correct, and flowing;
     His memory vast and exact;
     His judgement strong and acute;
     All which endowments, united
     With the most amiable temper
     And every private virtue,
     Procured him, not only in his own country,
     But also from foreign nations[460],
     The highest marks of esteem. 
     In the year of our Lord 1766,
     The 25th of his life,
     After a long and extremely painful illness,
     Which he supported with admirable patience and fortitude,
     He died at Rome,
     Where, notwithstanding the difference of religion,
     Such extraordinary honours were paid to his memory,
     As had never graced that of any other British Subject,
     Since the death of Sir Philip Sidney. 
     The fame he left behind him is the best consolation
     To his afflicted family,
     And to his countrymen in this isle,
     For whose benefit he had planned
     Many useful improvements,
     Which his fruitful genius suggested,
     And his active spirit promoted,
     Under the sober direction
     Of a clear and enlightened understanding. 
     Reader, bewail our loss,
     And that of all Britain. 
     In testimony of her love,
     And as the best return she can make
     To her departed son,
     For the constant tenderness and affection
     Which, even to his last moments,
     He shewed for her,
     His much afflicted mother,
     The LADY MARGARET MACDONALD,
     Daughter to the EARL of EGLINTOUNE,
     Erected this Monument,
     A.D. 1768[461]’

Dr. Johnson said, the inscription should have been in Latin, as every thing intended to be universal and permanent should be[462].

This being a beautiful day, my spirits were cheered by the mere effect of climate.  I had felt a return of spleen during my stay at Armidale, and had it not been that I had Dr. Johnson to contemplate, I should have sunk into dejection; but his firmness supported me.  I looked at him, as a man whose head is turning giddy at sea looks at a rock, or any fixed object.  I wondered at his tranquillity.  He said, ’Sir, when a man retires into an island, he is to turn his thoughts entirely to another world.  He has done with this.’  BOSWELL.  ’It appears to me, Sir, to be very difficult to unite a due attention to this world, and that which is to come; for, if we engage eagerly in the affairs of life, we are apt to be totally forgetful of a future state; and, on the other hand, a steady contemplation of the awful concerns of eternity renders all objects here so insignificant, as to make us indifferent and negligent about them.’  JOHNSON.  ’Sir, Dr. Cheyne has laid down a rule to himself on this subject, which should be imprinted on every mind:—­“To neglect nothing to secure my eternal peace, more than if I had been certified I should die within the day:  nor to mind any thing that my secular obligations and duties demanded of me, less than if I had been ensured to live fifty years more[463]."’