necessary, whatever may be its merit, since the Preface to it is "Love thy country, wish it well, "Envy's censure, Flattery's praise, "Void of strong desire and fear, Life's wide ocean trust no more; With the tide, but near the shore. "Thus prepar'd, thy shorten'd sail Shall, whene'er the winds increase, Waft thee to the Port of Peace. "Keep thy conscience from offence, "Easy shall thy passage be, Chearful thy allotted stay, Short the account 'twixt God and thee; "Truth shall lead thee to the gate, 'The poem was accompanied by a letter. "Dear Sir, "La Trappe, the 27th Oct. 1761. "You seemed to like the ode I sent you for your amusement; I now send it you as a present. If you please to accept of it, and are willing that our friendship should be known when we are gone, you will be pleased to leave this among those of your own papers that may possibly see the light by a posthumous publication. God send us health while we stay, and an easy journey! "My dear Dr. Young, "Yours, most cordially, 122 128 'In 1762, a short time before his death, Young published Resignation. Notwithstanding the manner in which it was really forced from him by the world, criticism has treated it with no common severity. If it shall be thought not to deserve the highest praise, on the other side of fourscore by whom, except by Newton and by Waller, has praise been merited? 124 'To Mrs. Montagu, the famous champion of Shakespeare, I am indebted for the history of Resignation. Observing that Mrs. Boscawen, in the midst of her grief for the loss of the admiral, derived consolation from the perusal of the Night Thoughts, Mrs. Montagu proposed a visit to the author. From conversing with Young Mrs. Boscawen derived still further consolation, and to that visit she and the world were indebted for this poem. It compliments Mrs. Montagu in the following lines: 125 "Yet, write I must. A lady sues, And again : "A friend you have, and I the same, Will bring to life those healing thoughts "That friend, the spirit of my theme Will leave to me the dreg, in thoughts 'By the same lady I am enabled to say, in her own words, that Young's unbounded genius appeared to greater advantage in the companion, than even in the author; that the christian was in him a character still more inspired, more enraptured, more sublime than the poet; and that, in his ordinary conversation, "-letting down the golden chain from high, 126 'Notwithstanding Young had said, in his Conjectures on original Composition, that "blank verse is verse unfallen, uncurst; verse reclaimed, reinthroned in the true language of the Gods," notwithstanding he administered consolation to his own grief in this immortal language, Mrs. Boscawen was comforted in rhyme. 127 'While the poet and the christian were applying this comfort, Young had himself occasion for comfort, in consequence of the sudden death of Richardson, who was printing the former part of the poem. Of Richardson's death he says, "When heaven would kindly set us free, And earth's enchantment end, It takes the most effectual means, And robs us of a friend." "To Resignation was prefixed an Apology for its appearance; 128 to which more credit is due than to the generality of such apologies, from Young's unusual anxiety that no more productions of his old age should disgrace his former fame. In his will, dated February, 1760, he desires of his executors, "in a particular manner," that all his manuscript books and writings whatever might be burned, except his book of accounts. 'In September, 1764, he added a kind of codicil, wherein he 129 made it his dying intreaty to his housekeeper, to whom he left 1,000l., “that all his manuscripts might be destroyed as soon as he was dead, which would greatly oblige her deceased friend." 'It may teach mankind the uncertainty of worldly friendships 130 to know that Young, either by surviving those he loved, or by outliving their affections, could only recollect the names of two friends, his housekeeper and a hatter, to mention in his will; and it may serve to repress that testamentary pride, which too often seeks for sounding names and titles, to be informed that the author of the Night Thoughts did not blush to leave a legacy to his "friend Henry Stevens, a hatter at the Temple-gate.' Of these two remaining friends, one went before Young. But, at eighty-four "where," as he asks in The Centaur, "is that world into which we were born? 'The same humility which marked a hatter and a housekeeper 131 for the friends of the author of the Night Thoughts had before bestowed the same title on his footman, in an epitaph in his churchyard upon James Barker, dated 1749, which I am glad to find in the late collection of his works. 'Young and his housekeeper were ridiculed, with more ill- 132 nature than wit, in a kind of novel published by Kidgell in 1755, called The Card, under the names of Dr. Elwes and Mrs. Fusby. 'In April, 1765, at an age to which few attain, a period was 133 put to the life of Young. 'He had performed no duty for the last three or four years of 134 his life, but he retained his intellects to the last. 