proved himself on many occafions the liberal triend and patron of Young. His Grace difcovered in our poet talents for oratory, as well as poetry, and fupported him in an attempt to get into Parliament for Cirencefter. This opinion of his powers was well founded, for when he afterwards took orders he became a very popular preacher, and was much followed for the grace and animation of his delivery. In 1719 appeared a "Paraphrafe on Part of the Book of Job." His "Satires" were the next, and the best information to be had refpecting their dates points out the appearance of the firft to have been about 1725. The laft was certainly finished in the beginning of the year 1726, although the fifth, "On Women," was not publifhed till 1727, and the fixth not till 1728. When he gathered them into one publication he gave them the title of "The Univerfal Paffion," and it is faid this poem procured him no lefs a fum than three thoufand pounds. In 1726 "The Inftalment" made its appearance, addreffed to Sir Robert Walpole. ་ About The reign of the new monarch was ushered in by Young with "Ocean, an Ode." Prefixed to the original publication were an "Ode to the King, Pater Patriæ," and an "Effay on Lyrick Poetry.' this time he entered into orders, and in April 1728, foon after he put on the gown, he was appointed Chaplain to George the Second. The tragedy of "The Brothers," which was already in rehearsal, he immediately withdrew from the ftage. Not long after he took orders he published in profe" A true Eftimate of Human Life;" and a Sermon preached before the Houfe of Commons 1729, on the Martyrdom' of King Charles, entitled "An Apology for Princes, or the Reverence due to Government." But his old friends the Mufes were not forgotten. In 1730 he fent into the world "Imperium Pelagi," a Naval a Naval Lyric written in Imitation of Pindar's Spirit, occafioned by his Majesty's return from Hanover September 1729, and the fucceeding Peace." Not long after this Pindaric attempt, he published two Epistles to Pope concerning the authors of the age, 1730. In July 1730 he was prefented by his college to the Rectory of Welwyn in Hertfordshire. In April 1732 he married Lady Elizabeth Lee, daughter of the Earl of Litchfield, and widow of Colonel Lee. The next production of his Mufe was "The Sea: Piece," in two Odes. In 1734 he publifhed "The Foreign Addrefs occafioned by the British Fleet and the Pofture of Affairs, written in the Character of a Sailor." This production is inferted in the four volumes he published himfelf; but many others he thought. beneath him, and therefore omitted them. Of his wife, who brought him one child, Frederick, he was deprived in 1740. She was foon followed by an amiable daughter, the child of her former husband, who was just married to Mr. Temple, fon of Lord Palmeriton. Mr. Temple did not long remain after his wife. To the forrow Young felt at thefe loffes we are indebted for his "Night Thoughts," written after he was fixty years of age. Notwithstanding the farewell which he feemed to have taken in thefe productions of every thing which bore the least resemblance to ambition, he dipped again in politicks. In 1745 he wrote "Reflections on the Publick Situation of the Kingdom, addreffed to the Duke of Newcastle." In 1753, when "The Brothers" had lain by him above thirty years, it appeared upon the ftage. He determined that the profits fhould go to the Society for the Propagation of the Gofpel; but the play failing, he 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 L 2 fix fix Letters to a Friend on the Life in Vogue." After fome trifling productions in 1762, a fhort time before his death he published "Refignation," and in April 1765, at an age to which few attain (84), a period was put to his life. "Of Young's poems it is difficult to give any general character, for he has no uniformity of manner: one of his pieces has no great resemblance to another. He began to write early, and continued long; and at different times had different modes of poetical excellence in view. His numbers are fometimes smooth, and fometimes rugged; his ftile is sometimes concatenated, and fometimes abrupt; fometimes diffusive, and fometimes concise. "He was not one of the writers whom experience improves, and who, obferving their own faults, become gradually correct. His poem of the "Last Day," his first great performance, has an equability and propriety, which he afterwards either never endeavoured at or never attained. Many paragraphs are noble, and few are mean, yet the whole is languid." "His ftory of" Jane Grey" was never popular. It is written with elegance enough, but Jane is too heroick to be pitied. "The "Univerfal Paffion" is indeed a very great performance. It is faid to be a feries of epigrams; but if it be, it is what the author intended: his endeavour was at the production of ftriking diftichs and pointed fentences; and his diftichs have the weight of folid fentiment, and his points the fharpness of refiftless truth. His characters are often felected with difcernment, and drawn with nicety; his illuftrations are often happy, and his reflections often juft. His fpecies of fatire is between thofe of Horace and of Juvenal; he has the gaiety of Horace without his laxity of numbers, and the morality of Juvenal with greater variation of images: he plays, indeed, only on the furface furface of life; he never penetrates the receffes of the mind, and therefore the whole power of his poetry is exhaufted by a fingle perufal; his conceits please only when they furprise." "In his "Night Thoughts" he has exhibited a very wide difplay of original poetry, variegated with deep reflections and ftriking allufions, a wilderness of thought, in which the fertility of fancy scatters flowers of every hue and of every odour. This is one of the few poems in which blank verfe could not be changed for rhyme, but with disadvantage. The wild diffufion of the sentiments, and the digreffive fallies of imagination, would have been compreffed and reftrained by regard to rhyme. The excellence of this work is not exactness but copioufnefs; particular lines are not to be regarded; the power is in the whole, and in the whole there is a magnificence like that afcribed to a Chinese plantation, the magnificence of vaft extent, and endless diverfity." "Of "Refignation," Dr. Johnson fays, "there is Young in every ftanza, fuch as he often was in his higheft vigour. Of his Plays we have the following character: "In "Bufiris" there are the greatest ebullitions of imagination; but the pride of Bufiris is fuch as no other man can have, and the whole is too remote from known life, to raise either grief, terror, or indignation. The "Revenge" appears much nearer to human practices and manners, and therefore keeps poffeffion of the ftage: the firft defign feems fuggefted by "Othello;" but the reflections, the incidents, and the diction, are original. The moral obfervations are fo introduced, and fo expreffed, as to have all the novelty that can be required. Of" The Brothers" I may be allowed to fay nothing, fince nothing was ever faid of it by the publick." "It must be allowed of Young's poetry, that it abounds in thought, but without much accuracy or relation." "His verfification is his own; neither his blank nor his rhyming lines have any refemblance to those of former writers." "His verfes are formed by no certain model; for he is no more like himself in his different productions than he is like others. He feems never to have ftudied profody, nor to have any direction but from his own ear. But with all his defects, he was a man of genius and a poet." JOH DYER. OHN DYER was born in 1700, the fecond fon of Robert Dyer of Aberglafney in Caermarthenfhire, a folicitor of great capacity and note. He paffed through Weftminfter School under the care of Dr, Freind, and was then called home to be inftructed in his father's profeffion. But his father died foon, and he took no delight in the ftudy of the law. Haying always amufed himself with drawing, he refolved to turn painter, and became pupil to Mr. Richardson, an artift of high reputation, but now better known by his books than by his pictures. Having ftudied a while under his mafter, he became, as he fays himself, an itinerant painter, and wandered about South Wales and the parts adjacent; but he mingled poetry with painting, and about 1727 printed" Grongar Hill" in Lewis's Mifcellany. Being, probably, unfatisfied with his own proficiency, he, like other painters, travelled to Italy; and coming back in 1740 published the "Ruins of Rome," |