R. JOHNSON ON THE DIFFICULTY OF PLAYING THE FIDDLE.

"_Goldsmith_: 'I spoke of Mr. Harris, of Salisbury, as being a very
learned man, and in particular an eminent Grecian.'

"_Johnson_: 'I am not sure of that. His friends give him out as such,
but I know not who of his friends are able to judge of it.'

"_Goldsmith_: 'He is what is much better; he is a worthy, humane man.'

"_Johnson_: 'Nay, sir, that is not to the purpose of our argument;
that will as much prove that he can play upon the Fiddle as well as
Giardini, as that he is an eminent Grecian.'

"_Goldsmith_: 'The greatest musical performers have but small
emoluments; Giardini, I am told, does not get above seven hundred a
year.'

"_Johnson_: 'That is indeed but little for a man to get, who does best
that which so many endeavour to do. There is nothing, I think, in
which the power of art is shown so much as in playing on the Fiddle.
In all other things we can do something at first; any man will forge a
bar of iron if you give him a hammer; not so well as a smith, but
tolerably; and make a box, though a clumsy one; but give him a Fiddle
and a Fiddlestick, and he can do nothing.'"--_Boswell's_ "_Life of
Johnson_."

DR. JOHNSON'S EPITAPH ON PHILLIPS, THE WELSH VIOLINIST.

Johnson and Garrick were sitting together, when among other things
Garrick repeated an epitaph upon Phillips, by a Dr. Wilkes, which was
very commonplace, and Johnson 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:--

"Phillips, 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 undisturbed within this peaceful shrine,
Till angels wake thee with a note like thine!"

Boswell says, "Mr. Garrick appears not to have recited the verses
correctly, the original being as follows. One of the various readings
is remarkable, and it is the germ of Johnson's concluding line:--

"Exalted soul, thy various sounds could please
The love-sick virgin, and the gouty ease;
Could jarring _crowds_, like old Amphion, move
To beauteous order and harmonious love;
Rest here in peace, till angels bid thee rise,
And meet thy Saviour's _concert_ in the skies."

Boswell's "Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides" contai