umracit 
 
 Of 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 John D Short 
 
ON THE 
 
 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND GENIUS 
 
 AKENSIDE. 
 
LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BY THOMAS DAVISON, WHITEF1UAKS. 
 
ON THE 
 
 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND GENIUS 
 
 AKENSIDE: 
 
 SOME ACCOUNT OF HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 BY CHARLES BUCKE, 
 
 AUTHOR OF THE BEAUTIES, HARMONIES, AND SUBLIMITIES OF 
 NATURE. 
 
 The 
 
 spacious west, 
 
 And all the teeming regions of the south, 
 Hold not a quarry to the curious flight 
 Of knowledge, half so tempting and so fair 
 As Man to Man." 
 
 Pleasures of Imagination. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 JAMES COCHRANE AND CO., WATERLOO-PLACE. 
 
 1832 
 
FjWvv L*& 
 
 IOAN STACK 
 
PR 33/3 
 38 
 
 TO 
 
 JOSEPH M'CREA, ESQ. 
 
 DEAR SIR, 
 
 To whom can I dedicate these pages with 
 so much propriety, as to One, whose sur- 
 gical skill preserved the life of a son ; and 
 to whose never-sleeping kindness and con- 
 sideration I have been indebted, on a thou- 
 sand different occasions? 
 
 " No years can wash these grateful thoughts away!" 
 
 I would have sought leave to signify my 
 respect ; but I would not be denied. Accept, 
 then, this memorial as it is meant; and be- 
 lieve me to be, 
 
 Your very faithful 
 
 and affectionate friend, 
 
 THE AUTHOR, 
 
 London. 
 
 31 
 
LOAN STACK 
 GIFT 
 
Having always esteemed the Pleasures 
 of Imagination the finest didactic Poem in 
 our language, it was with no small pleasure, 
 that I accidentally discovered, some time 
 since, a few MS, notes of Akenside at the 
 British Museum. 
 
 These notes are not very important ; but 
 they led me to regret, as, indeed, I had 
 often done before, that all the accounts, we 
 have, of this great poet, should be so meagre 
 and deficient : and having formerly known 
 two gentlemen, who had been intimately ac- 
 quainted with him, I combined what I had 
 heard them say of him with what was already 
 known ; and taking his works for a general 
 guide (and few speak more in their works 
 than Akenside does) I have, I hope, been 
 enabled to give a correct and, perhaps, not 
 altogether an uninteresting outline of a 
 virtuous and high-minded man, gifted with 
 very considerable poetical powers. 
 
The Reader will not expect me to give 
 more than it was possible to obtain. I hope, 
 he will rather thank me for what little I have 
 been able to collect of this eminent person ; 
 though I cannot but feel, that he must greatly 
 regret, that the subject did not fall into abler 
 hands. 
 
 London. 
 January 3 1832. 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 i'age 180, G lines from bottom, dele Bowles. 
 
 11)2, 4 lines from bottom, for Edward, read Edmund. 
 
ON THE 
 
 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND GENIUS 
 
 OF 
 
 AKENSIDE. 
 
 Mark Akenside * was born at Newcastle-upon- 
 Tyne, in the county of Northumberland, on the 
 9th of November, 1721. His father was a respect- 
 able butcher. His mother's name was Mary Lums- 
 den. They were both exceedingly strict in their 
 religious observances; and being in the habit of 
 attending a meeting-house, which had been then 
 recently erected in Hanover-square, their son was 
 
 * In all the editions of this poet, since the sixth published 
 by Dodsley, 1763, the name has been invariably spelt Aken- 
 side ; but in the first edition of the Ode to the Earl of Hunt- 
 ingdon, the orthography is Akinside, and the poet himself, 
 in his MS. dedication to Mr. Dyson (now first published) 
 subscribes his name in the same manner. 
 
2 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 baptized by the minister, (the Rev. Benjamin Ben- 
 net,) about three weeks afterwards. 
 
 Akenside is said to have been, in after life, very 
 much ashamed of the comparative lowness of his 
 birth ; and it is, also, reported, that he could never 
 regard a lameness, which impeded his walking with 
 facility, otherwise than as an unpleasant memento 
 of a cut on the foot, which he received from the 
 fall of one of his father's cleavers, when about seven 
 years of age. 
 
 Be this as it may, it is very certain that he had 
 a strong regard for the place of his birth ; and 
 even so late as the year in which he died, (1770) 
 he wrote some beautiful lines, commemorative of 
 the pleasure, he was accustomed to receive, in early 
 life, from wandering among the scenes of his native 
 river. 
 
 <( O ye dales 
 
 Of Tyne, and ye, most ancient woodlands ! where 
 Oft, as the giant flood obliquely strides, 
 And his banks open, and his lawns extend, 
 Stops short the pleased traveller to view, 
 Presiding o'er the scene, some rustic tow'r, 
 Founded by Norman or by Saxon hands." 
 
 No accounts have reached us, as to the number 
 of brothers and sisters he had : we only know, 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 8 
 
 from Brand's Observations on Popular Antiquities, 
 that he knew one of Akenside's sisters, whose 
 name was Addison, then living in Newcastle ; and 
 that she possessed several drawings, her brother had 
 sketched at a very early period of life. 
 
 His parents having separated from the church, 
 Akenside, after some preparatory instruction at the 
 free-school of Newcastle, was placed under the care 
 of a dissenting minister, Mr. Wilson, who kept 
 a private academy in the same town ; by whom his 
 mind was early awakened to those impressions, 
 which seldom fail 
 
 " To render Nature pleasing to the eye, 
 And music to the ear*; " 
 
 And that he was as feelingly alive to that most de- 
 lightful of all suffrages, the applause of the wise 
 and good, is evident from his Ode on the Love of 
 Praise ; than which Horace himself has scarcely one 
 more beautiful. 
 
 ' Of all the springs within the mind, 
 
 Which prompt her steps in Fortune's maze, 
 
 From none more pleasing aid we find, 
 Than from the genuine love of praise. 
 
 Pleasures of Imagination, b. iii. 492. 
 
 b2 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 II. 
 
 Nor any partial private end 
 
 Such reverence to the public bears, 
 Nor any passion, Virtue's friend, 
 
 So like to Virtue's self appears. 
 
 III. 
 
 For who in glory can delight, 
 
 Without delight in virtuous deeds ? 
 
 What man a charming voice can slight, 
 Who courts the echo that succeeds ? 
 
 IV. 
 
 But not the echo or the voice 
 
 More, than on virtue, praise depends ; 
 To which, of course, its real price 
 
 The judgment of the praiser tends. 
 
 V. 
 
 If praise, then, with religious awe 
 From the sole perfect Judge be sought, 
 
 A nobler aim, a purer law, 
 
 Nor priest, nor bard, nor sage hath taught; 
 
 VI. 
 
 With which in character the same, 
 Though in an humbler sphere it lies, 
 
 I count that soul of human fame 
 The suffrage of the good and wise." 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. O 
 
 Thus, too, in his Ode on hearing a sermon preached 
 against Glory : 
 
 " If to spurn at noble praise 
 
 Be the passport to thy heaven, 
 
 Follow thou those gloomy ways ; 
 
 No such law to me was givem 
 
 Nor, I trust, shall I deplore me, 
 Faring like my friends before me, 
 Nor a holier place desire, 
 Than Timoleon's arms acquire, 
 And Tully's curule chair, and Milton's golden lyre." 
 
 Akenside indulged his natural taste for poetry 
 very early ; and, at the age of sixteen, sent to the 
 editor of the Gentleman's Magazine a poem, written 
 after the manner of Spenser, entitled the Virtuoso; 
 the idea of which seems to have been taken from 
 the subjoined passage of Shaftesbury's Charac- 
 teristics *. 
 
 * " Hitherto there can lie no ridicule, nor the least scope 
 for satiric wit or raillery. But when we push this virtuoso 
 character a little further, and lead our polished gentleman 
 into more nice researches ; when from the view of mankind 
 and their affairs, our speculative genius, and minute examiner 
 of nature's works, proceeds with equal or perhaps superior 
 zeal, in the contemplation of the insect life, the conveniences, 
 habitations, and economy of a race of sliell-Jish; when he 
 has erected a cabinet in due form, and made it the real pat- 
 tern of his mind, replete with the same trash and trumpery 
 
6 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 This poem is not only curious, as a juvenile pro- 
 duction, but as it serves to show how early the mind 
 of Akenside was impregnated with the sentiments 
 of that once celebrated writer. 
 
 Akenside did not think proper to republish this 
 poem in the collection of his works ; and yet, there 
 is not one stanza, of which he needed to have been, 
 in the slightest degree, ashamed. Indeed, it is a very 
 remarkable poem for so young a person. I shall 
 quote the first and last stanzas, with its motto from 
 Persius : 
 
 Videmus 
 
 Nugari solitos. 
 
 " Whilom by silver Thames' gentle stream, 
 
 In London town there dwelt a subtile wight ; 
 A wight of mickle wealth, and mickle fame, 
 
 Book'-learn'd and quaint ; a Virtuoso hight. 
 Uncommon things and rare were his delight; 
 
 From musings deep his brain ne'er gotten ease ; 
 Nor ceasen he from study day or night ; 
 Until (advancing onwards by degrees) 
 He knew whatever breeds on earth, on air, or seas." 
 
 of correspondent empty notions and chimerical conceits ; he 
 then, indeed, becomes the subject of sufficient raillery, and 
 is made the jest of common conversations." Characteristics, 
 vol. iii. p. 156. Ed. 1737. 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 7 
 
 " The wight, whose brain this phantom's * power doth fill, 
 
 On whom she doth, with constant care, attend, 
 Will for a dreadful giant take a mill t, 
 
 Or a grand palace in a hogstye find ; 
 (From her dire influence me may Heavn defend! ) 
 
 All things with vitiated sight he spies ; 
 Neglects his family, forgets his friend ; 
 
 Seeks painted trifles and fantastic toys ; 
 And eagerly pursues imaginary joys." 
 
 Akenside seems to have entertained a particular 
 contempt for virtuosos; for he again makes that 
 order of character a subject for ridicule in the third 
 book of his principal poem. 
 
 " Behold yon mystic form, 
 
 Bedeck'd with feathers, insects, weeds, and shells ! 
 Not with in tenser view, the Samian sage 
 Bent his fixt eye on heaven's intenser fires, 
 When first the order of that radiant scene 
 Swell'd his exulting thought, than this surveys 
 A muckworm's entrails, or a spider's fang." 
 
 In the same year (viz. 1737) Akenside published, 
 in the same miscellany, a Rhapsody on the miseries 
 of a Poet, born to a low estate. This poem, as a 
 whole, is scarcely worthy of preservation ; but as 
 
 * Phantasy's. 
 
 t Alluding to a passage in Don Quixote ; about this time 
 translated into English. 
 
 t From a line in Machiavelli's Asino. 
 
8 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 there are some passages, indicative of future excel- 
 lence, I shall quote them. 
 
 " Of all the various lots around the ball, 
 Which Fate to man distributes, absolute, 
 Avert, ye Gods ! that of the Muses' son, 
 Cursed with dire poverty. Poor, hungry wretch ! 
 What shall he do for life ? He cannot work 
 With manual labour. Shall those sacred hands, 
 That brought the counsels of the Gods to light, 
 Shall that inspired tongue, which every muse 
 Has touched divine, to charm the sons of men, 
 These hallow'd orgies these ! be prostitute 
 To the vile service of some fool in power, 
 All his behests submissive to perform, 
 Howe'er to him ungrateful 1 Oh ! he scorns 
 Th' ignoble thought !" 
 
 The following passage, no doubt, alludes to an 
 order of persons, with whom the poet was, at this 
 time, compelled occasionally to associate. 
 
 " But 'tis in vain to rave at destiny. 
 Here he must rest ; and brook the best he can ; 
 To live remote from grandeur, learning, wit, 
 Immured among th' ignoble, vulgar herd 
 Of lowest intellect ; whose stupid souls 
 But half inform their bodies " 
 
 The succeeding lines allude to the various de- 
 scriptions of poetry, in a manner very appropriate 
 and concise. 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. [) 
 
 " Upon his brow 
 Perplex'd anxiety, and struggling thought, 
 Painful as female throes ! whether the bard 
 Display the deeds of heroes ; or the fall 
 Of vice in lay dramatic; or expand 
 The lyric wing; or in elegiac strains 
 Lament the fair ; or lash the stubborn age 
 With laughing satire." 
 
 After depicting the miseries of the poet, left 
 only to his own mental energies to sustain the loss 
 of friends, the want of a Halifax, of a Somers, or 
 of a Dorset, and the miseries of indigence, he closes 
 the theme with a striking admonition to himself. 
 
 u I hear my better angel cry, e Retreat! 
 
 Rash youth, in time retreat ! Let those poor bards, 
 Who slighted all, all ! for the flattering Muse, 
 Yet cursed with piercing want, as land-marks stand. 
 To warn thee from the service oftK ingrate*.'" 
 
 The next poem, he sent to the Gentleman's Maga- 
 zine was a fable, illustrative of Context and Am- 
 bition ; and it is really not too much to say of it, 
 that it is almost worthy of being associated with 
 some of the translations which, a few years previous, 
 had been rendered from Ovid's Metamorphoses. 
 
 * I found this passage inscribed in pencil on the wall of 
 an inn at Cassel, in the department of the North, a few 
 months ago. It was, no doubt, written by some unfortunate 
 English votary of the Muses, then on his, perhaps, compelled 
 travels. 
 
10 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 He fables, that, in times 
 
 " While yet the world was young, and men were few, 
 Nor lurking fraud, nor tyrant rapine knew ;" 
 
 Content was the only acknowledged sovereign of 
 mankind. 
 
 " Joy of all hearts, delight of every eye, 
 
 Nor grief, nor pain, appear'd, when she was by; 
 Her presence from the wretched banish'd care, 
 Dispersed the swelling sigh, and stopt the falling tear." 
 
 At length, Ambition 
 
 hellish fiend ! arose 
 
 To plague the world, and banish man's repose." 
 
 This fiend, determining on the dethronement of 
 Content, all the vain, and lovers of novelty, flocked 
 to his standard : Content was, in consequence, 
 dethroned, and compelled to wander about the 
 world in search of a home. 
 
 One day, forsaken by every one, and destitute of 
 all things, she came to a cottage, roofed with turf. 
 
 " Fast by a gloomy, venerable wood 
 Of shady pines, and ancient oaks, it stood." 
 
 In this retired cottage, bending beneath a weight 
 of years, a cheerful couple 
 
 " had pass'd their life. 
 
 The husband Industry was call'd Frugality the wife." 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 11 
 
 This pair bad many sons, whose occupation con- 
 sisted in cultivating the earth. They had also one 
 daughter, whose name was Plenty. 
 
 In former years, Content had occasionally 
 visited this cottage ; and being now stripped of her 
 dominions, she determined on seeking in it a refuge 
 from her misfortunes. 
 
