-Either Warton, then, dedicated his book to a patron who difapproved its doctrine; or Young, in his old age, bartered for a dedication an opinion entertained of his friend through all that part of life I when he could best form opinions.

From this account of Young, two or three short paffages, which stand almost together in Night Four, fhould not be excluded. They afford a picture, by his own hand; from the ftudy of which my readers may choose to form their own opinion of the features of his mind, and the complexion of his life.

Ah me the dire effect

Of loitering here, of death defrauded long;
Of old fo gracious (and let that fuffice),

My very mafler knows me not.

I've been fo long remember'd, I'm forgot.

When in his courtier's ears I pour my plaint,
They drink it as the Nectar of the Great ;
And fqueeze my hand, and beg me come to-

morrow.

Twice-told the period spent on stubborn Troy, Court-favour, yet untaken, I befiege.

If this fong lives, Pofterity fhall know,
One, though in Britain born, with courtiers bred,
Who thought ev'n gold might come a day too

Nor on his fubtle death-bed plann'd his scheme For future vacancies in church or state.

By thefe extraordinary Poems, writ ten after he was fixty, of which I have

been

been led to fay fo much, I hope, by the with of doing juftice to the living and the dead, it was the defire of Young to be principally known. He entitled the four volumes which he published himfelf, The Works of the Author of the Night Thoughts. While it is remembered that from these he excluded many of his writings, let it not be forgotten that the rejected pieces contained nothing prejudicial to the caufe of virtue, or of religion. Were every thing that Young ever wrote to be published, he would only appear perhaps in a less respectable light as a poet, and more defpicable as a dedicator: he would not pafs for a worfe chriftian, or for a worfe man. His dedications, after all, he had no right to

fup

fupprefs. They all, I believe, fpeak, not a little to the credit of his gratitude, of favours received; and I know not whether the author, who has once folemnly printed an acknowledgement of a favour, fhould not always print it.

Is it to the credit or to the difcredit of

Young, as a poet, that of his Night Thoughts the French are particularly fond?

Of the Epitaph on Lord Aubrey Beautlerk, dated 1740, all I know is, that I find it in this Body of English Poetry, and that I am forry to find it there.

Notwithstanding the farewell which he feemed to have taken in the Night Thoughts of every thing which bore the least resemblance to ambition, he dipped

'

again in politics. In 1745 he wrote Reflections on the publick Situation of the Kingdom, addreffed to the Duke of Newcaftle-impatient, as it appears, to be

hold

A pope-bred Princeling crawl afhore, And whiftle cut-throats, with thofe fwords that scrap'd

'Their barren rocks for wretched fufte

nance,

To cut his paffage to the British throne. This political poem might be called a Night Thought. Indeed it was originally printed as the conclufion of the Night Thoughts, though he did not gather it with his other works.

Prefixed to the fecond edition of Howe's Devout Meditations is a Letter from Young, dated January 19,