SIR,

Dr. G. Thackeray, to the Rev. J. Lynes.

King's Lodge, March 14, 1828. The lines to which you allude in your letter were written by my late valued friend Dr. Parr as an epitaph for my grandfather, but were never inscribed on his tomb. He was buried I believe at Harrow. Dr. Parr wrote the short inscription for the marble tablet which is placed near my mother's grave, who was buried in his church in Warwickshire. I have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient humble servant, G. THACKERAY.

Epitaph on Dr. Sumner.-See vol. iv. p. 562.

DEAR PARR,

Sir William Jones, to Dr. Parr.

Duke-street, Oct. 2, 1771. You meaned, no doubt, only to pay me a compliment by desiring me to correct your epitaph for our friend, since you cannot think me vain enough to attempt altering a piece of your Latin without great diffidence; especially since the legal Latinity of our writs and deeds of feoffment has put Valla, and even Priscian, out of my head. How can a man who reads every day such words as maritagium, marriage, and warrantizo, to warrant, be expected to criticise one who lives perpetually with Terence and Cicero However, since you desire it, and the thing itself is of no small consequence, I must try to rub up my old Latin, and, as Tully says to Brutus, rather chuse, by complying with your request, to forfeit your opinion of my good sense, than, by neglecting it, to make you doubt of my good-nature. Malo prudentiam meam desiderari, &c. To be serious, I cannot but apply to your epitaph, both as to the sentiments and manner of expression, and with great truth say to you what was said by way of douceur to Garrick of his own verses on Shakspeare, that the composition does as much honour to the writer as to the memory of the person whom it celebrates. There is but one line in it which seems to me capable of improvement; but I submit my criticism wholly to your decision. All my other remarks are poposed merely as doubts; and you cannot be too scrupulous in

so short a thing, since you may depend upon having a number of critics, if the monument be intended for Harrow Church.

Nemini unquam felicius contigit

sive judicii acumen, sive eruditionis

copia atque elegantiæ.

Here seems to be a trifling awkwardness in making' felicius' only agree with acumen,' when it ought also to agree with 'copia;' and it seems rather hard to understand felicior' in the second member of the sentence. This may be avoided, perhaps, by reading,

Nemini fere aut felicius contigit

acumen judicii, vel instructior eruditionis

or, exquisitior,

or, lautior,

or, splendidior,

atque elegantiarum copia.

Would it not be right to qualify the universal negative! With all my veneration for my old master, I cannot help thinking that Archimedes, Bacon, &c. might have contended with him for the prize of acumen; so that nemini unquam is too exclusive. This is the only passage which seemed to me capable of improvement; the rest is excellent; and I may venture to say, if it had been Sumner's fate to have written an epitaph for either of us, he would not have made a better one than you have done for him. I had once thoughts of writing his epitaph in English couplets in the manner of Pope, but have not time for the vast labour which our versification requires. Now for my critical doubts: 1st. Elucebat ingenium-flexibile, multiplex. A genius may very properly be said elucere, to blaze out; but does the epithet flexibile or multiplex, which is another metaphor, agree with the metaphor elucebat? Try it in English: a bright genius shines forth; but does a pliant or comprehensive genius shine? I think the metaphors clash; but I fear you will apply to me the words of the elegant Dr. Chapman, that I have blazed out a fastidious hypercritic. 2d. Are the epithets flexibile and multiplex ever applied to ingenium in a good sense? Do they not imply a notion of something artful, oλvμýxavov, full of shifts and subtlety? What says Tully? Neque enim fidum esse potest multiplex ingenium et tortuosum? De Amic. 18. As to varium, it

is joined by Virgil with mutabile, and applied to the women. Suppose peracre: the word is elegant, and when he speaks of Cæsar. Suppose you

3. Perquam acre.

is used by Cicero

read,

Fuit huic præstantissimo viro

ingenium naturâ per acre,

optimarum, &c.

But use your own judgment entirely. 4. Et quodammodo subactum. Are not these words rather ornamental than necessary? 5. Sapientiæ partibus. You can tell better than I whether partes sapientiæ is an usual expression in the best authors. suppose studiis, or some such word.

