PART II. OVERTURE.-PASTORALE. MAN SPEAKER. But all my wants, before I spoke, Were to my mistress known; She still reliev'd, nor sought my praise, Contented with her own. But every day her name I'll bless, FAST by that shore where Thames' translucent My morning prayer, my evening song, stream Reflects new glories on his breast," The modest matron, clad in home-spun grey, Call on their mistress, now no more, and weep. CHORUS. AFFETTUOSO, LARGO. Ye shady walks, ye waving greens, That she who form'd your beauties is no more. MAN SPEAKER. First of the train the patient rustic came, Or how shall age support its feeble fire? I'll praise her while my life shall last, A life that cannot last me long. SONG, BY A WOMAN. Each day, each hour, her name I'll bless, MAN SPEAKER. The hardy veteran after struck the sight, O'er Afric's sandy plain, Oh, let me fly a land that spurns the brave, SONG. BY A MAN.-BASSO SPIRITUOSO. WOMAN SPEAKER. In innocence and youth complaining, And as my strength decay'd, her bounty grew." Every glance that warms the soul, WOMAN SPEAKER. In decent dress, and coarsely clean, Oh! where shall weeping want repair Too late in life for me to ask, In sweet succession charms the senses, While pity harmoniz'd the whole. [say,) "The garland of beauty" ('tis thus she would "No more shall my crook or my temples adorn, I'll not wear a garland, AUGUSTA's away, I'll not wear a garland until she return: But alas! that return I never shall see : The echoes of Thames shall my sorrows proclaim, There promis'd a lover to come, but, oh me! 'Twas death,'twas the death of my mistress that THE LIFE OF ARMSTRONG, BY MR. CHALMERS. THESE scanty materials are taken principally from Mr. Nichols's Life of Bowyer, and the Biographical Dictionary. To the former they were communicated, however sparingly, by the friends of Dr. Armstrong. He was born in the parish of Castleton in Roxburghshire, where his father and brother were clergymen and having compleated his education at the university of Edinburgh, took his degree in physic, Feb. 4, 1732', with much reputation. His thesis De Tabe purulente was published as usual. He appears to have courted the Muses while a student: his descriptive sketch in imitation of Shakespeare was one of his first attempts, and received the cordial approbation of Thomson, Mallet, and Young. Mallet, he informs us, intended to have published it, but altered his mind. His other imitations of Shakespeare were part of an unfinished tragedy written at a very early age. Much of his time, if we may judge from his writings, was devoted to the study of polite literature, and although he cannot be said to have entered deeply into any particular branch, he was more than a superficial connoisseur in painting, statuary, and music. At what time he came to London is uncertain, but in 1735, he published an octavo pamphlet, without his name, entitled An Essay for abridging the Study of Physic: to which is added a Dialogue between Hygeia, Mercury, and Pluto, relating to the Practice of Physic, as it is managed by a certain illustrious Society. As also an Epistle from Usbeck the Persian, to Joshua Ward, esq. It is dedicated to the "Antacademic Philosophers, to the generous despisers of the schools, to the deservedly-celebrated Joshua Ward, John Moor, and the rest of the numerous sect of inspired physicians." The Essay, which has been lately reprinted in Dilly's Repository, is an humourous attack on quacks and quackery, with allusions to the neglect of medical education among the practising apothecaries: 1 Three days after he sent a copy of his thesis to sir Hans Sloane, accompanied by a handsome Latin letter, now in the British Museum. I find in the same repository a paper written by him in 1744 on the alcalescent disposition of animal fluids, which appears to have been read in the Royal Society, but not published. C. |