any thing facred in the voice of the people when they were inclined to cenfure him; he then readily fhewed the folly of expecting that the publick fhould judge right, obferved how flowly poetical merit had often forced its way into the world; he contented himself with the applause of men of judgement, and was fomewhat difpofed to exclude all those from the character of men of judgement who did not applaud him. But he was at other times more favourable to mankind than to think them blind to the beauties of his works, and imputed the flownefs of their sale to other causes; either they were published at a time when the rown was empty, or when the attention of the publick was engroffed by some struggle in the parliament, or fome other object of general concern; or they were by the neglect of the publisher not diligently difperfed, or by his avarice not advertised with fufficient frequency. Addrefs, or industry, or liberality, was always wanting; and the blame was laid rather on any perfon than the author. By arts like thefe, arts which every man practifes in some degree, and to which too much of the little tranquillity of life is to be afcribed, Savage was always able to live at peace with himself. Had he indeed only made ufe of these expedients to alleviate the loss or want of fortune or reputation, or any other advantages, which it is not in man's power to bestow upon himself, they might have been justly mentioned as inftances of a philofophical mind, and very properly propofed to the imitation of multitudes, who, for want of diverting their imaginations with the fame dexterity, languish under afflictions which might be easily removed. It were doubtlefs to be wifhed, that truth and reafon were univerfally prevalent; that every thing were esteemed according to its real value; and that men would fecure themfelves from being difappointed in their endeavours after happiness, by placing it only in virtue, which is always to be obtained; but if adventitious and foreign pleasures must be purfued, it would be perhaps of fome benefit, fince that purfuit must frequently be fruitless, if the practice of Savage could be taught, that folly might be an antidote to folly, and one fallacy be obviated by another. But the danger of this pleafing intoxication must not be concealed; nor indeed can any one, after having obferved the life of Savage, need to be cautioned against it. By imputing none of his miferies to himfelf, he continued to act upon the fame principles, and to follow the fame path; was never made wifer by his fufferings, nor preferved by one misfortune from falling into another. He proceeded throughout his life to tread the fame fteps on the fame circle; always applauding his paft conduct, or at leaft forgetting it, to amufe himself with phantoms of happinefs, which were dancing before him; and willingly turned his eyes from the light of reafon, when it would have difcovered the illufion, and fhewn him, what he never wifhed to fee, his real state. He is even accufed, after having lulled his imagination with those ideal opiates, of having tried the fame experiment upon his confcience; and, having accustomed himself to impute all deviations from the right to foreign caufes, it is certain that he was upon every occasion too cafily reconciled to himself, and that he appeared very little to regret thofe practices which had had impaired his reputation. The reigning error of his life was, that he mistook the love for the practice of virtue, and was indeed not fo much a good man, as the friend of goodness. This at least must be allowed him, that he always preferved a strong sense of the dignity, the beauty, and the neceffity of virtue, and that he never contributed deliberately to fpread corruption amongst mankind. His actions, which were generally precipitate, were often blameable; but his writings, being the productions of study, uniformly tended to the exaltation of the mind, and the propagation of morality and piety. These writings may improve mankind, when his failings fhall be forgotten; and therefore he must be confidered, upon the whole, as a benefactor to the world; nor can his perfonal example do any hurt, fince, whoever hears of his faults, will hear of the miferies which they brought upon him, and which would deferve lefs pity, had not his condition been fuch as made his faults pardonable. He may be confidered as a child exposed to all the temptations of indigence, at an age when refolution was not yet strengthened by conviction, nor virtue confirmed by habit; a circumftance which, in his Baftard, he laments in a very affecting manner : No Mother's care The Bastard, however it might provoke or mortify his mother, could not be expected to melt her to compaffion, fo that he was ftill under the fame want of the neceffaries neceffaries of life; and he therefore exerted all the interest which his wit, or his birth, or his misfortunes, could procure, to obtain, upon the death of Eufden, the place of Poet Laureat, and profecuted his application with fo much diligence, that the King publickly declared it his intention to bestow it upon him; but fuch was the fate of Savage, that even the King, when he intended his advantage, was difappointed in his schemes; for the Lord Chamberlain, who has the difpofal of the laurel, as one of the appendages of his office, either did not know the King's design, or did not approve it, or thought the nomination of the Laureat an encroachment upon his rights, and therefore bestowed the laurel upon Colley Cibber. Mr. Savage, thus difappointed, took a refolution of applying to the queen, that, having once given him. life, she would enable him to support it, and therefore published a short poem on her birth-day, to which he gave the odd title of Volunteer Laureat. The event of this effay he has himself related in the following letter, which he prefixed to the poem, when he afterwards reprinted it in The Gentleman's Magazine, from whence I have copied it intire, as this was one of the few attempts in which Mr. Savage fucceeded. "Mr. URBAN, "In your Magazine for February you published the "laft Volunteer Laureat written on a very melancholy oc"cafion, the death of the royal patronefs of arts and "literature in general, and of the author of that poem "in particular; I now fend your the first that Mr. "Savage wrote under that title.-This gentleman, "notwithstanding a very confiderable intereft, being, "on the death of Mr. Eufden, difappointed of the "Laureat's "Laureat's place, wrote the following verfes; which were no fooner published but the late Queen fent 66 to a bookfeller for them. The author had not at "that time a friend either to get him introduced, or his poem prefented at Court; yet fuch was the unfpeakable goodness of that Princefs, that, notwith"ftanding this act of ceremony was wanting, in a few "days after publication Mr. Savage received a Bank bill of fifty pounds, and á gracious meffage from "her Majefty, by the Lord North and Guilford, to "this effect; That her Majefty was highly pleased "with the verfes; that fhe took particularly kind "his lines there relating to the King; that he had permiffion to write annually on the fame subject; and that he fhould yearly receive the like prefent, till fomething better (which was her Majefty's in"tention) could be done for him.' After this, he was "permitted to prefent one of his annual poems to her Majefty, had the honour of kiffing her hand, and met with the most gracious reception. 66 "Yours, &c." The VOLUNTEER LAUREAT. A POEM: On the Queen's Birth-Day. Humbly addressed to her MAJESTY. Twice twenty tedious moons have roll'd away, 6 Two |