6. In scriptis, &c. Here you ascribe the lepor facetiarum to his writings; by which you mean, I presume, those which he made public either from the pulpit or the press; for his familiar letters or juvenile verses cannot be numbered among his finished writings. Would it not be better to transfer the Attic salt from his writings to his conversation, and then read,

In scriptis, vera et prope perfecta eloquentia,

in sermone, facetiarum lepor plane Atticus,

et gravitate suaviter aspersa urbanitas.

7. Intemerata fides. Should you not avoid closing a sentence like a short verse? Is not intemeratus a poetical word? Would it not run better,

In moribus, singularis quædam

integritas et fides.

8. Doctrinæ, ingenii, virtutis triste, &c. Could you not give this passage some such turn as,

Doctrinæ, ingenii, virtutum,

(or, et) ut vivus optimum præbuit exemplar.

(or, et) ita moriens triste reliquit desiderium, &c.

9. Do you mean to mention Harrow expressly, as Scholæ, quam J. L. fundavit, Harrowniensis, &c.

I fear I am only exposing myself by these frivolous remarks. Farewell! W. J.

Epitaph on John Baynes.-See vol. iv. p. 567.

DEAR SIR,

Dr. Parr, to Sir Samuel Romilly.

May 17.

On second thoughts, which common sense, fortified by a Greek proverb, would pronounce the wiser, I shall not say a syllable about Bunhill-fields, or the cloisters of Gray's Inn; for my faith, as an orthodox parson, is, that the souls of the heretics interred in the one are asleep, according to the creed of Dr. Jebb; and the souls of lawyers interred in the other are in a state of purgatory. Had poor John been buried in the consecrated ground of the established church, among loyal statesmen in Westminster Abbey, or holy divines in the chapels of our universities, honourable mention should have been made of the place where he lies; and the pious reader would have inferred from it, that he has reached that intermediate state, which confers the partial reward to the virtuous, and is preparatory to their final happiness. Perhaps, in my esoterics, I may think John almost as secure of salvation as if he had been an archbishop; but, in my exoterics, I cannot countenance his wicked choice of a grave with Messrs. Jebb and Price; and besides, dear Sir, Bunhill-fields is not only loathsome to all the sons of the church, but would have a very uncouth and unclassical sound in a series of Latin expressions. Well, I have sent you the epitaph; and I desire, 1st, that you would show it to nobody except Bentham and Mackintosh; and, 2dly, that each of you would communicate any objections that arise in your minds, either on the topics or the Latinity. Critics by profession are like poets, a genus irritabile; and though I have a very sincere respect for your law, and Bentham's philosophy, and Jemmy Mackintosh's eloquence, it is possible that, if provoked even by the very remarks which I authorize and request you to make, I may assert the privileges of my trade, and sprinkle all three of you with a little gall. My friend, you must not infer any want of regard from my invectives. Horace, you know, abused and laughed at Trebatius, but the rogue's pleasantry would have

been ill placed, if Trebatius had been a stupid or ignorant fellow; and you and I know that stupidity and ignorance cannot be imputed to the man, to whom Cicero addressed his very elaborate Topics. Cicero himself, in his speech for Muræna, had occasion, as a pleader, to let loose some ridicule upon the study of the civil law, and upon Sulpicius; but this very Cicero, when he wrote deliberately, assigns the defence of that study, in the first book de Oratore, to Crassus, who appears the ρwraywriσTNS through the whole controversy about eloquence; and besides the proof we have of his affection for Sulpicius, in their correspondence on the death of Cicero's child, we have a decisive testimony of his esteem and respect for the said Sulpicius, when he says of him, in the Brutus: Servius videtur eloquentiæ tantum assumsisse, ut jus civile facile posset tueri. Ah! and further says: Non enim facile quem dixerim plus studii, quàm illum, et ad dicendum, et ad omnes bonarum rerum disciplinas adhibuisse, nam et in iisdem exercitationibus ineunte ætate fuimus; et postea una Rhodum ille etiam profectus est, quo melior esset et doctior; et inde ut rediit, videtur mihi in secundâ arte primus esse maluisse, quàm in primâ secundus. Now parsons, in their letters, as well as their sermons, reserve practical applications for the conclusion. If therefore you, or Bentham, or Mackintosh, should stir me up to lash you a little, you mayest all and every of you believe, that I think very highly of you, and that upon a proper occasion I should make you subjects of my panegyrics; and one way to obtain it is, by reading John Baynes' epitaph carefully, and by suggesting corrections or improvements. I am, dear Sir, very truly yours, S. PARR.