of vice and folly, to convert him from virtue to wickedness, and from religion to infidelity, by all the modifh fophiftry used for that purpose; and at last to difmifs him by his own hand into the other world.

That he did not execute this design is a real lofs to mankind, for he was too well acquainted with all the scenes of debauchery to have failed in his representations of them, and too zealous for virtue not to have represented them in such a manner as fhould expofe them either to ridicule or deteftation.

But this plan was, like others, formed and laid afide, till the vigour of his imagination was spent, and the effervefcence of invention had fubfided; but foon gave way to fome other defign, which pleafed by its novelty for a while, and then was neglected like the former.

He was ftill in his ufual exigencies, having no certain fupport but the pension allowed him by the Queen, which, though it might have kept an exact œconomist from want, was very far from being fufficient for Mr. Savage, who had never been accuftomed to difmifs of his appetites without the gratification which they folicited, and whom nothing but want of money withheld from partaking of every pleasure that fell within his view.

any

His conduct with regard to his penfion was very particular. No fooner had he changed the

bill,

bill, than he vanished from the fight of all his acquaintances, and lay for fome time out of the reach of all the enquiries that friendship or curiofity could make after him; at length he appeared again pennylefs as before, but never informed even those whom he seemed to regard moft, where he had been, nor was his retreat ever discovered.

This was his conftant practice during the whole time that he received the pension from the Queen He regularly disappeared and returned. He indeed affirmed, that he retired to ftudy, and that the money fupported him in folitude for many months; but his friends declared, that the short time in which it was spent fufficiently confuted his own account of his conduct.

His politenefs and his wit ftill raised him. friends, who were defirous of setting him at length free from that indigence by which he had been hitherto oppressed; and therefore folicited Sir Robert Walpole in his favour with so much earnestness, that they obtained a promise of the next place that should become vacant, not exceeding two hundred pounds a year. This promife was made with an uncommon declaration, "that it was not the promise of a minister to a "petitioner, but of a friend to his friend."

Mr. Savage now concluded himself set at ease for ever, and, as he obferves in a poem written on that incident of his life, trufted and was. trufted;

trusted; but foon found that his confidence was ill-grounded, and this friendly promife was not inviolable, He spent a long time in folicitations, and at last despaired and defifted.

He did not indeed deny that he had given the minifter fome reafon to believe that he fhould not strengthen his own intereft by advancing him, for he had taken care to distinguish himself in coffee-houses as an advocate for the miniftry of the last years of Queen Anne, and was always ready to justify the conduct, and exalt the character of Lord Bolingbroke, whom he mentions with great regard in an epistle upon authors, which he wrote about that time, but was too wife to publish, and of which only fome fragments have appeared, inferted by him in the MAGAZINE after his retirement.

To defpair was not, however, the character of Savage; when one patronage failed, he had recourfe to another. The prince was now extremely popular, and had very liberally rewarded the merit of fome writers, whom Mr. Savage did not think fuperior to himself, and therefore he refolved to address a poem to him.

For this purpose he made choice of a subject, which could regard only perfons of the highest rank and highest affluence, and which was therefore.proper for a poem intended to procure the patronage of a prince; and having retired for fome time to Richmond, that he might profecute his defign in full tranquillity, without the tempta

temptations of pleasure, or the folicitations of creditors, by which his meditations were in equal danger of being difconcerted, he produced a poem ON PUBLIC SPIRIT, WITH REGARD TO PUBLIC WORKS.

The plan of this poem is very extenfive, and comprises a multitude of topicks, each of which might furnish matter fufficient for a long performance, and of which fome have already employed more eminent writers; but as he was perhaps not fully acquainted with the whole extent of his own defign, and was writing to obtain a fupply of wants too preffing to admit of long or accurate enquiries, he paffes negligently over many public works, which, even in his own opinion, deserved to be more elaborately treated.

But though he may fometimes disappoint his reader by tranfient touches upon these subjects,. which have often been confidered, and therefore naturally raise expectations, he must be allowed amply to compenfate his omiffions, by expatiating, in the conclufion of his work, upon a kind of beneficence not yet celebrated by any cminent poet, though it now appears more fufceptible of embellishments, more adapted to exalt the ideas, and affect the paffions, than many of those which have hitherto been thought moft worthy of the ornaments of verfe. The fettlement of colonies in uninhabited countries, the establishment of thofe in fecurity, whofe misfortunes

misfortunes have made their own country no longer pleafing or fafe, the acquifition of property without injury to any, the appropriation of the waste and luxuriant bounties of nature, and the enjoyment of those gifts which heaven has scattered upon regions uncultivated and unoccupied, cannot be confidered without giving rife to a great number of pleasing ideas, and bewildering the imagination in delightful profpects; and, therefore, whatever fpeculations they may produce in those who have confined themselves to political ftudies, naturally fixed the attention, and excited the applause, of a poet. The politician, when he confiders men driven into other countries for fhelter, and obliged to retire to forefts and deferts, and pass their lives and fix their posterity in the remoteft corners of the world, to avoid thofe hardfhips which they fuffer or fear in their native place, may very properly enquire, why the legislature does not provide a remedy for these miseries, rather than encourage an escape from them. He may conclude, that the flight of every honeft man is a lofs to the community; that those who are unhappy without guilt ought to be relieved; and the life, which is overburthened by accidental calamities, fet at eafe by the care of the public; and that thofe, who have by mifconduct forfeited their claim to favour, ought rather to be made useful to the fociety which they have injured, than be driven from

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