84

99

19

73

2.

169

691

67 리플

84

99

19

9

199

8

In the 3 per Cent, confols. the highest and lowest Price of each Day is given; in every other Article the higheft Price only, the Long and Short Annuities excepted which are given within a fixteenth of the higheft Price. In the different Funds that are shut, the Prices are given with the Dividend till the Days of Opening.

The UNIVERSAL MAGAZINE for OCTOBER, 1795. 225 MEMOIRS of the LIFE of Mr. ALLAN RAMSAY: With fine Portrait of that celebrated Poet.

H OWEVER gratifying it may be that they are almoft equally familiar to obtain fome account of an in every part of the kingdom. But author, whofe works have attracted this is only a fecondary part of his admiration and acquired celebrity, praife. A vein of folid good fenfe, we find it often difficult to extend our a nice difcrimination of character, a enquiries much beyond a certain pe- nervous clegance, and a pathetic fimriod of the prefent century. Before plicity of expreffion; in a word, the the appearance of thofe regular pe- genuine language of nature, of paffion, riodical publications, which allow no and of poetry, place his paftoral coman of merit toefcape the world medy almoft beyond our praife. It has unnoticed,' any information to be ob- been faid, that Ramfay did not write tained is exceedingly fcanty. Of this, this poem; and when that flory was the object of the prefent article is a no longer tenable, it has been loudly remarkable inftance. No poem, was affirmed, that at leaft a great part of ever fe popular in the kingdom of it was written by fomebody elfe, and Scotland as the Gentle Shepherd; the whole corrected by gentlemen who yet of the author we have found it al- were the author's patrons. But all moft impoffible to learn thofe few par- this is little better than conjecture; ticulars which, without going into the Ramfay had no patrons; he might Boswellian niceties of biography, it have had officious friends, who might would be very agreeable to know. indulge their own vanity by altering or fupplying a line; but Ramfay died a bankrupt, and it does not therefore appear that he efcaped the fate of other geniufes who have been countenanced by patrons without generofity.

Allan Ramfay was born about the year 1686. It is generally agreed that he followed the bufinefs of a bar ber in Edinburgh, a fituation which in thofe days may be believed to be of the loweft. His tafte in poetry, however, has justly raifed him to a degree of fame that may, in fome meafure, be confidered as a recompence for the frowns of fortune. His longs are in confiderable efteem; but, in the common collections, being mixed with other productions, it is not eafy to afcertain what are really his productions. Mr. Baker attributes to him the Nuptials, a mafque, printed in 1723; but his fame refts chiefly upon the paftoral comedy of Patie and Roger, or the Gentle Shepherd.

Of all poets in the Scottish dialect, fays a critic, the beft and greateft, beyond all comparifon, is Allan Ramfay. He appears to have ftudied Dryden's ftyle with much attention, fince his verfes flow with the most pleafing volubility. His provincial phrafes are few, when compared with thofe of fome of his imitators, and he has felected them with fuch happy dexterity, VOL. XCVII.

What his literary acquirements were, it is difficult to afcertain. He was, however, the first who established a circulating library in Scotland, and having then relinquished his former bufinefs, it may be fuppofed that a genius like his would not be confined to the mechanical fervices of a library keeper.

The time of his death is fo variously related, that we find the dates differ fo widely as 1758 and 1743; the latter appears to us the most probable. One of his family, Allan Ramfay, efq. his fon, the celebrated painter, died a few years ago, on his return from the Continent. He was principal portraitpainter to their majetties. By his death, the polite and literary world fultained an irreparable lofs, as few men exceeded him in correctness of tafte, brilliancy of wit, or foundness of underflanding. His writings.bear

Ff

the ftamp of all thefe excellencies, and
his merit as an artist has been long
acknowledged.

The following letter was written by the pastoral poet to Mr. John Smibert, a portrait-painter, who left England with dean Berkely, to fe.tle in Bermudas. It is dated Edinburgh, May 10, 1736.

'My dear old friend,

patrons and his own inclinations-E
have three daughters, one of seven-
years old, and no rewayled dragle a-
teen, one of fixteen, and one of twelve
mong them, all fine girls. These
fix or seven years paft I have not
written a line of poetry.
over in good time, before the cool-
I e'en gave
nefs of fancy, that attends advanced
years, fhould make me risk the repu-
tation I had acquired.

Frae twenty-five to five and forty
My mufe was neither fweer nor dorty;
My Pegafus wad break his tether,
Ecn at the bagging of a feather.
Streaking his wings ap to the lift;
And throw ideas fcour like drift,
Then, then my faul was in a low;
That gart my numbers fafely row;
Let be you fangs, and learn to pray.
But cild and judgment gin to say,
friend and fervant,
ALLAN RAMSAY.”

I am, fir, your

Your health and happiness are ever are addition to my fatisfaction. God make your life ever eafy and pleafant-half a century of years have now row'd o'er my pow, that begins now to be lyurt; yet, thanks to my author, I eat, drink, and fleep as found as I did twenty years fine (ago) yes, Flaugh heartily too, and find as many fubjects to employ that faculty upon as ever; fools, fops and knaves grow as rank as formerly, yet here and there are to be found good and worthy men, who are ane honour to humane life. Few works have undergone publiWe have fmall hopes of cation more frequently than the Genfecing you again in our old world; tle Shepherd. It is also very poputhen let us be virtuous and hope to lar on the Scotch ftage, but there, as meet in heaven. My good auld wife well as on the English ftage, where it is fill my bed fellow; my fon Allan appeared in 1781, it is almost imhas been purfuing your fcience face poflible to collect a fet of performers he was a dozen years auld-was with capable of doing juftice to the lanMr. Hyldg, at London, for fome guage; and in England it has been time, about two years ago; has been found as difficult to collect an audifince at home painting hore like a Raphael fets out for the feat of the properly fpoken. For thefe reafons ence capable of understanding it when beast, beyond the Alps, within a month hence to be away about two in the clofet, and that reader has lita the chief pleasure it affords has been years. I'm frer (loth) to part with the tafte, and lefs knowledge of poehim, but canna tem the current, try, who does not relish its fimple which flows from the advice of his beauties.

On the DIGNITY of HUMAN NATURE.

• What a piece of work is man! How noble in reafon! how infinite in faculties in form, and moving, how exprefs and admirable! in action, how like an angel! in apprehenhon, how irke a God! the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals!' SHAKS. HAMLET, A&t II. Sc. 2.

ALTHOUGH it be impoffible to contemplate the various faculties of man without the mo profound admiration, and without being fenfible of his vaft fuperiority over all other created beings that we are ac

quainted with, yet it has become

lately, (it is not eafy to fay why) a kind of fashion to depreciate the dignity of his nature, and, as it were, to transfer the errors of the individual to the fpecies, If this were no