the profits of The Brothers would amount. In his calculation he was deceived; but the Society were not lofers by the bad fuccefs of the play. The author made up the fum he intended, which was a thousand pounds, from his own pocket.

The next performance which he printed was a profe publication, entitled, 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 fame, or Young was unlucky enough to know two characters who bore no little resemblance to each other in perfection of wickednefs,

ઃઃ

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

feen,

feen, I am told, in a Mifcellany published thirty years before his death.-In 1758, he exhibited The Old Man's Relapse in more than words, by again becoming a dedicator, and publishing a fermon addressed to the King.

The Letter in profe on Original Compofition, addreffed to Richardfon the author of Clariffa, appeared in 1759. He, who employed his pious pen for almoft the last time in doing juftice to the exemplary death-bed of Addison, might probably, at the close of his own life, afford no unufeful leffons for the deaths of others.

The few lines which stand in the laft edition, as fent by Lord Melcombe to Dr. Young, not long before his 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, wifh it well,
Not with too intense a care,
'Tis enough, that, when it fell,
Thou its ruin didft not share.

Envy's cenfure, Flattery's praise,
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 trust no more;

Strive thy little bark to steer

With the tide, but near the shore.

Thus prepar'd, thy fhorten'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 tempeftuous paffions free,
So, when thou art call'd from hence,
Eafy fhall thy paffage be;

Eafy fhall thy paffage be,

Chearful thy allotted stay,

Short the account 'twixt God and thee;

Hope fhall meet thee on the way;

Truth

Truth fhall lead thee to the gate,

Mercy's felf fhall let thee in, Where its never-changing state Full perfection shall begin.'

The Poem was accompanied by a Letter.

"La Trappe, the 27th Oct. 1761.

"Dear Sir,

"You feemed to like the ode I fent you "for your amusement; I now send it you "as a prefent. If you pleafe to accept of

it, and are willing that our friendship "fhould be known when we are gone, you "will be pleased to leave this among thofe "of your own papers that may poffibly fee "the light by a pofthumous publication. "God fend us health while we stay, and an "eafy journey!

My dear Dr. Young,
Yours, moft cordially,
"MELCOMBE."

In 1762, a fhort time before his death,' Young published Refignation. Notwithstanding the manner in which it was forced from him by the world, criticism has treated it

with no common feverity. If it shall be thought not to deferve the highest praise, on the other fide of fourfcore by whom, except by Newton and by Waller, has praise been merited? To Refignation was prefixed an Apology for its appearance: to which more credit is due than to the generality of fuch apologies, from Young's unufual anxiety that no more productions of his old age fhould difgrace his former fame. In his will, dated February 1760, he defires of his executors, in a particular manner, that all his manufcript books and writings whatever might be burned, except his book of accounts.

In September 1764 he added a kind of codicil, wherein he made it his dying intreaty to his houfekeeper, to whom he left 1000l. that all his manufcripts might be destroy"ed as foon as he was dead, which would greatly oblige her deceafed friend."

It may teach mankind the uncertainty of worldly friendships, to know that Young, either by furviving thofe he loved, or by outliving their affections, could only recollect the names of two friends, this poor woman