 " Arrived, she makes her changed condition known; 
 Tells how the rebels drove her from the throne ;" 
 
 and implores shelter from the tyrant. The aged 
 pair listened in sympathy to her misfortunes, invited 
 her into their cottage, and entreated her to take up 
 her abode in the bosom of their family. 
 
 In the meantime, Ambition having attained the 
 summit of his wishes, 
 
 " Polluted every stream with human gore, 
 And scatter'd plagues and death from shore to shore." 
 
 Offended at the evils thus entailed upon mankind, 
 Jupiter looked down with indignation and pity. 
 He desires Venus to dispatch her son, Cupid, to 
 repair to the palace of Ambition, and to strike him 
 with an ardent love for his former rival, Content. 
 Then he commanded Mercury to descend to the 
 regions of Pluto, 
 
 " To rouse Oblivion from her sable cave ;" 
 
12 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 and enjoins her to draw around the abode of Con- 
 tent, a darkness equal to the 
 
 u t deepest gloom of night, 
 
 To screen the Virgin from the Tyrant's sight; 
 That the vain purpose of his life may try, 
 Still to explore, what still eludes his eye* 
 He spake: Loud praises shake the bright abode, 
 And all applaud the justice of the god." 
 
 This poem, and several others, Akenside did not 
 feel ambitious of acknowledging ; and they are in- 
 troduced here, not with an intention of advancing 
 his reputation, but as specimens of the poetical 
 power, he possessed, at an early period of life. 
 
 But though Akenside did not choose to associate 
 them with the fruit of his maturer years, he occa- 
 sionally alludes, and always with satisfaction, to the 
 time in which they were written. Thus in his 
 ode to his Muse, written many years after : 
 
 u And now again my bosom burns ; 
 The Muse, the Muse herself, returns ! 
 Such on the banks of Tyne, confest, 
 I hail'd the fair immortal guest, 
 When first she seal'd me for her own, 
 Made all her blissful treasures known, 
 And bade me swear to follow her alone." 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 13 
 
 Some of his productions, however, at this period, 
 seem to have touched on subjects, which he did 
 not, afterwards, approve ; at least, so we may con- 
 jecture from a passage in his second poem on the 
 Pleasures of Imagination. 
 
 What though first 
 
 In years unseason'd, haply ere the sports 
 
 Of childhood yet were o'er, th' adventurous lay, 
 
 With many splendid prospects, many charms, 
 
 Allured my heart ; not conscious whence they sprung, 
 
 Nor heedful of their end ? yet serious truth 
 
 Her empire o'er the calm sequester'd theme 
 
 Asserted soon ; while falsehood's evil brood, 
 
 Vile and deceitful pleasure, she at once 
 
 Excluded : and my fancy's careless toil 
 
 Drew to the better cause." 
 
 While still a boy, he often, as we have before 
 observed, amused his leisure from the duties of 
 education, by wandering on the banks of the Tyne, 
 where he hailed the morning and evening sun with 
 all the enthusiasm of youth, and felt the impress 
 of poetical inspiration. He frequently alludes to 
 these moments of delight. 
 
 " Pierian maids ! 
 
 Hear me propitious. In the morn of life, 
 
 When Hope shone bright, and all the prospect smiled, 
 
14 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 To your sequester'd mansion, oft my steps 
 Were turn'd, O Muses ! and within your gate 
 My offerings paid." 
 
 P. I. Second Poem, ill. 345. 
 
 Again, in his hymn to the Naiads : 
 
 " The Muses (sacred by their gifts divine), 
 In early days did to my wondering sense 
 Their secrets oft reveal: oft my raised ear 
 In slumber felt their music ; oft at noon, 
 Or hour of sunset, by some lonely stream, 
 In field or shady grove, they taught me words 
 Of power from death and envy to preserve 
 The good man's name." 
 
 About the age of seventeen he was frequently at 
 the house of a relative, at Morpeth ; and to the 
 enjoyments he there experienced, in studying the 
 works of Nature, he alludes in lines, perhaps, from 
 their associations, the most beautiful to himself, in 
 all his poems. 
 
 " O ye Northumbrian shades ! which overlook 
 The rocky pavement and the mossy falls 
 Of solitary Wensbeck's limpid stream, 
 How gladly I recall your well-known seats, 
 Beloved of old ; and that delightful time, 
 When all alone, for many a summer's day, 
 I wander'd through your calm recesses, led 
 In silence, by some powerful hand unseen." 
 
 P. I. Second Poem, iv. 1. 38. 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 15 
 
 Many poets have recorded the beauties of their 
 native stream ; and Armstrong, in a poem published 
 in the same year with that of Akenside, followed 
 the example. 
 
 " Such the stream, 
 
 On whose Arcadian banks, I first drew air, 
 Liddal; till now in Doric lays 
 Tuned to her murmurs by her love-sick swains, 
 Unknown in song: though not a purer stream 
 Through meads more flow'ry, more romantic groves, 
 Rolls towards the western main." 
 
 While at Morpeth, Akenside is supposed by 
 some to have written his Pleasures of Imagination. 
 But this is scarcely to be credited; though it is 
 not improbable, that many passages may have been 
 written there. His portrait of Dione, for instance. 
 
 o bear, then, unreproved, 
 
 Thy smiling treasures to the green recess, 
 Where young Dione strays; with sweetest airs 
 Entice her forth, to lend her angel form 
 For beauty's honor'd image." 
 
 At the age of eighteen Akenside was sent to 
 Edinburgh, with a view of taking orders as a dis- 
 senting minister. In this resolution he remained 
 one year; when he altered his intention in respect 
 
16 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 to the choice of a profession, and entered himself as 
 a student in medicine. The money, therefore, he 
 had received from the Dissenters' Society, and which 
 it was customary for them to appropriate to the 
 education of young men of scanty fortune, designed 
 for their ministry, he afterwards returned. 
 
 He remained at Edinburgh as a medical student 
 two years, during which period he seems to have 
 made great progress. He was elected a member of 
 the Medical Society, was greatly respected for his 
 attainments, and became acquainted with several 
 young men, who afterwards distinguished themselves 
 in a very eminent manner ; amongst whom we may 
 particularly mention Dr. John Gregory and Dr. 
 Robertson. And here we may with advantage in- 
 troduce a curious anecdote, related by Dr. Stewart, 
 in his Elements of the Principles of the Human 
 Mind *. " There are various passages in Akenside's 
 works," says he, " which will be read with addi- 
 tional pleasure, when it is known, that they were 
 not entirely suggested by fancy. I allude to those 
 passages where he betrays a secret consciousness of 
 powers, adapted to a higher station of life than fell 
 to his lot. /Akenside, when a medical student at 
 
 * Vol. iii. p. 501. 4 to. 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 17 
 
 Edinburgh, was a member of the Medical Society, 
 then recently formed, and was eminently distin- 
 guished by the eloquence which he displayed in the 
 course of the debates. Dr. Robertson (who was at 
 that time a student of divinity in the same uni- 
 versity) told me, that he was frequently led to 
 attend their meetings, chiefly to hear the speeches 
 of Akenside; the great object of whose ambition 
 then was a seat in Parliament ; a situation which, he 
 was sanguine enough to flatter himself, he had some 
 prospect of obtaining, and for which he conceived 
 his talents to be much better adapted than for the 
 profession he had chosen." 
 
 What the circumstances were, which could justify 
 the ambition of Akenside, it is now too late to in- 
 quire. Perhaps it was merely a sally, arising out 
 of a consciousness of oratorical power, and which 
 power he possessed to the last year of his life; but 
 to this hope Dr. Stewart supposes he alludes in one 
 of the stanzas in his Ode to Sleep. 
 
 " Nor yet those awful forms present 
 For chiefs and heroes only meant. 
 The figured brass, the choral song, 
 The rescued people's glad applause, 
 The listening senate, and the laws 
 Fix'd by the counsels of Timoleok's tongue. 
 
18 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 Are scenes too grand for Fortune's private ways : 
 And though they shine in youth's ingenuous view, 
 The sober, gainful arts of modern days 
 To such romantic thoughts have bad a long adieu." 
 
 Stanza 4. 
 
 The scene had altered ; experience had stept in ; 
 the world had taught him a lesson ; and the more 
 sober ambition had visited his imagination of de- 
 siring such dreams, as those, which animated the 
 eyelids of Mead and Milton. 
 
 " But Morpheus ! on thy balmy wing 
 Such honourable visions bring, 
 As soothed great Milton's injured age; 
 When in prophetic dreams he saw 
 The race, unborn, with pious awe 
 Imbibe each virtue from his heavenly page ; 
 Or such as Mead's benignant fancy knows, 
 When health's deep treasures, by his art explored, 
 Have saved the infant from an orphan's woes, 
 Or to his trembling sire his age's hope restored." 
 
 In the yeai, previous to his journey to Edin- 
 burgh, Ak en side wrote a poem, entitled a British 
 Philippick; a satire, occasioned by the preparations 
 for the war, which were then making, in conse- 
 quence of the insults, the country had received from 
 Spain. This poem is remarkable for little, if we 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 19 
 
 except the spirit of patriotism in which it was 
 composed. 
 
 During his residence at Edinburgh, he is, also, 
 supposed to have written his Hymn to Science, and 
 an Ode on the Winter Solstice. The Hymn to 
 Science was not inserted in any collection of his 
 poems till 1793. The cause of this omission I have 
 not been able to discover. The hymn itself is so 
 far from being unworthy the genius of its author, 
 that it is not a praise too unmeasured to assert, 
 that it is even worthy the lyre of Collins. The 
 12th and 18th stanzas are particularly beautiful. 
 
 " That last best effort of thy skill, 
 To form the life and rule the will, 
 
 Propitious Pow'r ! impart : 
 Teach me to cool my passion's fires, 
 Make me the judge of my desires, 
 
 The master of my heart. 
 
 Raise me above the vulgar's breath, 
 Pursuit of fortune, fear of death, 
 
 And all in life that's mean ; 
 Still true to reason be my plan, 
 Still let my actions speak the man, 
 
 Through every various scene." 
 
 Has Horace or Gray any thing superior to 
 this ? 
 
 The Ode on the Winter Solstice he soon after 
 improved into another ode ; both of which are ge- 
 
 c2 
 
20 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 nerally printed in succession. There are fine pas- 
 sages in both ; but the second is, I think, far su- 
 perior to the first. The late Miss Seward of Lich- 
 field says, in one of her letters, that she regularly 
 read it every winter. 
 
 Some have supposed this ode to have been written 
 in Holland ; but the following stanza seems to 
 justify those, who believe it to have been written in 
 Scotland. 
 
 * But lo ! on this deserted coast, 
 How faint the light, how chill the air ! 
 Lo ! arm'd with whirlwind, hail, and frost, 
 Fierce Winter desolates the year, 
 The fields resign their cheerful bloom, 
 No more the breezes breathe perfume ; 
 No more the warbling waters roll ; 
 
 Desarts of snow fatigue the eye ; 
 
 Successive tempests bloat the sky, 
 And gloomy damps oppress the soul." 
 
 There are some fine passages in this ode ; but it 
 cannot be denied, that, in pathos and sublimity, it 
 is much inferior to the Dirge of Burns ; written, I 
 have somewhere read, one evening after perusing 
 the ode by Akenside : 
 
 " The wintry west extends his blast, 
 An' hail an' rain does blaw ; 
 Or the stormy north sends drivin forth 
 The blindin sleet an' snaw : 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 91 
 
 While tumblin brown, the burn comes down, 
 
 An' roars frae bank to brae ; 
 An' bird an' beast in covert rest, 
 
 An' pass the heartless day. 
 
 ' The sweeping blast, the sky o'ercast *,' 
 
 The joyless winter-day, 
 Let others fear ; to me more dear 
 
 Than a' the pride o' May. 
 The tempest's howl ; it soothes my soul ; 
 
 My griefs it seems to join : 
 The leafless trees my fancy please ; 
 
 Their fate resembles mine. 
 
 Thou Pow'r Supreme ! whose mighty scheme 
 
 These woes of mine fulfil ; 
 Here, firm, I rest ; they must be best, 
 
 Because they are thy will ! 
 Then all I want (O do thou grant 
 
 This one request of mine !) 
 Since to enjoy thou dost deny, 
 Assist me to resign." 
 
 After a stay of three years, Akenside removed 
 to Ley den, in farther pursuit of medical knowledge ; 
 and there had the good fortune to form a strict and 
 never-sleeping friendship with a young man of 
 family and fortune, who was prosecuting the study 
 of civil law in that university. This gentleman's 
 name was Dyson; and to him Akenside was in- 
 debted for most of his subsequent ease in life. 
 
 * Dr. Young. 
 
22 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 At Leyden he began, if I mistake not, to me- 
 thodize the great poem, he had begun ; and it is 
 probable that he communicated the manuscript to 
 his new friend, Mr. Dyson; from whom he had 
 the benefit of receiving advice, unbiassed by any 
 desire of being esteemed a critic; an inestimable 
 advantage to any one engaged in high designs, 
 whether in literature, legislation, or politics. This, 
 I think, is evident from the following passage: 
 
 " Nor to truth's recess divine, 
 
 Through this wide argument's unbeaten space, 
 Withholding surer guidance ; while, by turns, 
 We traced the sages old, or while the queen 
 Of Sciences (whom manners and the mind 
 Acknowledge) to my true companion's voice, 
 Not unattentive, o'er the wintry lamp 
 Inclined her sceptre favouring." 
 
 P. I. second Poem, i. 1. 62. 
 
 At Leyden, too, he may be supposed to have 
 written his Hymn to Cheerfulness, the most po- 
 pular of all his minor poems : in reading which 
 we cannot refuse to accede to the opinion of Hume, 
 that a cheerful disposition is worth ten thousand a 
 year. In no part of his works is the poet seen to 
 more advantage ; and it is impossible to read it 
 without imbibing a belief, that he was, when nei- 
 ther insulted or otherwise ill-used, the kindest 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 23 
 
 friend and most favourably disposed to administer 
 to the happiness of others, of all human beings. 
 The following passage reminds us of the grand 
 moral of the Pleasures of Imagination. 
 
 " O thou ! whose pleasing pow'r I sing, 
 Thy lenient influence hither bring, 
 Compose the storm, dispel the gloom, 
 Till Nature wears her wonted bloom, 
 Till fields and shades their sweets exhale, 
 And music swell each op'ning gale ! 
 Then o'er his breast thy softness pour, 
 And let him learn the timely hour, 
 To trace the world's benignant laws, 
 And judge of the presiding cause; 
 Who founds on discord Beauty's reign, 
 Converts to pleasure every pain, 
 Subdues each hostile form to rest, 
 And bids the universe be blest." 
 
 After remaining three years at Leyden, Akenside 
 was admitted to the degree of doctor of physic, 
 (May 16, 1744) ; and in conformity to the custom 
 of Dutch universities, published a thesis on the 
 original and growth of the Human Foetus ; a dis- 
 sertation which gained him great credit * ; as the 
 opinion, he suggested, departed in many particulars 
 from the one then received, and has been the one 
 almost universally acted upon since. 
 
