In the fecond this paffage has its prettiness, though it be not equal to the former:

I have found out a gift for my fair;

I have found where the wood-pigeons breed:
But let me that plunder forbear,

She will fay 'twas a barbarous deed:

For he ne'er could be true, fhe averr'd,
Who could rob a poor bird of its young;
And I lov'd her the more when I heard

Such tenderness fall from her tongue.

In the third he mentions the common-places of amorous poetry with fome addrefs:

'Tis his with mock paffion to glow!
'Tis his in fmooth tales to unfold,
How her face is as bright as the fnow,
And her bofom, be fure, is as cold:

How the nightingales labour the strain,
With the notes of this charmer to vie;

How they vary their accents in vain,

Repine at her triumphs, and die.

In the fourth I find nothing better than this natural ftrain of Hope:

Alas! from the day that we met,

What hope of an end to my woes,

When I cannot endure to forget
The glance that undid my repofe?

Yet Time may diminish the pain:

The flower, and the fhrub, and the tree,
Which I rear'd for her pleasure in vain,

In time may have comfort for me.

His Levities" are by their title exempted from the severities of criticism; yet it may be remarked in a few words, that his humour is fometimes grofs, and feldom fprightly.

Of the Moral Poems the firft is the Choice of "Hercules," from Xenophon. The numbers are fmooth, the diction elegant, and the thoughts juft; but fomething of vigour is ftill to be wifhed, which it might have had by brevity and compreffion. His "Fate of Delicacy" has an air of gaiety, but not a very pointed and general moral. His blank verses, thofe that can read them may probably find to be like the blank verfes of his neighbours. "Love and "Honour" is derived from the old ballad, "Did "you not hear of a Spanish Lady?"-I wish it well enough to wish it were in rhyme.

à

The "School-miftrefs," of which I know not what claim it has to ftand among the Moral Works, is furely the most pleasing of Shenftone's performances. The adoption of a particular ftyle, in light and fhort compofitions, contributes much to the increase of pleafure: we are entertained at once with two imitations, of nature in the fentiments, of the original author in the ftyle, and between them the mind is kept in perpetual employment.

The general recommendation of Shenftone is eafinefs and fimplicity; his general defect is want of comprehenfion and variety. Had his mind been better stored with knowledge, whether he could have been great, I know not; he could certainly have been agreeable.

YOUNG.

'HE following life was written, at my requeft,

TH

by a gentleman who had better information than I could easily have obtained; and the publick will perhaps with that I had folicited and obtained more fuch favours from him.

"DEAR SIR,

"In confequence of our different converfations about authentick materials for the Life of Young, I fend you the following detail.

"Of great men, fomething muft always be faid to gratify curiofity. Of the illuftrious author of the "Night Thoughts" much has been told of which there never could have been proofs; and little care appears to have been taken to tell that of which proofs, with little trouble, might have been procured."

EDWARD YOUNG was born at Upham, near Winchester, in June 1681. He was the son of Edward Young, at that time fellow of Winchester College

College and rector of Upham; who was the fon of Jo. Young of Woodhay in Berkshire, ftyled by Wood, gentleman. In September 1682 the Poet's father was collated to the prebend of Gillingham Minor, in the church of Sarum, by bishop Ward. When Ward's faculties were impaired through age, his duties were neceffarily performed by others. We learn from Wood, that, at a vifitation of Sprat's, July the 12th, 1686, the prebendary preached a Latin fermon, afterwards published, with which the bishop was so pleased, that he told the chapter he was concerned to find the preacher had one of the worst prebends in their church. Some time after this, in confequence of his merit and reputation, or of the interest of Lord Bradford, to whom, in 1702, he dedicated two volumes of fermons, he was appointed chaplain to King William and Queen Mary, and preferred to the deanery of Sarum. Jacob, who wrote in 1720, fays, "he was chaplain and clerk of "the closet to the late Queen, who honoured him

by ftanding godmother to the Poet." His fellowship of Winchefter he refigned in favour of a gentleman of the name of Harris, who married his only daughter. The dean died at Sarum, after a fhort illness, in 1705, in the fixty-third year of his age. On the Sunday after his deceafe Bishop Burnet preached at the cathedral, and began his fermon with faying, "Death has been of late walking round us, "and making breach upon breach upon us, and has "now carried away the head of this body with a "ftroke; fo that he, whom you faw a week ago "diftributing the holy myfteries, is now laid in the duft. But he ftill lives in the many excellent di

7

❝rections

"rections he has left us, both how to live and how "to die."

The dean placed his fon upon the foundation at Winchefter College, where he had himself been educated. At this fchool Edward Young remained. till the election after his eighteenth birth-day, the period at which those upon the foundation are fuperannuated. Whether he did not betray his abilities early in life, or his mafters had not fkill enough to difcover in their pupil any marks of genius for which he merited reward, or no vacancy at Oxford afforded them an opportunity to beftow upon him the reward provided for merit by William of Wykeham; certain it is, that to an Oxford fellowship our poet did not fucceed. By chance, or by choice, New College cannot claim the honour of numbering among its fellows him who wrote the "Night Thoughts."

On the 13th of October, 1703, he was entered an independent member of New College, that he might live at little expence in the Warden's lodgings, who was a particular friend of his father's, till he fhould be qualified to ftand for a fellowship at All Souls. In a few months the warden of New College died. He then removed to Corpus College. The prefident of this fociety, from regard alfo for his father, invited him thither, in order to leffen his academical expences. In 1708, he was nominated to a law-fellowship at All Souls by Archbishop Teni fon, into whofe hands it came by devolution. Such repeated patronage, while it juftifies Burnet's praife of the father, reflects credit on the conduct of the fon. The manner in which it was exerted feems to prove, that the father did not leave behind him much wealth.

On