College; but unhappily there was no vacancy. This was the original misfortune of his life. He became a Commoner of Queen's College, probably with a scanty 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 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 fchemes, and fuffered him to purfue no fettled purpose, A man, doubtful of his dinner, or trembling at a creditor, is not much difposed to abftracted 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 the History was ever written. He planned feveral tragedies, but he only planned them.

He

He wrote now-and-then odes and other poems, and did something, however little.

About this time I fell into his company. His appearance was decent and manly; his knowledge confiderable, his views extensive, his converfation elegant, and his disposition 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 recourfe was had to the bookfellers, who, on the credit of astranflation 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 exhaustible, and which he did not live to exhauft. The guineas were then repaid, and the tranflation neglected.

But man is not born for happiness, Collins, who, while he studied to live, felt no evil but poverty, no fooner lived to study than

H

X 4

his

his life was affailed by more dreadful calamities, difcafe and infanity.

Having formerly written his character, while perhaps it was yet more diftinctly impressed upon my memory, I fhall infert 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 upon works of fiction, and subjects of fancy; and, by indulging fome peculiar habits of thought, was eminently delighted with thofe 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 monfters; 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 inclination than his genius; the gran

deur

deur of wildness, and the novelty of extravagance, were always defired by him, but were not always attained. Yet as diligence is never wholly loft; if his efforts fometimes caufed harfhness and obfcurity, they likewife 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 description, he did not fufficiently cultivate fentiment. His poems

are the productions of a mind not deficient in fire, nor unfurnished with knowledge either of books or life, but somewhat obAtructed 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 deftroyed; and long affociation with fortuitous companions will at last relax the strictness of truth, and abate the fervour of fincerity. That this man, wife and virtuous as he was,

paffed

paffed always unentangled through the fnares of life, it would be prejudice and temerity to affirm; but it may be faid that at least he preferved the fource of action unpolluted, that his principles were never fhaken, 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 fadness. He languished fome years under that depreffion of mind which enchains the faculties without destroying them, and leaves reafon the knowledge of right without the power of pursuing it. These clouds which he perceived gathering on his intellects, he endeavoured to difperfe by travel, and paffed into France; but found himself constrained to yield to his malady, and returned. He was for fome time confined in a house of lunaticks, and afterwards retired to the care of his fifter in Chichester, where death in 1756 came to his relief.

"After