 * Johnson. 
 
24 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 Previous to leaving Ley den he bade farewell to 
 a country 
 
 " Which Pan, which Ceres never knew, 
 Nor ever mountain zephyr blew/' 
 
 in an ode, the best stanzas of which are those, in 
 which he celebrates his native country. 
 
 Having completed the relative objects of their 
 voyage to Holland, the two friends, Dyson and 
 Akenside, embarked in the same vessel at Rotter- 
 dam, and arrived safely in London, after an agree- 
 able but protracted voyage. On their arrival, the 
 one took to the bar, and became a constitutional 
 lawyer; the other, of course, resorted to physic. 
 This contrast of occupation is elegantly touched 
 upon in the second poem on the Pleasures of Ima- 
 gination. 
 
 " Now the Fates 
 
 Have other tasks imposed. To thee, my friend ! 
 
 The ministry of Freedom, and the faith 
 
 Of popular decrees in early youth, 
 
 Not vainly they committed. Me they sent 
 
 To wait on pain, and silent arts to urge 
 
 Inglorious, not ignoble ; if my cares, 
 
 To such as languish on a grievous bed, 
 
 Ease, and the sweet forgetfulness of ill 
 
 Conciliate ; nor delightless, if the Muse 
 
 Her shades to visit, and to taste her springs, 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 25 
 
 If some distinguish'd hours the bounteous Muse 
 Impart, and grant (what she and she alone 
 Can grant to mortals), that my hand those wreaths 
 Of fame, and honest favour, which the bless'd 
 Wear in Elysium, and which never felt 
 The breath of envy or malignant tongues, 
 That these my hand for thee and for myself 
 May gather." 
 
 P. I. Second Poem, i. 68. 
 
 The Pleasures of Imagination being completed, 
 Akenside sought the earliest opportunity of publish- 
 ing it. It was sent, in consequence, to Dodsley, 
 with a demand of one hundred and twenty pounds 
 for the copyright. This demand, we are told, 
 being higher than Dodsley chose to give hastily, he 
 carried the manuscript to Pope, and requested ad- 
 vice. Pope looked into it, says Johnson (who had 
 his information from Dodsley himself), and per- 
 ceiving its merit, told him " to make no niggardly 
 offer," since " this was no every day writer.'" 
 
 Dodsley immediately closed with the author ; and 
 the manuscript was placed in the hands of Richard- 
 son, the celebrated author of Pamela, Sir Charles 
 Grandison, and Clarissa Harlowe, to print ; and 
 here, though written some years after, we may in- 
 troduce one of the few letters, which remain of this 
 elegant poet. It is still preserved in manuscript, 
 
2C) LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 among the papers of Dr. Birch, at the British 
 Museum ; and though containing no information of 
 importance, yet to those, not accustomed to matters, 
 relative to errors of the press, it may serve to show 
 the anxiety of an author, when he discovers any 
 error, too late to be rectified. 
 
 " To Mr. Richardson, in Salisbury-court, Fleet-street. 
 
 " Sir I return you many thanks for sending 
 me the sheet, about which I wrote to you. I find 
 in it an erratum, and of that unlucky sort, which 
 does not make absolute nonsense, but only conveys 
 a false and absurd idea. The sheet is marked T t ; 
 and in page 328 and line ninth from the bottom, 
 stream is printed instead of steam. If you can, 
 without much trouble, print this as an erratum, or 
 rather let some one with a stroke of a pen blot out 
 the r, as the sheets are dried, I should be greatly 
 obliged. 
 
 " I am, Sir, with true respect, 
 
 " Your most humble servant, 
 
 " M. Akenside. 
 
 " Bloomsbury Square, Jan. 25." 
 
 The poem being suited chiefly for the highest 
 order of readers, it is not a little surprising, that it 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 27 
 
 should have arrived, at once, at the zenith of a 
 fame, from which, like most other works popular 
 in their day, it has never declined. All readers, 
 however, were not satisfied ; and, among the rest, 
 Gray. For when Dr. Wharton, of Old Park, 
 near Durham, wrote to him, a few weeks after 
 the publication, in what manner it was esteemed 
 at Cambridge, Gray, in a hasty reply*, told him, 
 that he wondered, he should ask an opinion, as to 
 what the Cambridge men thought, since many of 
 them, who pretended to judge things, did not judge 
 at all; and those, who were wiser, gave no judg- 
 ment, till they heard those pronounced by the fre- 
 quenters of Dick's and the Rainbow Coffee-houses. 
 " However," continued he, " to show you, that I 
 am a judge, as well as my countrymen, I will tell 
 you ; though I have rather turned it over than read 
 it (but no matter; no more have they), that it 
 seems to me above the middling; and now and 
 then, for a little while, rises even to the best, par- 
 ticularly in description. It is often obscure, and 
 even unintelligible ; and too much infected with the 
 Hutchinsonian jargon. In short, its great fault is, 
 that it was published at least nine years too early ; 
 
 * Dated April 26, 1744. 
 
28 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 and so, methinks, in a few words, a la mode du 
 Temple, I have very pertly dispatched what, per- 
 haps, may for several years have employed a very 
 ingenious man, worthy fifty of myself. r> 
 
 That Akenside occupied a rank, below Gray as 
 a lyric poet, (though his ode to the Earl of Hunt- 
 ingdon would place him on the same elevation 
 in the opinion of many), is, I think, not safely 
 to be doubted: but that he had a more brilliant 
 imagination, a truer impulse, a finer touch of musical 
 expression, and a more exquisite sense of nature on 
 the lofty impulses of mind is, I think, as little to be 
 denied ; since the poetical merit of Gray (always 
 excepting his unequalled Elegy), seems to have 
 consisted chiefly in a mature wisdom of selection, 
 and a masterly arrangement of other men's ideas : 
 that is, he knew diamonds, when he saw them in the 
 quarry ; he knew equally well how to polish them ; 
 and he had an equal judgment in setting them to the 
 best advantage. No one of his age, therefore, had a 
 mind, more capable of appreciating Akenside, than 
 he had. I, therefore, think it more than probable, 
 that when he read the Pleasures of Imagination with 
 greater attention, than merely " turning over the 
 leaves" (since Akenside is not to be appreciated but 
 after a third reading), this accomplished critic, as 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. <l\) 
 
 well as poet, must have altered his opinion ; and I 
 think (but of that I am not quite certain), that the 
 late Mr. Meyrick told me as much. Be this, how- 
 ever, as it may, it is very certain, that the poem rose 
 into immediate estimation ; and has ever since been 
 considered by most competent judges, one of the 
 finest and most classical productions in our lan- 
 guage. 
 
 Mr. Meyrick, whom I have just now mentioned, 
 was a very remarkable person. He was a sur- 
 geon and apothecary, retired from business, and 
 past eighty when I first knew him; yet he had 
 all the hilarity of youth. He knew, at least he 
 had seen, all the eminent literary characters of the 
 time in which he lived ; and was full of anecdote, 
 more particularly in respect to their distresses. He 
 frequently called in Akenside ; whom he visited 
 as a friend, and recommended as a physician. 
 " We were not very much like either," said the old 
 gentleman ; " for he was stiff and set ; and I all life 
 and spirits. He often frowned upon me in a sick 
 room. He could not bear to see any one smile in 
 the presence of an invalid ; and, I think, he lost 
 a good deal of business by the solemn sententious- 
 ness of his air and manner. I wanted to cheer 
 
30 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 patients up!' 1 Mr. Meyrick knew Armstrong, 
 also, the author of the Art of Preserving Health. 
 " He ruined himself," said he, " by that foolish per- 
 formance of his, the Economy of Love. How, in 
 the name of heaven, could he ever expect that a 
 woman would let him enter her house again, after 
 that ? The man was a fool ! He, who undertakes 
 to be a physician, must be chastity itself." 
 
 Akenside and Armstrong published their prin- 
 cipal poems in the same year. They appealed to 
 the consent of mankind in opposite directions. For 
 if the poem on the Pleasures of Imagination 
 is rich in materials, and brilliant in imagery and 
 versification, the Art of preserving Health 
 is as remarkable for its simplicity of style, and a 
 total rejection of ornament. Their success as poets 
 is said to have equally retarded their success as 
 physicians. They associated occasionally ; but their 
 characters never assimilated. Akenside was solemn 
 in manner, but engaging and polite ; except when 
 unwarrantably put upon, when he became irritable, 
 though never overbearing. Armstrong relapsed 
 into a morbid sensibility, the languid listlessness of 
 which is said to have damped the vigour of his 
 intellectual efforts to that degree, that some have 
 
LIFE OF AKENSTDE. 31 
 
 even ventured to suppose, that he sat for the 
 following picture in Thomson's Castle of Indo- 
 lence. 
 
 " With him was sometimes join'd in silent walk, 
 (Profoundly silent, for they never spoke) 
 One shyer still, who quite detested talk ; 
 If stung by spleen, at once away he broke 
 To groves of pine, and broad o'ershadowing oak : 
 There, inly thrill'd, he wander'd all alone, 
 And on himself his pensive fury wroke; 
 He never utter'd word, save when first shone 
 The glittering star of eve ( Thank heaven! the day is done!'" 
 
 When Thomson's Castle of Indolence appeared, 
 Akenside was in raptures with it. Mr. Meyrick 
 had his copy. Many stanzas were marked very 
 emphatically ; among the rest the following 
 
 u I care not, fortune, what you me deny: 
 You cannot rob me of free nature's grace ; 
 You cannot shut the windows of the sky, 
 Through which Aurora shews her bright'ning face ; 
 You cannot bar my constant feet to trace 
 The woods and lawns by living streams at eve." 
 
 Akenside's poem was published anonymously. 
 There was, therefore, no dedication ; but the fol- 
 lowing still exists in MS., prefixed to the first 
 edition in quarto, which the poet presented to Mr. 
 
32 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 Dyson, whose modesty, I suppose, would not permit 
 it to appear. 
 
 vlro conjunctissimo 
 
 Jeremi^e Dyson, 
 
 vitve, morumqoe suorum duci, 
 
 rerum bonarum socio, 
 
 studiorum judici, 
 
 cujus amicitia 
 
 neque sanctius habet quicquam, 
 
 neque optat carius ,' 
 
 hocce opusculum 
 
 (vos, 6 tyrannorum impura laudes 
 
 et servilium blandimenta poetarum, 
 
 ABESTE PROCUl) 
 
 dat, dicat, consecratque 
 
 Marcus Akinside, 
 
 xvii Calendas Jan. A. M. C. MDCCXLIV. 
 
 Some few years after the publication of this poem, 
 it was translated into French, and afterwards into 
 Italian. The French translation having been ren- 
 dered in prose*' can, of course, give French readers 
 
 * This translation was first published, anonymously, at 
 Amsterdam in 1759, prefaced in the following manner. 
 
 " Ce poeme parut, en Angleterre pour la premiere fois en 
 1744; il y Jut reeu avec tres grands applaudissements ; 
 ton en a fait depuis un grand nombre d' editions, on a cru 
 que Von en verroit avec plaisir la traduction en Francois ; 
 rien n'a ete omis pour quelle f ft t exacte, cependant on seul 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 33 
 
 but a very imperfect idea of a poem, one chief ex- 
 cellence of which consists in the splendour of its 
 versification. The translator was Baron d'Holbach, 
 a Member of the Academies of St. Petersburg, 
 Manheim, and Berlin, who died at Paris in 1789 ; 
 after enjoying the friendships of Helvetius, Diderot, 
 d'Alembert, Marmontel, Condillac, Turgot, Buffon, 
 and Rousseau. He was author of many works on 
 mineralogy, chemistry, and natural history. 
 
 The translation into Italian is by the Abbate 
 Angelo Mazza. This translation is a very scarce 
 
 sent que la prose ne pent rendre que Joiblement les beautes de 
 la poesie. Un sujet tel que les Plaisirs de V Imagination, de- 
 manded a etre traite avec chaleur et enthousiasme ; Von naura 
 rien a reprocher a Vauteur de ce cote la. Uivresse poetique 
 et I'espece de desordre qui regnent dans son ouvrage, semble- 
 roient meme convenir plutot a une ode qua un Poeme E pique ; 
 ce qui a fait dire plaisamment a Milord Chesterfield, que ce 
 livre etoit le plus beau de ceux quit nentendoit pas. Cepen- 
 dant pour peu quon y fasse attention, on trouvera que cet air 
 de desordre est peut-etre un effet de Hart, et sert a couvrir 
 une liaison plus grande que le premier coup d'ceil nen pro- 
 mettoit. Le choix des comparaisons, la noblesse des pein- 
 tures, la pompe des expressions que Vauteur, a repandues 
 a pleines mains dans son poeme, sont de nature a plaire & 
 toutes les personnes qui auront de la sensibilite et du gout; 
 la philosophic, pare e des ornemens des arts, en devient plus 
 propre a exercer son empire sur les hommes." 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 book in this country. The only copy, I have been 
 able to procure a sight of, is that in the library of 
 George the Third, presented to the British Museum, 
 by his late Majesty, George the Fourth. Speci- 
 mens will be given in several subsequent pages. 
 
 Mazza was born at Parma, Nov. 21, 1740 ; but 
 he was educated at Reggio. He went afterwards 
 to Padua, and thence to Venice ; where he produced 
 his translation. In 1768 he was called to the chair 
 of Greek Literature at Parma. He subsequently 
 removed to Bologna, where he published a transla- 
 tion of Pindar's Odes: soon after which he was 
 admitted into the Arcadian Academy at Rome. He 
 died in 1817. 
 
 The subject matter of Akenside's poem is so 
 strikingly condensed, that it must ever be a work 
 of great difficulty to a translator. We ought not, 
 therefore, to be surprised at the diffuseness of 
 Mazza's translation ; the aggregate of which may 
 be shown by the number of lines in each. 
 
 Original Poem. 
 
 Italian Translation. 
 
 Book I. 604 lines. 
 
 764 lines. 
 
 II. 771 
 
 944 
 
 III. 633 
 
 783 
 
 2008 2491 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 35 
 
 The Pleasures of the Imagination was published 
 with the following passage (as a motto), from 
 Epictetus apud Arrian, ii. 23. 
 
 Ace/Bat; jj.Ev eoriv avdpw7m rag irapa r e 
 XapiTag d-LfJ.a.',eiv. 
 
 The poem having been published anonymously, 
 a person named Holt, an author of some vanity 
 and pretension, went, it is said, to Dublin, and there 
 published an edition of it in his own name ; on 
 the fame of which he lived for several months. 
 Boswell, who gives this anecdote in his life of 
 Johnson, says, that Akenside, being informed of 
 this, " vindicated his right, by publishing the 
 poem with its real author's name.' 1 In a note, 
 however, the biographer states, 6i I have made in- 
 quiry in Ireland as to this story ; but I do not find 
 it recollected there. I give it on the authority of 
 Dr. Johnson; to which may be added the Bio- 
 graphical Dictionary, and the Biographia Dra- 
 matica ; in both of which it has stood many years. 
 Mr. Malone observes, that the truth, probably, is, 
 that an edition was not published with Bolt's name in 
 the title-page ; but that the poem being anonymous, 
 
 d2 
 
36 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 Rolt acquiesced in its being attributed to him in 
 conversation*." 
 
