ns the author's
letter to Garrick asking him to send the "bad verses which led Johnson
to make his fine verses on Phillips the musician." Garrick replied,
enclosing the desired epitaph.

Boswell remarks, "This epitaph is so exquisitely beautiful that I
remember even Lord Kames, strangely prejudiced as he was against Dr.
Johnson, was compelled to allow it very high praise. It has been
ascribed to Garrick, from its appearing at first with the signature
G.; but I heard Mr. Garrick declare that it was written by Dr.
Johnson."

The epitaph of Phillips is in the porch of Wolverhampton Church. The
prose part of it is curious:--

Near this place lies
Charles Claudius Phillips,
Whose absolute contempt of riches,
and inimitable performances upon the Violin,
made him the admiration of all that knew him.
He was born in Wales,
made the tour of Europe,
and, after the experience of both kinds of fortune,
Died in 1732.

DR. JOHNSON'S KNOWLEDGE OF MUSIC.

He said he knew "a drum from a trumpet, and a bagpipe from a guitar,
which was about the extent of his knowledge of music." He further
tells us that "if he had learnt music he should have been afraid he
should have done nothing else but play. It was a method of employing
the mind, without the labour of thinking at all, and with some
applause from a man's self." These remarks are better appraised and
understood when we bear in mind Dr. Johnson's own estimate of his
musical knowledge together with his having derived pleasure from
listening to the sounds of the bagpipes. If a performance on those
droning instruments was in the Doctor's mind when he said that the
reflective powers need not be exercised in performing on a musical
instrument, there might be some truth in the observation. The labour
of thinking, however, cannot be dispensed with in connection with
playing most musical instruments, and least of all the Violin.

DR. JOHNSON ON FIDDLING AND FREE WILL.

"_Johnson_: 'Moral evil is occasioned by free will, which implies
choice between good and evil. With all the evil that there is, there
is no man but would rather be a free agent, than a mere machine
without the evil; and what is best for each individual must be best
for the whole. If a man would rather be the machine, I cannot argue
with him. He is a different being from me.'

"_Boswell_: 'A man, as a machine, may have agreeable sensations; for
instance, he may have pleasure i