Nor my brave brothers, that have bit the ground, Their souls dismiss'd through many a ghastly wound, Can in bosom half that grief create, my As the sad thought of your impending fate: When some proud Grecian dame shall tasks impose, To a YOUNG LADY on her BIRTH-DAY." THIS tributary verse receive my fair, Warm with an ardent lover's fondest pray'r. May this returning day for ever find Thy form more lovely, more adorn'd thy mind; May powerful nature join with grateful art, Those sovereign charms with strictest care employ; 7 Mr. Hector informs me, that this was made almost impromptu, in his presence. With his own form acquaint the forward fool, Teach mimick censure her own faults to find, } THE YOUNG AUTHOUR. 8 WHEN first the peasant, long inclin'd to roam, Forsakes his rural sports and peaceful home, Pleas'd with the scene the smiling ocean yields, He scorns the verdant meads and flow'ry fields; Then dances jocund o'er the watery way, While the breeze whispers, and the streamers play: Unbounded prospects in his bosom roll, And future millions lift his rising soul; In blissful dreams he digs the golden mine, And raptur'd sees the new-found ruby shine. Joys insincere! thick clouds invade the skies, Loud roar the billows, high the waves arise; Sick'ning with fear, he longs to view the shore, And vows to trust the faithless deep no more. So the young Authour, panting after fame, And the long honours of a lasting name, Entrusts his happiness to human kind, More false, more cruel, than the seas or wind. "Toil on, dull croud, in extacies he cries, For wealth or title, perishable prize; While I those transitory blessings scorn, Secure of praise from ages yet unborn." This he inserted, with many alterations, in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1743. This thought once form'd, all council comes too late, EPILOGUE, intended to have been spoken by a LADY who was to personate the Ghost of HERMIONE. 9 YE blooming train, who give despair or joy, pangs 9 Some young ladies at Lichfield having proposed to act “The Distressed Mother," Johnson wrote this, and gave it to Mr. Hector to convey it privately to them. For kind, for tender nymphs the myrtle blooms, And scents ambrosial breathe in every gale: Expell'd and exil'd from the blissful seats, Vex ev'ry eye, and every bosom tear; No maid to flatter, and no paint to hide. Then melt, ye fair, while crouds around you sigh, Nor let disdain sit lowring in your eye; With pity soften every awful grace, And beauty smile auspicious in each face; To ease their pains exert your milder power, So shall you guiltless reign, and all mankind adore. The two years which he spent at home, after his return from Stourbridge, he passed in what he thought idleness, and was scolded by his father for his want of steady application. He had no settled plan of life, nor looked forward at all, but merely lived from day to day. Yet he read a great deal in a desultory manner, without any scheme of study, as chance threw books in his way, and inclination directed him through them. He used to mention one curious instance of his casual reading, when but a boy. Having imagined that his brother had hid some apples behind a large folio upon an upper shelf in his father's shop, he climbed up to search for them. There were no apples; but the large folio proved to be Petrarch, whom he had seen mentioned, in some preface, as one of the restorers of learning. His curiosity having been thus excited, he sat down with avidity, and read a great part of the book. What he read during these two years, he told me, was not works of mere amusement, "not voyages and travels, but all literature, Sir, all ancient writers, all manly: though but little Greck, only some of Anacreon and Hesiod; but in this irregular manner (added he) I had looked into a great many books, which were not commonly known at the Universities, where they seldom read any books but what are put into their hands by their tutors; so that when I came to Oxford, Dr. Adams, now master of Pembroke College, told me, I was the best qualified for the University that he had ever known come there." In estimating the progress of his mind during these two years, as well as in future periods of his life, we must not regard his own hasty confession of |