 Shortly after the publication of this poem, 
 Akenside published a never-dying satire on Mr. 
 Pulteney; who, from being idolized as the best 
 and firmest patriot of his age, suddenly sacri- 
 ficed all his popularity for the vulgar consideration 
 of an empty title -f-, without office, without influ- 
 ence, or the least substantial advantage. " Doubt- 
 less," says the historian J, " he flattered himself 
 with the hope of one day directing the councils of 
 his sovereign ; but this was never accomplished ; 
 
 * Rolt was engaged in many literary undertakings, none of 
 which are now remembered. Churchill, however, mentions 
 him in the Rosciad. 
 
 " Secret as night, with Rolt's experienced aid, 
 The plan of future operations laid." 
 
 He was author of 
 
 Eliza, a musical entertainment, set to music by Dr. 
 Arne. 
 
 Almena, an opera, set to music by Dr. Arne. The story 
 is from the Persian. 
 
 The Royal Shepherd; an opera, from Metastasio, who 
 formed his plot on a passage in Quintus Curtius. Lib. iv. 
 c. 3, 4. 
 
 f The Earldom of Bath. \ Smollett, xix. 79. 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 37 
 
 and he remained a solitary monument of blasted 
 ambition." 
 
 The indignation of the public, at the weakness 
 of Mr. Pulteney, was almost beyond precedent; 
 Akenside partook of it ; and, in consequence, in an 
 epistle to Curio, did not hesitate to stigmatize the 
 disgraced patriot as the betrayer of his country. 
 
 This epistle he afterwards altered into an ode ; 
 and both are generally printed in a collection of 
 his poems; but the original far transcends the 
 copy. There are, in the ode, some fine lines ; but 
 Johnson, as he frequently does, speaks idly, when 
 he pronounces it to be disgraceful only to the 
 author. 
 
 The following passage from Cicero was prefixed 
 to it, by way of motto : " Neque tarn ulciscendi 
 causa dixi, quam ut et in prcesens sceleratos cives 
 timore ah impugnanda patria detinerem ; et in 
 postewim, documentum statuerem, nequis talem 
 amentiam vellet imitari." 
 
 In the mean time, the fame of his great poem 
 spread widely among persons of taste; but some 
 observations having appeared in one of the notes, in 
 conformity to Shaftesbury's opinion, that ridicule 
 is the test of truth, Warburton thought proper 
 to make some severe strictures on that opinion, in a 
 
38 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 postscript, prefixed to a new edition of that stu- 
 pendous monument of misapplied learning the 
 Divine Legation of Moses. 
 
 In this postscript Warburton classed Akenside, as 
 a poet, in the same rank with Lord Kaimes (who in 
 his Elements of Criticism had espoused the same 
 argument*), as a critic. " The poet," says he, " is 
 a follower of Lord Shaftesbury's fancies ; the critic 
 a follower of his own. Both men of taste, and 
 equally anxious for the well-doing of ridicule." 
 
 This postscript gave great offence to Akenside ; 
 and his friend, Mr. Dyson, who seems to have 
 understood the duties of friendship better than the 
 canons of philosophy, armed in defence of him, and 
 wrote an " Epistle to the Rev. Mr. Warburton, 
 occasioned by his treatment of the author of the 
 Pleasures of Imagination." We may judge of the 
 style of this letter by the following extract : 
 
 " Notwithstanding the pains you have taken to dis- 
 courage men from entering into any controversy with 
 you ; and notwithstanding the severe example you have 
 just been making of one, who, as you fancied, had pre- 
 sumed to call you to account ; you must still be content 
 to be accountable for your writings; and must, once 
 more, bear the mortification of being actually called to 
 
 * Part v. chap. vii. xii. 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 39 
 
 account for them. It is the preface to your late Remarks, 
 that you are now called upon to justify ; in which you 
 have thought fit to treat upon a mighty free footing (as 
 you style it, but in the apprehension of most people, 
 upon a very injurious one), the ingenious and worthy 
 author of the poem, entitled ' The Pleasures of Imagina- 
 tion/ The favourable reception and applause, that 
 performance has met with, render it unnecessary, and 
 indeed impertinent, for me to enlarge in its praise ; 
 especially as you, sir, have not condescended to enter 
 into a particular censure of the poem. However, by 
 some general hints, scattered up and down, as well as 
 by the affectation of perpetually styling the author our 
 poet, you have let us see how you stand affected towards 
 it. Whether it be, indeed, that dull, trivial, useless 
 thing, you seem to represent it, I shall not dispute with 
 you ; but am content to have, as to this point, Mr. War- 
 burton's judgment staked against the general reputation 
 of the poem. The point I am immediately concerned 
 with, is, your unbecoming treatment of the author; 
 which, as it is so interwoven through the whole course 
 of your preface, as to be sufficiently evident without the 
 allegation of repeated passages ; so we shall find there 
 are not wanting repeated instances of direct and noto- 
 rious ill usage ; such usage as, though the provocation 
 had been ever so just, and the imagined attack upon 
 you ever so real, would have yet been unwarrantable ; 
 and which, therefore, cannot admit of the least shadow 
 of an excuse, when it shall appear, that you had really 
 no provocation at all." 
 
40 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 To this letter Warburton never replied. 
 
 The indignation of Akenside, and the zeal of 
 Mr. Dyson, were a little too unmeasured ; for the 
 critic did not attack Akenside as a man, nor as a 
 poet ; he merely designated him a follower of Lord 
 Shaftesbury ; and an apologist for an opinion, that 
 has now long been given up as untenable. Indeed 
 the argument is, in itself, a species of the ridiculous. 
 For who employs ridicule so often as half-informed, 
 half-witted, insolent, and conceited persons ? If ri- 
 dicule, therefore, is a test of truth, these half-in- 
 formed, half-witted, insolent, and conceited persons 
 are the best judges of the most serious and sacred 
 things *. 
 
 * * Ridicule may befriend either truth or falsehood ; and 
 as it is morally or immorally applied, may illustrate the one, 
 or disguise the other. Yet it should seem, that the moral is 
 more natural, than the immoral application of ridicule; in- 
 asmuch as truth is more congenial to the mind than false- 
 hood, and so, the real more easily made apparent, than the 
 fictitious images of things. * * * 
 
 u Ridicule, therefore, being of a vague, unsteady nature, 
 merely relative to the imaginations and passions of mankind, 
 there must be several orders or degrees of it, suited to the 
 fancies and capacities of those, whom the artist attempts to 
 influence. 
 
 " But however ridicule may impress the idea of apparent 
 turpitude or falsehood on the imagination ; yet still reason 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 41 
 
 The subject of ridicule, indeed, is, in this poem, 
 an intrusion ; and that the author himself thought 
 it so, may be inferred from his having, in the 
 second poem, curtailed the subject so much, that 
 what, in his first, occupies two hundred and seven 
 lines, is reduced in the second to only fifty. The 
 statement as to the final cause, however, is the same 
 in both. 
 
 Akenside, I believe, was occasionally given to 
 ridicule; and in return was himself ridiculed by a 
 class of persons, with whom it was no great honour 
 to be associated. Smollett did all he could against 
 
 remains the superior and corrective power. Therefore, every 
 representation of ridicule, which only applies to the fancy 
 and affections, must finally be examined and decided upon, 
 must be tried, rejected, or received, as the reasoning faculty 
 shall determine ; and thus ridicule can never be a detector 
 of falsehood, or a test of truth." Browns Essays on the 
 Characteristics of the Earl of Shaftesbury. 
 
 See Characteristics, i. p. 30, 31, 61 ; also 11, 12, 128, 129. 
 
 For Warburton's opinion, see Divine Legation of Moses, 
 vol. i. x. xviii. xxxvii. xxxix. 
 
 Horace sums up the power of ridicule in one of those 
 concise periods, of which he was so great a master. 
 
 Ridiculum acri 
 
 Fortius et melius magnas plerumque secat res. 
 
 The power of ridicule is admitted ; but that power is very 
 different from the test. 
 
42 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 him in this way, in his novel of Peregrine Pickle ; 
 to which he is said to have been prompted by a 
 pique *, he had taken, in consequence of Akenside's 
 having made some reflections against Scotland. 
 
 We may here, perhaps, be excused for intro- 
 ducing a curious anecdote, in respect to Smollett. 
 As he was one day going out of Paternoster-row 
 up Warwick-lane leading to Warwick-square, a 
 butcher came out of his slaughter-house with a 
 dead sheep upon his back : " Get out of the way," 
 said the butcher, " or I'll slam this ship in your 
 face." At this moment Smollett's foot slipped, and 
 catching hold of the butcher's arm to save his fall, 
 both fell in the gutter, which was streaming with 
 blood from the slaughter-houses. The butcher re- 
 covered himself first, and in rising gave Smollett a 
 violent blow in the face with his bloody fist. Poor 
 Smollett scrambled up as well as he could, all co- 
 vered with gore ; got into a shop, and there remained 
 till a coach was procured to carry him home. He 
 then resided in a court leading out of Dean-street, 
 Soho. When he arrived, the children of the neigh- 
 bourhood, seeing a man streaked with blood get out 
 
 * See Disraeli's Calamities of Authors, vol. ii. 2. " Aken- 
 side's mind and manners," says the author, c< were of a fine, 
 romantic cast." 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 43 
 
 of the coach, surrounded the house, and the whole 
 place was kept for some time in a state of suspense 
 and confusion. A constable was sent for to search 
 the house, where the bloody man had been taken ; 
 and it was a long time before the crowd could be 
 pacified and dispersed. Smollett lodged there only 
 a few weeks after ; during which time he was fre- 
 quently hailed by the children, " There goes the 
 bloody man J' 9 
 
 Hearing that an opening for a physician pre- 
 sented itself at Northampton, Akenside went thither 
 with an intention of establishing himself. But Dr. 
 Stonehouse being in full practice, as he found soon 
 after his arrival, and not relishing, as the vulgar 
 saying is, the art of waiting for dead men's shoes, 
 he returned to London after a stay of about a year 
 and a half; and the only interesting circumstance, 
 connected with his residence there, is an account, 
 furnished us by Dr. Kippis ; who says, that when 
 he resided at Northampton, he well remembered 
 hearing Dr. Doddridge and Dr. Akenside carry on 
 an amicable debate "concerning the opinions of the 
 ancient philosophers, with regard to a future state 
 of rewards and punishments ; in which Akenside 
 supported the firm belief of Cicero in particular, in 
 this great article of natural religion. 11 
 
44 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 This argument calls to our recollection an asser- 
 tion of Dr. Doddridge on another occasion, that 
 "men of contrary parties sit down more attached 
 to their own opinions than they were at the begin- 
 ning, and much more estranged in affection." 
 
 As we have no data, on which to build any opinion 
 as to the precise time, in which several of Aken- 
 side's odes were written, we are left to our own con- 
 jectures ; and as Akenside had much leisure during 
 his stay at Northampton, we may naturally suppose 
 that he engaged no small portion of that leisure in 
 literary occupation. To this leisure, perhaps, there- 
 fore, we may be indebted for his ode on " Lyric 
 Poetry;' 1 for that on " the Uses of Poetry ;" and 
 for that to " the Muse." 
 
 The first of these odes has always been classed 
 with the sublime. The characters of Anacreon, 
 Alcseus, and Pindar, are finely drawn ; but that of 
 Sappho is injudicious ; and the more so, since the 
 prophecy was not fulfilled. 
 
 " Why is my faithful maid distrest? 
 
 Who, Sappho, wounds thy tender breast ? 
 
 Say, flies he ? soon he shall pursue : 
 
 Shews he thy gifts ? He soon shall give : 
 
 Slights he thy sorrows ? He shall grieve, 
 
 And soon to all thy wishes bow." 
 
 St. ii. I. 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 45 
 
 The simile, 
 
 " As eagles drink the noontide flame," 
 
 St. ii. 2. 
 
 is far-fetched ; and the idea in a preceding stanza is 
 in a manner not superior to that of Waller : 
 
 (< His cheek displays a second spring 
 Of roses, taught by wine to bloom." 
 
 St. i. 2. 
 
 But his allusions to himself are always in the 
 best style of egotism. That in the last stanza is 
 little inferior to any similar instance in Cassimir 
 or Buchanan. 
 
 In respect to the ode " on the Influence of 
 Poetry ," Akenside seems to have been, at all times, 
 deeply impressed with the important influence of 
 that powerful art on the manners, happiness, and 
 opinions of mankind. This is amply testified in 
 this ode, as well as in that to his Muse ; and still 
 more strictly inculcated in the episode of Solon, in 
 the third book of his second poem on the Imagina- 
 tion, which seems to have been expressly written to 
 prove the same result. 
 
 Finding Northampton not to afford any advan- 
 tageous opportunity for the exercise of his me- 
 dical talents, Akenside returned to London; and 
 

 
 46 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 soon after Mr. Dyson bought a house at North- 
 end, Hampstead ; and with a view of introducing 
 his friend to the more opulent inhabitants, he fre- 
 quented with him the long room, and all the clubs 
 and assemblies. He, also, had the extraordinary 
 generosity to allow him three hundred pounds a 
 year, till he should be able to live by his practice, 
 like a gentleman. 
 
 And now we have leisure to make a few remarks 
 on Akenside's sensibility to the softer sex. He 
 never married ; but in the ode he wrote about this 
 time, viz. that to Sir Francis Henry Drake, 
 Bart. there is a stanza, remarkable for its allu- 
 sion to a lady, whom he styles Olympia : 
 
 " Thy stubborn breast, 
 
 Though touch'd by many a slighter wound, 
 
 Hath no full conquest yet confest, 
 
 Nor the one fatal charmer found. 
 
 While I, a true and loyal swain, 
 
 My fair Olympia's gentle reign 
 
 Through all the varying seasons own ; 
 
 Her genius still my bosom warms, 
 
 No other maid for me hath charms ; 
 
 And I have eyes for her alone." 
 
 St. viii. 
 
 Previous to this, however, the poet seems to have 
 entertained an affection for a young lady, whom 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 47 
 
 he alludes to in the second book of the Plea- 
 sures of Imagination, under the name of Par- 
 thenia ; and who seems to have died at a time 
 when he was about to be married to her. At least, 
 such must be our impression on reading the fol- 
 lowing passage : 
 
 (C Of good and evil much, ^ 
 
 And much of mortal man, my thought revolv'd ; 
 
 When starting full on fancy's gushing eye, 
 
 The mournful image of Parthenia's fate, 
 
 (That hour, O long beloved and long deplor'd !)) 
 