'Much is told in the Biographia, which I know not to have 135 been true, of the manner of his burial; of the master and children of a charity-school, which he founded in his parish, who neglected to attend their benefactor's corpse; and of a bell which was not caused to toll so often as upon those occasions bells usually toll. Had that humanity, which is here lavished upon things of little consequence either to the living or to the dead, been shewn in its proper place to the living, I should have had less to say about Lorenzo. They who lament that these misfortunes happened to Young forget the praise he bestows upon Socrates, in the Preface to Night Seven, for resenting his friend's request about his funeral. 136 'During some part of his life Young was abroad, but I have not been able to learn any particulars. 137 138 189 140 'In his seventh Satire he says 'When, after battle, I the field have seen Spread o'er with ghastly shapes which once were men.” 'And it is known that from this or from some other "field" he once wandered into the enemy's camp, with a classick in his hand, which he was reading intently; and had some difficulty to prove that he was only an absent poet and not a spy. 'The curious reader of Young's life will naturally inquire to what it was owing that, though he lived almost forty years after he took orders, which included one whole reign uncommonly long, and part of another, he was never thought worthy of the least preferment. The author of the Night Thoughts ended his days upon a living which came to him from his College without any favour, and to which he probably had an eye when he determined on the Church. To satisfy curiosity of this kind is at this distance of time far from easy. The parties themselves know not often, at the instant, why they are neglected, nor why they are preferred. The neglect of Young is by some ascribed to his having attached himself to the Prince of Wales, and to his having preached an offensive sermon at St. James's. It has been told me that he had two hundred a year in the late reign, by the patronage of Walpole, and that, whenever the King was reminded of Young, the only answer was, "he has a pension." All the light thrown on this inquiry, by the following letter from Secker, only serves to shew at what a late period of life the author of the Night Thoughts solicited preferment. "Good Dr. Young, "I have long wondered that more suitable notice of your great merit hath not been taken by persons in power. But how to remedy the omission I see not. No encouragement hath ever been given me to mention things of this nature to his Majesty. And therefore, in all likelihood, the only consequence of doing it would be weakening the little influence, which else I may possibly have on some other occasions. Your fortune and your reputation set you above the need of advancement; and your sentiments, above that concern for it, on your own account, which, on that of the Publick, is sincerely felt by "Your loving Brother, "THO". CANT." At last, at the age of fourscore, he was appointed, in 1761, Clerk of the Closet to the Princess Dowager. 'One obstacle must have stood not a little in the way of that 141 preferment after which his whole life panted. Though he took orders he never intirely shook off politics. He was always the Lion of his master Milton, " pawing to get free his hinder parts." By this conduct, if he gained some friends, he made many enemies. 'Again, Young was a poet; and again, with reverence be it 142 spoken, poets by profession do not always make the best clergymen. If the author of the Night Thoughts composed many sermons he did not oblige the publick with many. Besides, in the latter part of life, Young was fond of holding 143 himself out for a man retired from the world. But he seemed to have forgotten that the same verse which contains "oblitus meorum," contains also "obliviscendus et illis." The brittle chain of worldly friendship and patronage is broken as effectually, when one goes beyond the length of it, as when the other does. To the vessel which is sailing from the shore it only appears that the shore also recedes; in life it is truly thus. He who retires from the world will find himself in reality deserted as fast, if not faster, by the world. The publick is not to be treated as the coxcomb treats his mistress; to be threatened with desertion, in order to increase fondness. 'Young seems to have been taken at his word. Notwith- 144 standing his frequent complaints of being neglected, no hand was reached out to pull him from that retirement of which he declared himself enamoured. Alexander assigned no palace for the residence of Diogenes, who boasted his surly satisfaction with his tub. 'Of the domestick manners and petty habits of the author 145 of the Night Thoughts I hoped to have given you an account from the best authority: but who shall dare to say, to-morrow I will be wise or virtuous, or to-morrow I will do a particular thing? Upon enquiring for his housekeeper I learned that she was buried two days before I reached the town of her abode. In a letter from Tscharner, a noble foreigner, to Count Haller, 146 Tscharner says he has lately spent four days with Young at Welwyn, where the author tastes all the ease and pleasure mankind can desire. Every thing about him shews the man, each individual being placed by rule. All is neat without art. He is very pleasant in conversation, and extremely polite." 'This, and more, may possibly be true; but Tscharner's was 147 a first visit, a visit of curiosity and admiration, and a visit which the author expected. 'Of Edward Young an anecdote which wanders among readers 148 is not true, that he was Fielding's Parson Adams. The original |