THERE is in the "Adventurer" a paper of verses given to one of the authors as Mr. Weft's, and fuppofed to have been written by him. It fhould not be concealed, however, that it is printed with Mr. Jago's name in Dodfley's Collection, and is mentioned as his in a Letter of Shenftone's. Perhaps Weft gave it without naming the author, and Hawkefworth, receiving it from him, thought it his; for his he thought it, as he told me, and as he tells the publick. COLLINS, COLLINS. WILLIAM COLLINS was born at Chi, chefter on the twenty-fifth day of December, about 1720. His father was a hatter of good repu❤ tation. He was in 1733, as Dr. Warton has kindly informed me, admitted scholar of Winchester Col lege, where he was educated by Dr. Burton. His English exercises were better than his Latin. He first courted the notice of the publick by fome verfes to a "Lady weeping," published in "The "Gentleman's Magazine." In 1740, he stood first in the lift of the scholars to be received in fucceffion at New College, but unhappily there was no vacancy. He became a Commoner of Queen's College, probably with a fcanty maintenance; but was, in about half a year, elected a Demy of Magdalen College, where he continued till he had taken a Bachelor's degree, and then fuddenly left the Univerfity; for what reafon I know not that he told. He He now (about 1744) came to London a literary adventurer, with many projects in his head, and very little money in his pocket. He defigned many works; but his great fault was irrefolution; or the frequent calls of immediate neceffity broke his fcheme, and fuffered him to purfue no fettled purpofe. A man doubtful of his dinner, or trembling at a creditor, is not much disposed to abstracted meditation, or remote enquiries. He published propofals for a Hiftory of the Revival of Learning; and I have heard him fpeak with great kindness of Leo the Tenth, and with keen refentment of his tasteless fucceffor. But probably not a page of his hiftory was ever written. He planned feveral tragedies, but he only planned them. He wrote now-and-then odes and other poems, and did fomething, however little.. About this time I fell into his company. His appearance was decent and manly; his knowledge confiderable, his views extenfive, his converfation elegant, and his difpofition chearful. By degrees I gained his confidence; and one day was admitted to him when he was immured by a bailiff, that was prowling in the street. On this occafion recourse was had to the bookfellers, who, on the credit of a tranflation of Ariftotle's Poeticks, which he engaged to write with a large commentary, advanced as much money as enabled him to escape into the country. He fhewed me the guineas fafe in his hand. Soon afterwards his uncle, Mr. Martin, a lieutenantcolonel, left him about two thousand pounds; a fum which Collins could fcarcely think exhauftible, and which he did not live to exhauft. The guineas were then rapid, and the tranflation neglected. But COLL But man is not born for happiness. 267 Collins, who, while he ftudied to live, felt no evil but poverty, no fooner lived to study than his life was affailed by more dreadful calamities, difeafe and infanity. Having formerly written his character, while perhaps it was yet more diftinctly impreffed upon my memory, 1 fhall insert it here. "Mr. Collins was a man of extenfive literature, and of vigorous faculties. He was acquainted not only with the learned tongues, but with the Italian, French, and Spanish languages. He had employed his mind chiefly on the works of fiction, and subjects of fancy; and, by indulging fome peculiar habits of thought, was eminently delighted with those flights of imagination which pafs the bounds of nature, and to which the mind is reconciled only by a paffive acquiefcence in popular traditions. He loved fairies, genii, giants, and monsters; he delighted to rove through the meanders of inchantment, to gaze on the magnificence of golden palaces, to repofe by the water-falls of Elyfian gardens. "This was however the character rather of his in. clination than his genius; the grandeur of wildness, and the novelty of extravagance, were always defired by him, but not always attained. Yet, as diligence is never wholly loft, if his efforts fometimes caused harshness and obfcurity, they likewise produced in happier moments fublimity and fplendour. This idea which he had formed of excellence, led him to oriental fictions and allegorical imagery, and perhaps, while he was intent upon defcription, he did not fuffi. 7 ciently ciently cultivate fentiment. His poems are the productions of a mind not deficient in fire, nor unfurnished with knowledge either of books or life, but fomewhat obftructed in its progrefs by deviation in quest of mistaken beauties, "His morals were pure, and his opinions pious; in a long continuance of poverty, and long habits of diffipation, it cannot be expected that any character fhould be exactly uniform. There is a degree of want by which the freedom of agency is almost destroyed; and long affociation with fortuitous companions will at last relax the ftrictness of truth, and abate the fervour of fincerity. That this man, wife and virtuous as he was, paffed always unentangled through the fnares of life, it would be prejudice and temerity to affim; but it may be faid that at least he preferved the fource of action unpolluted, that his principles were never shaken, that his diftinctions of right and wrong were never confounded, and that his faults had nothing of malignity or defign, but proceeded from fome unexpected preffure, or casual temptation, "The latter part of his life cannot be remembered but with pity and fadnefs. He languifhed fome years under that depreffion of mind which enchains the faculties without deftroying them, and leaves reafon the knowledge of right without the power of pursuing it. Thefe clouds which he perceived gathering on his intellects, he endeavoured to difperfe by travel, and paffed into France; but found himself conftrained to yield to his malady, and returned. He was for fome time confined in a houfe of lunaticks, and afterwards retired |