An everlasting monument to thee.
We cannot say that the Latin compositions of this sort in Westminster Abbey are much to our taste. One however, we cannot pass over—that to the memory of Goldsmith, by Dr. Johnson—a scholar-like production, dictated by affection, and full of grace and tenderness. In the delineation of the personal and literary character of his friend, we recognize all the grander traits of the honest giant's loving heart and powerful pen. Nothing can be in better taste than his commendation of Goldsmith's genius:
Affectuum potens et lenis Dominator;
Ingenio sublimis—vividus, versatilis,
Oratione grandis, nitidus, venustus—
Of the English epitaphs, one of the most remarkable for elegance and simplicity is that on Purcell, the composer, reputed, on the authority of Malone, to be by Dryden, It certainly is not unworthy of his pen:
Here lyes
Henry Purcell, Esq.
Who left this life,
And is gone to that blessed place