 When blooming youth, nor gentlest wisdom's arts, 
 
 Nor Hymen's honours gather'd for thy brow, 
 
 Nor all the lover's, all the father's tears, 
 
 Avail'd, to snatch thee from the cruel grave, 
 
 Thy agonizing looks, thy last farewell, 
 
 Struck to the inmost feeling of my soul, 
 
 As with the hand of death !" 
 
 P. I. B. ii. 191. 
 
 Who Parthenia was, and who Olympia, it is now 
 useless to inquire. He nowhere mentions their real 
 names, and his biographers have not only neglected 
 to inquire^ but even to be unconscious, that such 
 persons ever existed. 
 
 His love for Olympia, at the time he resided 
 at Hampstead, seems to have been in an early 
 stage ; little, if any thing, more than friendship : 
 but in a subsequent ode he lets us into the secret, 
 
48 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 that friendship is but too often another name for 
 love: 
 
 " Once I remember, new to love, 
 And dreading his tyrannic chain, 
 I sought a gentle maid to prove 
 What peaceful joys in friendship reign, 
 Whence we, forsooth, might safely stand, 
 And pitying view the lovesick band, 
 
 And mock the winged boy's malicious hand. 
 
 Thus frequent pass'd the cloudless day, 
 To smiles and sweet discourse resigned ; 
 While I exulted to survey 
 One generous woman's real mind ; 
 Till friendship soon my languid breast 
 Each night with unknown cares possest, 
 Dash'd my coy slumbers, or my dreams distrest. 
 
 Fool that I was ! and now, e'en now, 
 While thus I preach the stoic strain, 
 Unless I shun Olympia's view, 
 An hour unsays it all again. 
 O friend ! when love directs her eyes, 
 To pierce where every passion lies, 
 Where is the firm, the cautious, or the wise?" 
 
 The poet seems to have forgotten the manner in 
 which he had ridiculed the lover in former times *; 
 as well as the tone, he had assumed, in his Ode to a 
 friend, unsuccessful in love -f\ 
 
 * See P. I.,B. Hi. 170. 
 
 f This friend was Mr. Edwards, whom we shall have 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 49 
 
 In his Elegy on Love we are let a little more 
 into the real state of things : 
 
 " Too much my heart of beauty's power has known, 
 Too long to love hath reason left her throne ; 
 Too long my genius mourn'd his myrtle chain, 
 And three rich years of youth consum'd in vain." 
 
 To this subject we shall return at a future op- 
 portunity. At present we must turn to a less 
 pleasing one ; that of a friend of Akenside having 
 taken a causeless jealousy against his wife, for some 
 innocent freedoms, in which she had indulged ; 
 such as walking, one evening, home from a party 
 
 occasion, hereafter, to mention in a more particular manner. 
 The state of his mind may be easily conjectured from a 
 sonnet, he addressed to Mr. Wray, on this unfortunate 
 occasion. 
 
 " Trust me, dear Wray, not all these three months' pain, 
 
 Though tedious seems the time in pain to wear ; 
 
 Nor all those restless nights, throughVhich in vain 
 
 I 've sought for kindly sleep to lull my care ; 
 Nor all those lonely meals, and meagre fare, 
 
 Uncheer'd with converse, and a friendly guest, 
 This close confinement, barr'd from wholesome air, 
 
 And exercise, of medicines the best, 
 Have sunk my spirits, or my soul oppress'd. 
 
 Light are these woes, and easy to be borne; 
 If weigh'd with those, which rack'd my tortur'd breast, 
 
 When my fond heart from Amoret was torn: 
 So true the word of Solomon to find, 
 f No shaft so piercing as the wounded mind' " 
 
 E 
 
50 LIFE OF AKFNSIDE. 
 
 with a gentleman, who offered to escort her, and 
 whom she had known almost from infancy. His 
 name was Thurloe. Akenside's friend was a gen- 
 tleman, with whom he had become acquainted at 
 Edinburgh ; but whose name I do not remember. 
 
 This friend, in his distress, did not fail to apply 
 to Akenside for advice ; and the poet, learning 
 how little he had to build his suspicions upon, 
 remonstrated with him strongly on the cruelty of 
 subjecting his family to the consequences of so 
 odious an imputation ; and, as a still farther cau- 
 tion, wrote him an ode against the dangers of sus- 
 picion. The first five stanzas of this ode are very 
 powerful ; and remind us, strongly, of several pas- 
 sages in Othello. 
 
 " Oh fly ! It 's dire Suspicion's mien, 
 And, meditating plagues unseen, 
 
 The Sorceress hither bends ; 
 Behold her torch in gall imbru'd ; 
 Behold her garment drops with blood 
 
 Of lovers and of friends. 
 
 Fly far ! already in your eyes 
 I see a pale suffusion rise ; 
 
 And soon through every vein, 
 Soon will her secret venom spread, 
 And all your heart, and all your head, 
 
 Imbibe the potent stain. 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 51 
 
 Then many a demon will she raise, 
 To vex your sleep, to haunt your ways ; 
 
 While gleams of lost delight 
 Raise the dark tempest of the brain, 
 As lightning shines across the main 
 
 Through whirlwinds and through night. 
 
 No more can faith or candour move ; 
 But each ingenuous deed of love, 
 
 "Which reason would applaud, 
 Now smiling o'er her dark distress, 
 Fancy, malignant, strives to dress 
 
 Like injury and fraud. 
 
 Farewell to virtue's peaceful times ; 
 Soon will you stoop to act the crimes, 
 
 Which thus you stoop to fear. 
 Guilt follows guilt ; and where the train 
 Begins with wrongs of such a stain, 
 
 What horrors form the rear !" 
 
 The closing stanzas are very beautiful 
 
 " O thou ! whate'er thy awful name, 
 Whose wisdom our untoward frame 
 
 With social love restrains ; 
 Thou ! who, by fair affection's ties, 
 Giv'st us to double all our joys, 
 
 And half disarm our pains ; 
 
 Let universal candour still, 
 Clear as yon heaven-reflecting rill, 
 Preserve my open mind ; 
 
52 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 Nor this, nor that man's crooked ways 
 One sordid douht within me raise, 
 To injure human kind *." 
 
 In 1746, Akenside wrote his ode to the Evening 
 Star ; an ode, which, though it recalls to our me- 
 mory Collins'' Ode to Evening, can never be read 
 without pleasure ; particularly the following stanza : 
 
 u Oh ! think o'er all this mortal stage, 
 
 "What mournful scenes arise ; 
 What ruin waits on kingly rage ; 
 How often virtue dwells with woe ; 
 How many griefs from knowledge flow ; 
 
 How swiftly pleasure flies." 
 
 This stanza calls to our recollection a still more 
 beautiful one in Gray's poem on the Pleasures 
 arising from Vicissitude. 
 
 " Still where rosy pleasure leads, 
 See a kindred grief pursue ; 
 Behind the steps that misery treads, 
 Approaching comfort view : 
 
 * Mr. Alison quotes three stanzas from this ode (vi. vii. 
 viii.) " in which," says he, " a scene, which is, in general, 
 only beautiful, is rendered strikingly sublime, from the 
 imagery with which it is connected." Of the Nature of the 
 Emotions of Beauty and Sublimity, p. 19, 20, 21. 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 53 
 
 The hues of bliss more brightly glow, 
 Chastised to sober tints of woe : 
 And, blended, form, with artful strife, 
 The strength and harmony of life." 
 
 In this year Akenside sent a paper, which he 
 had written in imitation of the 81st number of the 
 Tatler, and which he entitled the Table of Mo- 
 dern Fame, to Dodsley for insertion in a periodical 
 work, he was then publishing, entitled the Museum, 
 It is a curious and interesting paper ; and I ascribe 
 it to Akenside on the authority of Warton, who, 
 in a note to a passage in Pope *, characterizes it as 
 a paper of great taste and judgment. 
 
 THE TABLE OF MODERN FAME. 
 
 A VISION. 
 
 " Last night, after leaving the company, where I had 
 spent the evening, I took up a volume of the Tatler, to 
 conclude the day. I happened to light on that admired 
 paper f , where the most celebrated personages of anti- 
 quity are represented at the table of Fame. I was very 
 agreeably amused with the venerable assembly, and the 
 pleasing manner in which they are introduced ; till I had 
 
 * See his Edition of Pope, vol. ii. 83. 
 f No. 81. 
 
54 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 formed my own mind to that composure and stillness, 
 which is the best preparative to a happy repose. 
 
 " As soon as I fell asleep, methought I was walking 
 in an immense plain, where I met a figure of great dig- 
 nity, representing a man in the full vigour of his age, 
 clothed in a purple garment, with a rod of silver in his 
 hand. He accosted me: and I learned from his dis- 
 course, that he had formerly lived upon our earth ; but 
 that now he was raised to the enjoyment of that felicity, 
 which God had appointed for the reward of prudence 
 and virtue. ' I see,' said he, c young man, that you 
 are just returned from the mansion of Ancient Fame ; 
 and I perceive by your countenance that you have not 
 been thoroughly satisfied with the goddess of the place, 
 or with the order of that assembly, over which she pre- 
 sides. You mortals are prone to imagine, that the 
 smiles of Fame are always bestowed according to the 
 suffrage of Virtue ; but in this you find you are mistaken. 
 If your curiosity incline you to inquire into the manage- 
 ment of Modern Fame, the younger sister, follow me, 
 and I will conduct you to her abode/ 
 
 "Immediately he led me to a very spacious build- 
 ing, of a mixed and crude sort of architecture, where, 
 though I admired the expensiveness of the materials, 
 yet the ornaments, methought, were ill designed, and 
 of a vulgar taste; like a clumsy ungraceful person, 
 dressed out in jewels and embroidery. I was particu- 
 larly disgusted to see among the ancient festoons of 
 flowers, pipes, and musical reeds, which were adjusted 
 to the columns of the temple, mitres, and triple crowns, 
 crosiers, and other ensigns of ecclesiastical discipline. 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 55 
 
 This building was surrounded with an innumerable 
 crowd of people; and at each of the spacious doors, 
 which opened on every side of it, I observed a tall, ma- 
 jestical woman, attended with a crowd of figures, some 
 like men with large volumes in their hands, and others 
 resembling the descriptions which poets have given us 
 of the Muses. These women, as my conductor informed 
 me, were the guardians or genii of the several nations of 
 the world. The historians and the Muses were for ever 
 moving from one to another, yet, I observed, that they 
 never visited some of the gates, where the women were 
 almost naked, or dressed in turbans and painted fea- 
 thers. 
 
 " We entered the temple : at the upper end sate the 
 goddess, on a throne of a very uncommon structure. It 
 was composed of different materials, laid up in a beau- 
 tiful architonick manner. I observed, that military in- 
 struments, as standards, swords, and pieces of artillery, 
 most frequently appeared in the architecture ; yet I 
 likewise cast my eye on telescopes, rudders, painting 
 pallets, geometrical schemes, and instruments of handi- 
 craft. By the looks and motions of people within the 
 temple, I guessed that we were come just in time to be 
 present at some great ceremony; for I observed the 
 Muses and historians stepping ever and anon from some 
 or other of the gates, and whispering the goddess, who 
 gave each of them directions, which I could not hear. 
 I asked my conductor the purpose of this great pre- 
 paration j and what meant the twenty thrones which I 
 counted round the temple, and why some of them were 
 quite empty, while others were laid hold of by certain 
 
56 
 
 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 persons, who stood behind them, as if they were waiting 
 for leave to sit down. 
 
 " He answered me in the following manner : ' You 
 are come from the table of Ancient Fame. The goddess 
 there disposed of her honours without reserve or condi- 
 tional change : her youngest sister is not so constant. 
 Once in every century she reviews her assembly, and 
 frequently makes great alterations, removing her sub- 
 jects from one seat to a lower, or a higher ; admitting 
 strangers, or entirely excluding her former favourites. 
 To-day is the anniversary of her great establishment : 
 the empty seats formerly belonged to those whom she 
 has now entirely banished from her palace. Those per- 
 sons, whom you see standing behind some of the thrones, 
 have leave to renew their claim ; and if no other candi- 
 dates obtain their place, will continue in the order which 
 formerly belonged to them.' 
 
 " While he was speaking, the goddess rose from her 
 seat, and commanded the several nations in her pre- 
 sence to introduce their candidates in the order which 
 she had enjoined them. Upon this all the crowd of 
 spectators disappeared, and the temple was left quite 
 empty. After a short pause, the trumpet of the goddess 
 sounded ; the whole fabric shook ; and my heart was 
 filled with a rapture and astonishment which I never 
 felt before. 
 
 "Immediately the temple was crowded again, and from 
 the uppermost gate entered the most beautiful of those 
 divine women, the Genius of Italy. She led in a 
 middle-aged man, in a very plain dress, who held in his 
 hand a mariner's compass. The spectators, whose coun- 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 57 
 
 tenances expressed the most impatient suspense, gave a 
 confused acclamation, and I heard at once from a hun- 
 dred mouths the name of Columbus. He advanced 
 towards the goddess, and sat down on the highest place, 
 with an air of ease ; as if that seat had long been fa- 
 miliar to him. ' That,' said my conductor, e is the man 
 who has enabled history to outdo fable: nor are the 
 actions of the Grecian Hercules, either for greatness of 
 imagination, or for boldness, or utility, comparable to 
 the discovery of the new world ; yet, perhaps, you will, 
 this day, see another take place of him/ 
 
 u The trumpet sounded a second time : while I was 
 expecting some other personage from the gates nearest 
 to the goddess, I observed a great hurry at the very 
 lowest end of the temple. A woman, whom I had 
 before taken notice of among those, who appeared almost 
 naked and wild, advanced from her gate in a robe of 
 furs, and other skins, and approached towards the god- 
 dess. The genii at the upper end expressed a mixture 
 of surprise and indignation, that so savage a figure 
 should now dare to step before them. As she drew 
 near, I observed the person whom she conducted; he 
 was a robust man in armour, with his own hair, a black 
 eagle on his breast, and a carpenter's axe in his hand. 
 I knew his habit, and with the crowd pronounced hastily 
 the name of Peter the Great. He sat down on the 
 second throne, and I could not help applauding the 
 justice of the goddess. 
 
 " The third person who appeared was conducted by 
 the representative of Italy, but the moment he set his 
 
58 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 foot within the temple, the Muses and all the attendant 
 powers from the other gates ran up at once to usher 
 him. He seemed between thirty and forty years of age. 
 The lyric, the comic, and the heroic muse, a winged 
 virgin with a lyre, another with a pallet, a third with a 
 chisel and block of marble, and an infinite number of 
 beautiful young figures, did him honour as he passed. 
 He returned their congratulations with smiles of the 
 highest complacence, and seemed pleased with his intro- 
 duction, chiefly as it secured him such amiable compa- 
 nions. By his pontifical robes I knew him for Leo X. 
 
