thee with a note like thine!'

1742: AETAT. 33.]--In 1742 he wrote . . . 'Proposals for Printing
Bibliotheca Harleiana, or a Catalogue of the Library of the Earl of
Oxford.' He was employed in this business by Mr. Thomas Osborne the
bookseller, who purchased the library for 13,000l., a sum which Mr.
Oldys says, in one of his manuscripts, was not more than the binding of
the books had cost; yet, as Dr. Johnson assured me, the slowness of
the sale was such, that there was not much gained by it. It has been
confidently related, with many embellishments, that Johnson one day
knocked Osborne down in his shop, with a folio, and put his foot upon
his neck. The simple truth I had from Johnson himself. 'Sir, he was
impertinent to me, and I beat him. But it was not in his shop: it was in
my own chamber.'

1744: AETAT. 35.]--He produced one work this year, fully sufficient to
maintain the high reputation which he had acquired. This was The Life
of Richard Savage; a man, of whom it is difficult to speak impartially,
without wondering that he was for some time the intimate companion of
Johnson; for his character was marked by profligacy, insolence, and
ingratitude: yet, as he undoubtedly had a warm and vigorous, though
unregulated mind, had seen life in all its varieties, and been m