'Your most humble servant,
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
'May 16, 1776.'
TO THE SAME.
'SIR,
'Miss Reynolds has a mind to send the Epitaph to Dr. Beattie; I am very willing, but having no copy, cannot immediately recollect it. She tells me you have lost it. Try to recollect and put down as much as you retain; you perhaps may have kept what I have dropped. The lines for which I am at a loss are something of rerum civilium sivè naturalium.'[238] It was a sorry trick to lose it; help me if you can. I am, Sir,
'Your most humble servant,
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
'June 22, 1776.
'The gout grows better but slowly[239].'