 " But our next personage was ushered in a very dif- 
 ferent manner. He entered from the German gate ; a 
 great noise of disputants and logical terms preceded him ; 
 his face had a very bold, eager cast; his eyes were 
 keen, and his dress monkish. When he came to sit 
 down, seeing Leo on the throne next above him, he fell 
 into a violent rage, and would needs have rose again. 
 Leo, on the other hand, turned from him with a smile 
 of high contempt, and begged of the beautiful powers, 
 who stood around him, that they would ' hide that rude 
 creature from his eyes, and defend his ears with their 
 harmony, from the jargon which he uttered/ 
 
 " I was vexed at his being thrust into so unsuitable a 
 neighbourhood, and asked my guide, who he was ? ' His 
 name/ said he, ' is Martin Luther. He has done 
 more good to mankind, than most of those, whose inten- 
 tions were the best and most heroic ; his character, his 
 views, and passions, were contemptible and hateful. 
 Remember what I told you i Fame does not proceed 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 59 
 
 on the award of wisdom or virtue; but is governed 
 solely by the revolutions of mortal things*/' 
 
 " I was angry and disappointed, that I had yet seen 
 none of my countrymen, when the trumpet sounded, and 
 I beheld a figure entering from one of the upper gates, 
 with a red cross upon her shield, leading a venerable 
 man in the decline of life. I remembered the face of 
 Sir Isaac Newton. He advanced in a very composed 
 manner, without speaking a word, or seeming to take 
 notice of the acclamations, which came from every part 
 of the temple. 
 
 " All eyes were fixed upon him, and all were proud, 
 that they had seen him : yet I observed a man at the 
 French gate, dressed in a very gaudy, fantastic habit, 
 who repined bitterly, that his place was taken from 
 him -j while the guardian deity of its nation seemed to 
 be musing upon a thousand schemes how to regain it. 
 
 * ** Fame is not determined, nor is it ever determinable, 
 by a right judgment of men and things. A conqueror of 
 kingdoms, who puts thousands to death, and reduces ten 
 times their number to poverty and want, rises so high in 
 fame, that the remotest posterity never mention his name, 
 but with admiration and rapture. The generality of the 
 world cannot distinguish accurately between splendour and 
 greatness ; and, therefore, the plurality of the voices would, 
 doubtless, be in favour of military heroes." Tatler, No. 81. 
 note. 
 
 " The opinions, declared in this paper, are not opinions of 
 characters, but opinions of reputations ; the decisions are 
 not with regard to merit, but with regard to fame, and the 
 refusal of the one is no denial of the other." Ibid. 
 
60 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 There was a man, too, who advanced impudently from 
 the German gate ; and would have driven Newton, by 
 force, from his seat. He was a very odd figure, with a 
 nightcap on his head, a mathematical diagram in one 
 hand, and a bottle of Rhenish in the other. The goddess 
 ordered him to be chastised for a robber, and turned out 
 with infamy. 
 
 " At the next trumpet, the gay lady, whose robes 
 were flowered with lilies, left her favourite, Descartes, 
 about whom, till that moment, she had been so solicitous, 
 and turned to introduce a tall, graceful man, who 
 walked along in a full-bottomed wig, with infinite self- 
 applause. When he saw Leo, he made a very com- 
 plaisant bow; yet, as Shakspeare says, he quenched 
 his familiar smile, with an austere regard of control. 
 I suppose it was Louis the Fourteenth, and com- 
 plained to my guide, that such a man should be so 
 honoured. c Have patience,' said he ; ; meet me here 
 a hundred years hence, and you shall see the goddess 
 order him underground, to the house of Evil Fame. At 
 present she must have her way. Look round, and see 
 if you are better satisfied with him, who comes next/ 
 I saw a composed matron-like figure bring in a man in 
 armour, with signs of the highest veneration and grati- 
 tude. '^That,' said my conductor, ' is William I., 
 Prince of Orange ; a name, that must be venerable 
 upon your globe, as long as public virtue is remembered 
 among you ; and of this divine man, I can prophesy, 
 that he will never lose his place. The youth, who is 
 now entering, will, perhaps, give you more pleasure; 
 and indeed though his merits and actions are not of so 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. Gl 
 
 high a kind, yet his virtue shone, perhaps, in a more 
 severe trial, in a course of uninterrupted prosperity ; so 
 that if his times had given him an opportunity, he was 
 equal to any thing, which can be acted by a man and a 
 soldier.' 
 
 " I looked around, and beheld, from the English gate, 
 a young man in armour, with a spear of ebony, and 
 beautiful as Raphael or Milton could imagine. c You 
 need not/ said I, ( tell me who this is: I see the motto 
 of Wales on bis shield, and the sable spear in his 
 hand, which has rendered the name of Edward, or 
 of Plantagenet, useless. All hail ! thou blameless 
 
 ornament of my native country .' I was going on 
 
 in a kind of enthusiasm, when my conductor checked 
 me, and bade me take notice of the next, who entered. 
 I found a greater noise and disorder, than I had observed 
 before. Germany and Spain had joined to introduce a 
 coarse, robust man ; and France endeavoured to place 
 before him a tall, majestic person, with a crown on his 
 head, who looked upon his antagonist with an air of 
 reproach and disdain. This was Francis I. However, 
 his opponent got the better, and took his place ac- 
 cordingly. By the imperial eagle, which he wore on 
 his breast, I supposed it to be Charles V. At sitting 
 down, he laughed at his adversary c and/ says he, ' if 
 I must have given way, it should never have been to that 
 doubty, romantic knight, my prisoner ; but to this great 
 man, who gave me immortality/ pointing to Titian, who 
 stood in the crowd of his attendants. 
 
 " The next person, that entered, was dressed in a 
 morning gown, and ushered in by the Lady of the Red 
 
62 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 Cross. He had no symbol nor instrument in his hand ; 
 but shewed a very thoughtful and penetrating counte- 
 nance. He walked up in profound silence, and made 
 no return, but a look of grave displeasure, to the saluta- 
 tion of his next neighbour. However, he took very 
 respectful notice of some at the table ; particularly of 
 Columbus and Newton. Leo seemed afraid of him ; 
 Luther made him a very gracious bow, and would have 
 been extremely intimate with him ; but received a cold 
 and forbidding frown. By this account of him, the 
 reader will know as well as I did, who saw what passed, 
 that this was Locke. The next entrance was made 
 from the Italian gate, and there appeared a thin, meagre 
 man, whose countenance expressed great pain and de- 
 jection of spirit, as if he had been worn out by famine 
 and torture. He held in his hand a telescope ; and my 
 conductor told me it was Galileo, whose face retained 
 indelible marks of the blind, brutal, zeal of his ghostly 
 tormentors. 
 
 " He sat down by Locke, who seemed infinitely pleased 
 with his company; and told him that he had been en- 
 deavouring to cure mankind of that stupid reverence for 
 ruffians and murderers, who masked their inhumanity 
 with the name of religion. 
 
 " After the next trumpet there was a long pause, and 
 nobody appeared. I heard a great bustle at the German 
 gate. The goddess asked what was the matter. The 
 robust German tutelary made answer, that she was in- 
 troducing one, who, if useful discoveries could chal- 
 lenge respect in that place, was, perhaps, entitled to the 
 highest seat. Immediately I heard words of a very 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 63 
 
 rough sound. Guttenberg, Fust, Mentz, Strasburgh! 
 I then understood that the crowd of Germans, at that 
 gate, were disputing which of them should enter as the 
 discoverer of printing. The contest continued a long 
 time, and grew still more violent, upon which the 
 goddess spoke out, that when they could agree about 
 the inventor, she would frankly allow his claim ; but 
 that, till then, she would put in his place one, whose 
 merit and whose glory was now unquestionably esta- 
 blished, after as great disputes about it, as had ever 
 divided her subjects. 
 
 " Upon this she made a sign to the red-cross lady, 
 who accordingly introduced a venerable old man, whom 
 I did not at all know. He was attended by a female 
 figure with a patera in her hand, resembling the ancient 
 figures of Salus. I was surprised at the sight of an 
 English worthy, with whom I was not acquainted ; but 
 my guide informed me, that his name was Harvey; 
 ' and see,' says he, ' how enviously those other tutelar 
 genii regard him f pointing to France and Italy. 
 
 " The trumpet again sounded, and the guardian of 
 Italy moved. As soon as she returned, there was a con- 
 fused noise of Evil Fame ! and downward with him ! a 
 great herd of priests and monks, and prime ministers, 
 joined in the cry ; and amongst them there was a young 
 man, with a crown on his head, who made the loudest 
 noise, and who assured the goddess of Fame, that the 
 person coming in was an abandoned profligate, and that 
 he himself had a much better title to the next vacant 
 seat. 
 
 " The goddess looked on him with great contempt, 
 
64 LIFE OF AKENSTDE. 
 
 and bid him hold his peace, else she would order him 
 below stairs, and put him again under his father's 
 tuition. At this he was silent, and Machiavel ap- 
 peared. Leo gave him a very familiar look, as if he was 
 glad to see him, and congratulated him upon the honour, 
 which he had now obtained, of being seated at the same 
 table with one of the great family, who had been his old 
 patrons. But Machiavel answered him only with a look 
 of shame, dislike, and indignation. The Italian genius 
 moved again towards the gate, and returned with two 
 men, not being able to resolve which of them should 
 enter. These were Tasso and Ariosto. She herself 
 inclined chiefly to the latter ; but the majority of the 
 spectators opposed it, and Tasso took his place. 
 
 " At the next trumpet the tutelary of France went 
 out with the assured air, that was natural to her, and 
 brought in a tall, slender man, in a large wig, with a 
 very fine sneer upon his face. She said his name was 
 Boileau; and that nobody could pretend to dispute 
 that place with him. However, the stately genius of 
 England opposed her. Her remonstrances prevailed, 
 and Pope took the place, which Boileau thought be- 
 longed to him. Upon this there arose among the other 
 genii a great clamour against the red-cross lady, mixed 
 with many signs of ridicule and scorn. She asked what 
 they were displeased at, that she should contend so 
 eagerly for her own glory, and yet so obstinately reject 
 a claim, upon which she might best found it ; and which, 
 whenever she advanced it, they would all give way to. 
 She turned round, and saw Bacon ready to enter, 
 without asking her to conduct him. She looked at him 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE". b,3 
 
 with great disgust; yet with such an air as a tender 
 mother discovers,, when her favourite child is guilty of 
 some inexcusable fault. She led him in with great 
 reluctance, and shewed him his place, the next vacant 
 one below Pope. He stood, and looked upon it ; and 
 all the spectators seemed ashamed that he had not a 
 higher seat. Locke, Newton, Harvey, and Machiavel, 
 all cried out to Pope, c Do rise, and give place :' but he 
 took no notice of them, only he turned his head another 
 way; and I heard him mutter the words> ' wisest, 
 brightest, meanest.' 1 Upon this Bacon looked around, 
 and drew the eyes of all the assembly. His presence, at 
 that time, had an effect upon them, like the presence of 
 a descended god upon those mortals, whom he favours 
 with his converse. Then raising his head, ' Sure I am/ 
 said he, c that if there be any place belonging to me in 
 this assembly, it must be one, nearest to the goddess ; 
 and one, where I may best avail myself of her power.' 
 
 " Immediately the assembly, with one accord, invited 
 him forward; the goddess beckoning him to draw near; 
 and seated him on the highest throne. Columbus him- 
 self officiously gave way; telling him ' that the discovery 
 of a new world was but a slender acquisition of crude 
 materials, to be improved and perfected in that immense 
 world of human knowledge and human power, which 
 he had first discovered, and through which he had taught 
 other mortals to travel with security.' 
 
 " The next that entered, was a man in iron armour, 
 with a basket-hilted sword. France, Germany, and 
 Italy turned pale at the sight of him ; and I heard 
 them whisper the name of Gustavus Adolphus. He 
 
 F 
 
GO LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 was followed by a beautiful youth, of a very sweet and 
 gentle aspect. As he drew nearer, I knew him to be 
 Raphael. Leo heard of his admission with an ex- 
 travagant joy, and could hardly be restrained from 
 quitting his place, that he might sit next him. Then 
 appeared a blind, old man, with the air of an ancient 
 prophet, supported and led in by the genius of England. 
 When I knew him I was extremely discontented, that 
 no more honourable place had been reserved for Milton. 
 e You forget/ said my conductor, ' that the lowest place 
 in this assembly, is one of twenty, the most honourable 
 gifts, which Fame has to bestow among the whole 
 human species. Milton is now admitted for the first 
 time, and was not, but with difficulty admitted at all. 
 But have patience for a few years longer : he will be 
 continually ascending in the goddess's favour, and may, 
 perhaps, at last, obtain the highest, or at least the second 
 place in these her solemnities. In the mean time see 
 how he is received by the man, who is best qualified 
 here to judge of his dignity/ 
 
 " I looked at him again, and saw Raphael making 
 him the most affectionate congratulations, accounting 
 himself happy, that he was seated next to him, and in- 
 sisting on his taking the superior hand. 
 
 " There now remained but one place to be disposed 
 of. The tutelar deity of Spain led in, towards it, a 
 slender man, with black piercing eyes, an aquiline nose, 
 and a swarthy complexion. He had lost one of his 
 hands, by which mark I knew him to be Cervantes. 
 He expected no opposition, as the place had formerly 
 belonged to him ; but in this point he was mistaken. 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 67 
 
 For Moliere advanced from the French entrance,, and 
 disputed the chair, with infinite pleasantry and good- 
 humour. Cervantes, however, kept his place ; but while 
 their controversy was hardly yet decided, a third candi- 
 date appeared, with a great shout of clamorous mirth 
 from the whole assembly. They told me, he had brushed 
 in by stealth, and in spite of the grave lady, who con- 
 ducted his countrymen. I knew the arch leer, the nut- 
 brown bays, and the Foppington step of my facetious 
 friend, Colley Cibber. But his appearance, his argu- 
 ments, and the eloquence with which he delivered them, 
 quite disjointed the remainder of my dream, and I 
 waked in a very hearty fit of laughter*." 
 
 It is very remarkable, that in this vision the 
 author should have omitted the greatest of his 
 countrymen, Shakespeare ; and the more so, 
 since, from several passages in his works, we are 
 left in no doubt as to the manner, in which he ap- 
 preciated that wonderful poet. 
 
 The year 1746 was rendered, also, interesting to 
 Akenside by his having produced his Hymn to 
 the Naiads. Johnson superciliously passes over, 
 as unworthy of being read, not only Akenside's 
 odes, but even this truly elegant hymn a hymn 
 so entirely classical, that we have not one more 
 
 * Museum, No. xiii. Sept. 13, 1746. 
 
 f2 
 
6S LIFE OF AKENS1DE. 
 
 so in our language ; hence Lloyd, with great pro- 
 priety, in allusion to Homer's hymns, which he 
 had once an intention of translating, says " They, 
 who would form the justest idea of this sort of 
 composition among the ancients, may be better in- 
 formed, by perusing Dr. Akenside^ most classical 
 Hymn to the Naiads, than from any translation of 
 Homer or Callimachus." 
 
