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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, 1752, addressed to Archibald Macauly, Efq; thanking him for the book, which he fays "he fhall never lay "far out of his reach; for a greater demonftration of a found head and a fincere heart he never faw."

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In 1753, when The Brothers had lain by him above thirty years, it appeared upon the ftage. If any part of his fortune had been acquired by fervility of adulation, he now determined to deduct from it no inconfiderable fum, as a gift to the Society for the Propagation of the Gofpel. To this fum he hoped the profits of The Brothers would amount. In his calculation, he was deceived; but by the bad fuccefs of his play the Society was not a lofer. The author made up the fum he originally intended, which was a thousand pounds, from his own pocket.

The next performance which he printed was a profe publication, entituled, The Centaur not fabulous, in fix Letters to a Friend on the Life in Vogue. The conclufion is dated November 29, 1754. In the third Letter is defcribed the death-bed of the gay, young, noble, ingenious, accomplished, and most wretched Altamont. His laft words were" My principles have poifoned my "friend, my extravagance has beggared my boy, my "unkindness has murdered my wife!" Either Altamont and Lorenzo were the twin production of fancy, or Young was unlucky enough to know two characters who bore no little refemblance to cach other in perfection of wickedness. Report has been accuftomed to call Altamont Lord Eufton.

The

• The Old Man's Relapfe, occafioned by an Epiftle to -Walpole, if it was written by Young, which I much doubt, must have been written very late in life. It has been seen, I am told, in a Mifcellany published thirty years before his death.-In 1758, he exhibite d TheOld Man's Relapfe in more than words, by again becoming a dedicator, and publishing a fermon addreffed to the King.

The lively Letter in profe on Original Compofition, addreffed to Richardfon the author of Clariffa, appeared in 1759. Though he defpairs " of breaking through "the frozen obftructions of age and care's incumbent "cloud, into that flow of thought and brightness of "expreffion which fubjects fo polite require ;" yet is it more like the production of untamed, unbridled youth, than of jaded fourfcore. Some fevenfold volumes put him in mind of Ovid's fevenfold channels of the Nile at the conflagration.

oftia feptem

Pulverulenta vocant, feptem fine flumine valles.

Such leaden labours are like Lycurgus's iron money, which was fo much less in value than in bulk, that it required barns for ftrong boxes, and a yoke of oxen to draw five hundred pounds.

If there is a famine of invention in the land, we muft travel, he fays, like Jofeph's brethren, far for food; we muft vifit the remote and rich antients. But an inventive genius may fafely ftay at home; that, like the widow's crufe, is divinely replenished from within, and affords us a miraculous delight. He afks why it should seem altogether impoffible, that Heaven's latest editions of the human mind may be the most correct and fair? And Jonfon, he tells us, was very learned,

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learned, as Sampson was very strong, to his own hurt. Blind to the natute of tragedy, he pulled down all antiquity on his head, and buried himself under it.

Is this" care's incumbent cloud," or "the frozen "obftructions of age?"

In this letter Pope is feverely cenfured for his " fall "from Homer's numbers, free as air, lofty and har"monious as the fpheres, into childish fhackles and "tinkling founds; for putting Achilles in petticoats "a fecond time ;"-but we are told that the dying fwan talked over an Epic plan with Young a few weeks before his decease.

Young's chief inducement to write this letter was, as he confeffes, that he might erect a monumental marble to the memory of an old friend. He, who employed his pious pen for almoft the last time in thus doing juftice to the exemplary death-bed of Addison, might probably, at the clofe of his own life, afford no unufeful leffon for the deaths of others.

In the poftfcript he writes to Richardfon, that he will fee in his next how far Addifon is an original. But no other letter appears.

The few lines which ftand in the laft edition, as fent by Lord Melcombe to Dr. Young, not long before biş Lordship's death, were indeed fo fent, but were only an introduction to what was there meant by The Mufe's latest Spark. The poem is neceffary, whatever may be its merit, fince the Preface to it is already printed. Lord Melcombe called his Tufculum La Trappe,

"Love thy country, wish it well,
Not with too intense a care,
'Tis enough, that, when it fell,
Thou its ruin didft not fhare.

Envy's

Envy's cenfure, Flattery's praife,
With unmov'd indifference view;
Learn to tread Life's dangerous maze,
With unerring Virtue's clue.

Void of strong defire and fear,

Life's wide ocean truft no more; Strive thy little bark to steer

With the tide, but near the shore,

Thus prepar'd, thy shorten'd fail
Shall, whene'er the winds increase,

Seizing each propitious gale,

Waft thee to the Port of Peace.

Keep thy confcience from offence,
And tempestuous paffions free,
So, when thou art call'd from hence,
Easy fhall thy paffage be;

Easy fhall thy paffage be,

Chearful thy allotted stay,

Short the account 'twixt God and thee;

Hope shall meet thee on the way;

Truth fhall lead thee to the gate,
Mercy's felf fhall let thee in,
Where its never-changing state
Full perfection fhall begin.”

The Poem was accompanied by a Letter.

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"Dear Sir,

*,

"La Trappe, the 27th Oct. 1761.

"You feemed to like the ode I fent you for your "amufement; I now fend it you as a prefent. If you please to accept of it, and are willing that our friend"fhip fhould be known when we are gone, you will "be pleased to leave this among those of

your own

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papers that may poffibly fee the light by a post"humous publication. God fend us health while 66 we stay, and an easy journey!

"My dear Dr. Young,

Yours, moft cordially,

"MELCOMBE."

In 1762, a fhort time before his death, Young pubLifhed Refignation, Notwithstanding the manner in which it was really forced from him by the world, cri- ticifm has treated it with no common feverity. If it fhall be thought not to deserve the highest praise, on the other fide of fourfcore, by whom, except by Newton and by Waller, has praise been merited?

To Mrs. Montagu, the famous champion of Shakfpeare, I am indebted for the hiftory of Refignation. Obferving that Mrs. Bofcawen, in the midft of her grief for the lofs of the admiral, derived confolation from the perufal of the Night Thoughts, Mrs. Montagu propofed a vifit to the author. From converfing with Young, Mrs. Bofcawen derived ftill further confolation; and to that vifit fhe and the world were indebted for this poem. It compliments Mrs. Montagu in the following lines;

Yet, write I muft. A Lady fues,

How fhameful her request!

My brain in labour with dull rhyme,
Her's teeming with the best!

And again

A friend you have, and I the fame,

Whose prudent foft addrefs

Will bring to life thofe healing thoughts

Which died in your diftrefs.

That

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