 The beauties of this hymn, the title of which, 
 perhaps, gave birth to Dr. Southey's beautiful 
 Hymn to the Penates, are too numerous and 
 too well known to warrant quota&on. The passage 
 beginning with 
 
 " Haunt beloved of sylvan powers, 
 
 Of nymphs and fauns/' &c. &c. 
 
 seems to be derived from a passage in Lucretius : 
 
 " Hsec loca capripedes Satyros, nymphasque, tenere 
 Finitumei fingunt : et Faunos esse loquuntur, 
 Quorum," &c. 
 
 De Rerum Natura, iv. .584. 
 
 Or, perhaps, more immediately from Martial : 
 
 " Sjepe sub hoc madidi luserunt arbore Fauni 
 Terruit et tacitam fistula sera domum ; 
 Dumque fugit solos nocturnum Pana per agros, 
 Saepe sub hac latuit rustica fronde Dryas." 
 
 Ep. lib. ix, 62. xii. 1 1. 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 69 
 
 The lines, beginning with 
 
 n Those powerful strings, 
 
 That charm the mind of gods/' &c. 
 
 illustrative of the effects of sacred music among the 
 gods, is taken from the first Pythian ode of Pindar. 
 The translation is very beautiful. 
 
 The notes to this poem indicate a considerable 
 share of learning ; and are, no doubt, helps to the 
 unlettered ; but to the learned, I should suppose, 
 they must operate as incumbrances. That, how- 
 ever, in which the poet gives an account of what he 
 intended, in the construction of his hymn *, is very 
 
 " Cyrene was the native country of Callimachus, whose 
 hymns are the most remarkable example of that mythological 
 passion, which is assumed in the preceding poem, and have 
 always afforded particular pleasure to the author of it, by 
 reason of the mysterious solemnity with which they affect 
 the mind. On this account he was induced to attempt 
 somewhat in the same manner, solely by way of exercise ; 
 the manner itself being now almost entirely abandoned in 
 poetry : and as the mere genealogy, or the personal adven- 
 ture, of heathen gods could have been but little interesting 
 to a modern reader, it was, therefore, thought proper to 
 select some convenient part of the history of nature : and to 
 employ these ancient divinities, as it is probable, they were 
 first employed, to wit, in personifying natural causes, and in 
 representing the mutual agreement or opposition of the cor- 
 poreal and moral powers of the world, which hath been 
 accounted the very highest office of poetry." 
 
70 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 important; and ought continually to be borne in 
 mind by the critic, as well as by the general reader. 
 Hampstead could not be suited to a man like 
 Akenside. The inhabitants were respectable and 
 rich ; but many of them were not only respect- 
 able and rich, but purse-proud, and, therefore, 
 supercilious. They required to be, sought; their 
 wives and daughters expected to be escorted and 
 flattered ; and their sons to be treated with an 
 air of obligation. It is no difficult task for an 
 elegant man to flatter beautiful women and cele- 
 brated men ; but to be subservient to those, who are 
 already too vain and supercilious, and who assume 
 in proportion as they are flattered and yielded to, 
 is not only beyond the practice, but even beyond 
 the honest patience, of a man enriched by nature 
 and embellished by education *. After residing two 
 
 * This observation naturally reminds me of the fate of 
 Dr. Sewell, author of a tragedy, entitled Sir /falter Raleigh, 
 who died at Hampstead in 1726; and whose melancholy fate 
 is thus related by Mr. Campbell, author of the Pleasures of 
 Hope: 
 
 l< He was a physician at Hampstead, with very little prac- 
 tice, and chiefly subsisted on the invitations of the neigh- 
 bouring gentlemen, to whom his amiable character made him 
 acceptable ; but at his death not a friend or relative came to 
 commit his remains to the dust. He was buried in the 
 meanest manner, under a hollow tree, that was once part of 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 71 
 
 years and a half at Hampstead, therefore, Aken- 
 side returned to London, and took up his abode 
 in Bloomsbury-square, where he continued to live 
 during the remainder of his life. He was now about 
 seven and twenty. 
 
 " In London," says one of his biographers, 
 w Akenside was well-known as a poet ; but he had 
 still to make himself known as a physician : v and 
 he would have been put to great straits, had not 
 the generous friendship of Mr. Dyson enabled him 
 to preserve the appearance of a gentleman. These 
 two friends seem to have acted strictly in the cha- 
 racter of ancient times ; so well delineated by those 
 writers, to whose works they were so peculiarly de- 
 voted, viz. Plato, Cicero, Plutarch, Marcus Anto- 
 ninus, and Epictetus (in Arrian). 
 
 Akenside's friend took every opportunity of in- 
 troducing him ; and being a man of fortune and 
 high respectability, the natural consequence was a 
 due appreciation of Akenside's merit, as a phy- 
 sician and a man of elegance, by many persons of 
 superior station. 
 
 In 1747, having heard a sermon preached, in 
 
 the boundary of the churchyard of Hampstead. No me- 
 morial was placed over his remains." Specimens of the 
 Poets, v. i. 
 
72 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 which the reverend divine declaimed, in a very 
 urgent manner, against Glory, he wrote an ode in 
 opposition to the exhortations of the preacher. Part 
 of this ode must be again quoted ; not only because 
 it instructs us, as to the poet's opinions on that sub- 
 ject, but because it will serve as a proper introduc- 
 tion to another subject, which seems once to have 
 engaged some portion of his ambition. 
 
 '* Come, then, tell me, sage diyine ! 
 Is it an offence to own 
 That our bosoms e'er incline 
 
 Toward immortal glory's throne ? 
 For with me, nor pomp, nor pleasure, 
 Bourbon's might, Braganza's treasure, 
 So can Fancy's dream rejoice, 
 So conciliate Reason's choice, 
 As one approving word of her impartial voice. 
 
 If to spurn at noble praise 
 
 Be the passport to thy heav'n, 
 Follow thou these gloomy ways : 
 
 No such law to me was given. 
 Nor, I trust, shall I deplore me : 
 Faring like my friends before me, 
 Nor an holier place desire, 
 Than Timoleon's arms acquire, 
 And Tully's curule chair, and Milton's golden lyre." 
 
 Timoleon seems to have been, of ail others in 
 ancient times, the hero, that most engaged A ken- 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 73 
 
 side's admiration ; and he extended that admiration 
 even so far, as to have meditated the writing an 
 epic poem, of which that illustrious patriot should 
 be the hero. This project he alludes to in the last 
 stanza of his ode on Lyric Poetry. 
 
 " But when from envy and from death to claim 
 
 A hero bleeding for his native land, 
 When to throw incense on the vestal's flame 
 
 Of liberty my genius gives command, 
 Nor Theban voice, nor Lesbian lyre 
 From thee, O muse ! do 1 require, 
 
 While my presaging mind, 
 Conscious of powers she never knew, 
 Astonish'd grasps at things beyond her view, 
 Nor by another s fate submits to be confined." 
 
 Akenside told Warton *, that he alluded, in the last 
 line, to the Leonidas of Glover, which he looked 
 upon as a failure. 
 
 Pope had once the same design ; and the same 
 subject had also been proposed by Lord Melcombe 
 to the author of the Seasons. Why Pope dropped 
 his intention does not appear ; the reasons of Thom- 
 son are thus stated in a letter to Lord Melcombe *)-. 
 " If any thing could make me capable of an epic 
 performance, it would be your favourable opinion in 
 thinking so. But (as you justly observe) that must 
 
 Walton's Pope, ii. 73. Ed. 1797. t Oct, 24, 1730. 
 
74 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 be the work of years, and one must be in an epic 
 situation to execute it. My heart both trembles 
 with diffidence and burns with ardour at the thought. 
 The story of Timoleon is good as to the subject 
 matter : but an author owes, I think, the scene of 
 an epic action to his own country; besides, Timoleon 
 admits of no machinery ; except that of the heathen 
 gods, which will not do at this time of day. I hope 
 hereafter to have the direction of your taste in these 
 affairs ; and in the meantime will endeavour to ex- 
 pand those ideas and sentiments, and in some de- 
 gree to gather up that knowledge, which is neces- 
 sary to such an undertaking.'" 
 
 Why Akenside did not prosecute the design he 
 meditated, we have now no means of ascertaining. 
 Perhaps, he considered the difficulty of the sub- 
 ject; or he might feel some reluctance to engage 
 further in pursuits, that might obstruct the prac- 
 tice he was solicitous, at this time, to obtain. 
 This, I think, may be inferred from a passage in 
 his Ode to Sleep. 
 
 " Oh let me not alone complain, 
 Alone invoke thy power in vain ! 
 
 Descend, propitious, on my eyes ; 
 Not from the couch, that bears a crown, 
 Not from the courtly statesman's down, 
 
 Nor where the miser and his treasure lies: 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. lij 
 
 Bring not the shapes, that break the murderer's rest, 
 
 Nor those, the hireling soldier loves to see, 
 Nor those which haunt the bigot's gloomy breast; 
 
 Far be their guilty nights, and far their dreams from me. 
 
 Nor yet their awful forms present, 
 For chiefs and heroes only meant ; 
 
 The figured brass, the choral song, 
 The rescued people's glad applause, 
 The listening senate, and the laws, 
 
 Fix'd by the counsels of Timoleons tongue, 
 Are scenes too grand for Fortune's private ways ; 
 
 And though they shine in youth's ingenuous view, 
 The sober, gainful, arts of modern days 
 
 To such romantic thoughts have bid a long adieu" 
 
 Akenside had been admitted, by mandamus, to a 
 doctors degree at Cambridge ; he became a fellow 
 of the Royal Society ; and was elected a fellow of 
 the Royal College of Physicians. Mr. Dyson, on 
 the other hand, had entered himself at one of the 
 Inns of Court, and been called to the bar. But in 
 the early part of this year (1747), hearing that Mr. 
 Hardinge had the intention of retiring from the 
 clerkship of the House of Commons, he entered 
 into a treaty with that gentleman, and purchased 
 the situation for six thousand pounds. And here 
 I cannot deny myself the pleasure of citing a very 
 striking characteristic of Mr. Dyson, from HatselFs 
 
76 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 Precedents of the Proceedings of the House of 
 Commons. 
 
 On the 15th of February Mr. Dyson took his 
 seat at the table *. " By virtue of his office,"" says 
 Mr. Hatsell, " the clerk has not only the right of ap- 
 pointing a deputy to officiate in his stead, but has 
 the nomination of the clerk assistant, and all the 
 other clerks without doors. Formerly the appoint- 
 ment to these offices made a considerable part of 
 the clerk's income, as it was the usual practice to 
 sell them. But when Mr. Dyson came to the office 
 of clerk, (though he had purchased this of Mr. 
 Hardinge for no less a sum than six thousand 
 pounds,) he, with a generosity peculiar to himself, 
 and from a regard to the House of Commons, that 
 the several under clerkships might be more pro- 
 perly filled, than they probably would be, if they 
 were sold to the highest bidder, first refused this 
 
 * " On the 10th of February, 1747, the Speaker acquaints 
 the House of Commons with a letter he had received from 
 Nicholas Hardinge, Esq. clerk, in which he informs him, 
 that he had resigned the office ; Mr. Speaker also acquaints 
 the House, that his Majesty will in a few days appoint 
 another person to succeed Mr. Hardinge; and on the 15th 
 of February, Mr. Dyson being appointed, is called in, and 
 takes his seat at the table." Hatsell' & Precedents of the Pro^ 
 ceedings of the House of Commons, vol. ii. 253. 4to. 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 77 
 
 advantage; and appointed all the clerks, whose 
 offices became vacant in his time, without any pe- 
 cuniary consideration whatever. I was the first 
 that experienced the effect of this generosity, as 
 clerk-assistant ; to which office I was appointed by 
 Mr. Dyson *, not only without any gratuity on my 
 part, but, indeed, without his having had any per- 
 sonal knowledge of me, till I was introduced to 
 him by Dr. Akenside ; and recommended by him 
 as a person, that might be proper to succeed Mr. 
 Reid, then just dead, as clerk-assistant. This office, 
 at the time I received it from Mr. Dyson, ' gratis,' 
 he might have disposed of, and not to an improper 
 person, or one unacquainted with the business of 
 the House of Commons, for 3000/. Mr. Dyson's 
 successors, i. e. Mr. Tyrwhitt and myself, have 
 thought ourselves obliged to follow the example 
 which he set ; but it is one thing to be the first to 
 refuse a considerable and legal profit, and another, 
 not to resume a practice that has been so honour- 
 ably abolished by a predecessor -f\" 
 
 The resignation of Mr. Hardinge having intro- 
 duced Mr. Dyson to that gentleman, Akenside 
 
 * May 10, 1760. 
 
 t Hatsell's Precedents of the House of Commons, vol. ii. 
 257. 4to. 
 
78 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 became acquainted with him ; and that acquaint- 
 ance became an introduction to Dr. Hardinge, his 
 brother; and laid a foundation for a regard for 
 Mr. Hardinge's son, the late Honourable George 
 Hardinge, many years judge upon the Presteign, 
 Brecon, and Cardiff circuit; to whom Akenside 
 wrote a letter of advice and directions for the course 
 of his academical studies, which, Mr. Justice Har- 
 dinge says *, " formed the most ingenious and mas- 
 terly work that ever that arduous topic has pro- 
 duced." Such having been the case, it is a subject 
 of great regret, that this letter should have been 
 irrecoverably lost. Akenside, I believe, agreed with 
 Cardinal Fleury in the opinion, that children should 
 be educated in apartments looking into a garden, or 
 shrubbery, in order that study might be associated 
 with agreeable impressions. 
 
 Dr. Hardinge was physician extraordinary to 
 the king. He was born at KingVNewton in the 
 county of Derby, and died at Mansfield in 1776. 
 " He was a man of singular habits and whims,*" 
 says his nephew, in a letter to Mr. Nichols; "but 
 of infinite humour and wit. He was an admirable 
 scholar ; and if he had been uniformly attentive to 
 
 * Nichols' Anecdotes. 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 79 
 
 the duties of his profession, would have acquired the 
 first rank in it. In medical sagacity and learning 
 he had few, if any, superiors. His conversation 
 was coveted by the most accomplished wits and 
 scholars of his age. He was a man of perfect ho- 
 nour, and a more benevolent spirit never breathed. 
 His passion for coursing was one of his most pro- 
 minent characteristics ; but like all the rest, he 
 made it the source of infinite amusement to his 
 friends. He was a comic tyrant over them all ; 
 and I shall never forget an evening of civil war, 
 and another of peace, between these two physicians. 
 Dr. Akenside was the guest; and at supper, by a 
 whimsical accident, they fell into a dispute upon the 
 subject of a bilious colic. They were both of them 
 absurdly eager. Dr. Hardinge had a contempt for 
 every physician but himself; and he held the poet 
 very cheap in that line. He laughed at him, and 
 said the rudest things to him. The other, who never 
 took a jest in good part, flamed into invective; 
 and Mrs. Hardinge, as clever in a different way as 
 either, could with difficulty keep the peace with 
 either of them. Dr. Akenside ordered his chariot, 
 and swore, that he would never come into the house 
 again. The other, who was the kindest -hearted 
 
80 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 of men, the next morning, and in a manner quite 
 his own, made a perfect reconcilement, which ter- 
 minated in a pacific supper, the following night ; 
 when, by a powerful stroke of humour, the host 
 convulsed the sides of his guest with laughter, and 
 they were in delightful unison together, the whole 
 evening. ' Do you kn-kn-know, Doctor,' said he, 
 (for he stammered), * that I have b-bought a 
 curious pamphlet, this m-morning upon a st-stall, 
 and I '11 give you the t-title of it ; an acc-count of a 
 curious dispute between D-Dr. Y. and D-Dr. Z , 
 concerning a b-b-bilious c-colic, which brought on a 
 d-duel between the two ph-physicians, which t-ter- 
 minated in the d-death of both.' " 
 
 Shortly after this, Akenside wrote an Ode to his 
 humorous opponent. This ode is not very interest- 
 ing ; but the last stanza points to the ambition, to 
 which the mind of the poet was in perpetual direc- 
 tion. 
 
 " () versed in all the human frame ! 
 Lead thou where'er my labour lies, 
 And English fancy's eager flame 
 To Grecian purity chastise ; 
 While, hand in hand, at wisdom's shrine, 
 Beauty with truth I strive to join, 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 81 
 
 And grave assent with glad applause, 
 To paint the story of the- soul. 
 And Plato's visions to control 
 By Verulamian* laws." 
 
 Akenside was particularly partial to inscriptive 
 writing. Mr. Meyrick bad two of bis copying ; 
 and very beautiful ones they are : 
 
 " VIBIA . PHRYNE . VIXIT . TER . SEN0S . ANN0S 
 CARA . MEIS . VIXSI . SVBITO . FATALE . RAPINA 
 FLORENTEM . VITA . SVSTVLIT . ATRA . DIES 
 
 HOC . TVMVLO . NVNC . SVM . CINERES . SIMVL . NAMQVE . SA- 
 CRA TI 
 PER . MATREM . CARAM . SVNT . POSITIQVE . MEI 
 QVOS . PIVS . S^PE . COLIT . FRATER . CONIVNXQVE . PVELL.E 
 ATQVE . OBITVM . NOSTRVM . FLETIBVS . USQUE . FLVVNT 
 DI . MANES . ME . UNAM . RETINETE . UT . VIVERE . POSSINT 
 QVOS . SEMPER . COLUI . VIVA . LIBENTE . ANIMO 
 UT . SINT . QVI . CINERES . NOSTROS . BENE . FLORIBUS . SERTIS 
 SjEPE . ORNENT . DICAT . SIT . Mill I . TERRA . LEVIS." 
 
 "FIRMA EPAPHRODITA. 
 
 Ann. xxviii. 
 
 FIRMA . SATIS . FELIX . CUM . ME . MEA . VITA . MANERET 
 CONJUGIS . OBSEQUIO . CUM . PIETATE . FUI 
 
 CONJUGIS . ILLIUS . QUEM . VIX . ACQUARE . MARITI 
 ADFECTU . POTERUNT . AUT . BONITATE . PARI 
 
 * u Verulam gave one of his titles to Francis Bacon, author 
 of the Novum Organum." A. 
 
 G 
 
82 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 CONLITERTORUM . VULTUS . ANIMOSQUE . MEORUM 
 
 PLACATOS . MERUI . SEDULITATE . MEA 
 PLACATOS . MERUI . PER . TE . MAGIS . OMNIS . UT . ALTAS 
 
 SANGUINE . ME . JUNCTAM . CREDERET . ESSE . SIBI 
 QUI . TECUM . PIA . CASTRA . SEQUI . CONSULTUS . ET . ILLE 
 
 QUEM . LEX . SERVITII . DISTRAH1T . A . DOMINO 
 HOS . OMNES . TIBI . PRO . MER1TIS . QUI . SIDERA . TORQUENT 
 
 SECUM . PLACATOS . SEMPER . HABERE . VELINT." 
 
 At what periods Akenside's inscriptions were 
 written, can only be gathered from the insertion of 
 them in Dodsley's collection. They have been very 
 much admired. That on King William exhibits 
 a pure and classical taste : that for a statue of 
 Chaucer has a passage of great propriety and 
 dignity * ; that for a column at Runnymede is in 
 the best style of simplicity; while the one, com- 
 memorative of our great dramatic bard, is, perhaps, 
 the finest specimen of inscriptive poetry in the 
 English language. That, beginning with 
 
 u Whoe'er thou art, whose path in summer lies 
 Through yonder village," 
 
 " Thou perchance 
 
 From Blenheim's towers, O stranger ! Thou art come 
 
 Glowing with Churchill's trophies, yet in vain 
 
 Dost thou applaud them, if thy breast be cold 
 
 To him, this other hero ; who, in times, 
 
 Dark and untaught, began with charming voice 
 
 To tame the rudeness of his native land." 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 83 
 
 has a melancholy tale attached to it. This tale is 
 faithfully told in the inscription, and the person, 
 whose memory it preserves, was a young gentleman, 
 who came early into possession of a small estate in 
 the county of Northumberland. I think Sir Grey 
 Cooper, Bart., to whom I shall, hereafter, more par- 
 ticularly allude, said, that his name was Wey- 
 bridge. 
 
 " Whoe'er thou art, whose path in summer lies 
 Through yonder village, turn thee where the grove 
 Of branching oaks a rural palace old 
 Imbosoms. There dwells Albert, generous lord 
 Of all the harvest round ! and onward thence 
 A low plain chapel fronts the morning light 
 Fast by a silent rivulet. Humbly walk, 
 O stranger ! o'er the consecrated ground ; 
 And on that verdant hillock, which thou see'st 
 Beset with osiers, let thy pious hand 
 Sprinkle fresh water from the brook, and strew 
 Sweet-smelling flowers ; for there doth Edmund rest, 
 The learned shepherd ; for each rural art 
 Fam'd, and for songs harmonious, and the woes 
 Of ill-requited love. The faithless pride 
 Of fair Matilda sunk him to the grave 
 In manhood's prime : but soon did righteous heaven 
 With tears, with sharp remorse, and pining care, 
 Avenge her falsehood : nor could all the gold, 
 And nuptial pomp, which lur'd her plighted faith 
 From Edmund to a loftier husband's house, 
 Relieve her broken heart, or turn aside 
 
 g2 
 
84 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 The strokes of death. Go, traveller ! relate 
 The mournful story: haply some fair maid 
 May hold it in remembrance, and be taught, 
 That riches cannot pay for truth or love." 
 
 Mr. Dyson was now attending to his duties, as 
 Clerk of the Lower House of Parliament; and 
 Akenside was engaged in making his way as a phy- 
 sician, in the best manner he could ; still enjoying 
 the annual income of three hundred pounds, allowed 
 him by his friend : and as it was about this time, 
 that he undertook to rewrite his poem on the Ima- 
 gination, it is more than probable, that he penned, 
 at this period, his beautiful Invocation : in which, 
 after alluding to the more early scenes of their in- 
 timacy, he continues in a strain, worthy the poet 
 to offer, and the friend to accept. 
 
 " (>, my faithful friend ! 
 
 O early chosen, ever found the same, 
 
 And trusted and beloved ! Once more, the verse 
 
 Long destined, always obvious to thine ear, 
 
 Attend indulgent : so, in latest years, 
 
 When time thy head with honours shall have cloth'd, 
 
 Sacred to even virtue, may thy mind, 
 
 Amid the calm review of seasons past, 
 
 Fair offices of friendship, or kind peace, 
 
 Or public zeal : may then thy mind, well pleas'd, 
 
 Recal these happy studies of our prime." 
 
 P. /. Second Poem, i. v. 87. 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 85 
 
 About this time, Akenside became a candidate 
 for the situation of physician to the Charter House; 
 but his merits were destined to bend before the 
 good fortune of another, whose sole recommendation 
 is said to have arisen out of the circumstance of 
 being related to Lord Holland. Sir John Hawkins, 
 who records this, makes a remark upon it, that I 
 cannot do better than associate with some equally 
 pertinent observations of Dr. Johnson. " That a 
 character, so highly formed as that of Akenside, 
 should fail of recommending its possessor to those 
 benefits, which it is in the power of mankind to 
 bestow, may seem a wonder ; but it is often seen, 
 that negative qualities are more conducive to this 
 end than positive ; and that, with no higher cha- 
 racter than is attainable by any one, who, with a 
 studious taciturnity, will keep his opinions to him- 
 self, conform to the practice of others, and entertain 
 neither friendship nor enmity against any one, a 
 competitor for the good opinion of the world, nay 
 for emoluments, and even dignities, stands a better 
 chance of success, than one of the most established 
 reputation for learningand ingenuity ." " A physician 
 in a great city," says Johnson, " seems to be the 
 mere plaything of fortune ; his degree of reputation 
 is, for the most part, totally casual: they that employ 
 him know not his excellence ; they that reject him, 
 
86 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 know not his deficience. By any acute observer, 
 who had looked on the transactions of the medical 
 world for half a century, a very curious book might 
 be written on the ' Fortune of Physicians.' " 
 
 The practice of Akenside, however, must have 
 been greater than has been generally supposed ; for 
 he kept a carriage. It was obstructed, however, no 
 doubt, by the honesty of his manners, to his dislike 
 of being all things to all men ; and, probably, in a 
 still greater degree by his fame as a poet: a caprice 
 in direct hostility to the ancient fable, which made 
 Apollo not only god of physic, but of music and 
 poetry. 
 
 The manners of Akenside may, perhaps, be illus- 
 trated by one of his own alterations. In the first 
 poem he writes 
 
 " A purple cloud came floating through the sky." 
 
 Book ii. 223. 
 
 What can be more natural than this mode of ex- 
 pression ? In his MS. notations, however, he alters 
 it to 
 
 " Came floating through the sky a purple cloud." 
 
 It must be confessed, that if Akenside has some- 
 times all the grace of Virgil, and all the strength of 
 Lucretius, at others he has all the stiffness and in- 
 version of Callimachus. 
 
 We must now enter a little into politics. The 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 87 
 
 opinions of Akenside and his friend were strongly 
 
 in favour of the Revolution, and, therefore, in 
 
 direct harmony with those principles, which placed 
 
 the family of Brunswick on the throne of Great 
 
 Britain. His Ode to the Earl of Huntingdon is 
 
 strongly confirmative of this : there are, therefore, 
 
 many passages, that could not but give offence 
 
 to that order of persons, who, out of a puerile 
 
 reverence of authority, affected to challenge for 
 
 themselves all loyalty to the sovereign, and all 
 
 iove for the country. I shall quote a passage or 
 
 two ; as in a future page I shall probably have to 
 
 refer to them. It may be proper, however, first to 
 
 recur to a stanza in his ode to Sir Francis Henry 
 
 Drake ; where he predicts the arrival of that period, 
 
 which soon after came : 
 
 " When generous William * was revered, 
 Nor one untimely accent heard 
 Of James, or his ignoble reign." 
 
 * His opinion of this monarch flows naturally and grace- 
 fully in the following much-atlmired inscription: 
 
 " GULIELMVS III. FORTIS, PIVS, LIBERATOR, CVM IN- 
 EVNTE iETATE PATRIAE LATENTI ADFVISSET SALVS IPSE 
 VNICAj CVM MOX ITIDEM REIPVBLIC^S BRITANNIC^E VINDEX 
 RENVNCIATVS ESSET ATQVE STATORJ TVM DENIQVE AD 
 ID SE NATVM RECOGNOVIT ET REGEM FACTVM, VT CVRARET 
 NE DOMINO IMPOTENTI CEDERENT PAX, FIDES, FORTVNA, 
 GENERIS HVMANI. AvCTORI PVBLIC^E FELICITATIS. P. G. 
 A. M. A." 
 
88' LIFE OF AKENS1DE. 
 
 The succeeding passage amply testifies his dislike 
 to licence and democracy : 
 
 " Here be it thine to calm and guide 
 The swelling democratic tide ; 
 To watch the state's uncertain frame, 
 And baffle faction's partial aim." 
 
 Ode to E. ofH. v. 2. 
 
 But if he was a strenuous adversary to democratic 
 principles, he was equally hostile to those mean, 
 worthless, and degenerate spirits, who combat the 
 friends of freedom not with noble weapons but with 
 disgraceful epithets and ignominious charges. In 
 this manner the enemies of the Revolution endea- 
 voured to stigmatize the Earl of Huntingdon. " Be 
 thou thine own approver !" said Akenside. 
 
 " Be thou thine own approver ! honest praise 
 Oft nobly sways 
 Ingenuous youth : 
 But sought from cowards, and the lying mouth, 
 Praise is reproach. Eternal God alone 
 For mortals fixeth that divine award. 
 He, from the faithful records of his throne, 
 Bids the historian and the bard 
 Dispose of honour and of scorn j 
 Discern the patriot from the slave ; 
 And write the good, the wise, the brave, 
 For lessons to the multitude unborn." 
 
 In respect to real, in contra-distinction to licen- 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 89 
 
 tious liberty, Akenside and Cowper were kindred 
 spirits. 
 
 " Oh, could I worship aught beneath the skies. 
 That earth hath seen, or fancy can devise, 
 Thine altar, sacred Liberty, should stand, 
 Built by no mercenary vulgar hand ; 
 With fragrant turf, and flowers as wild and fair, 
 As ever dress'd a bank, or scented summer air." 
 
 As a lyric poet, Akenside yields, on the whole, 
 to Gray and Collins. He is defective in pathos ; 
 his images occasionally want warmth, and his verse 
 melody ; but his lyrical productions, nevertheless, 
 exhibit a fine glow of sentiment, an ardent admira- 
 tion of the great and good, an enthusiastic love of 
 true liberty, an utter detestation of tyranny, and a 
 fine sensibility to all the best and noblest feelings of 
 the heart. Dryden's ode is the best adapted to the 
 powers of music ; Collins 1 Ode of the Passions to 
 dramatic recitation ; and Gray's Bard to excite the 
 sublime aspirations of a Miltonic reader ; but, next 
 to these, I think there can be no question, that 
 Akenside's Ode to the Earl of Huntingdon is the 
 finest and most powerful lyric poem in the lan- 
 guage. In regard to grandeur of sentiment it stands 
 the first. 
 
 Akenside was contemporary with a great number 
 
90 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 of poets : among whom were Young, Thomson, Arm- 
 strong, Glover, Somerville, Sargent, Mallet, and 
 Chatterton ; Shenstone, Dyer, and Green ; Lyttel- 
 ton, Collins, Gray, Mason, and Beattie. It does not, 
 however, appear, that he was intimate with any of 
 these poets ; and his opinions are, I believe, nowhere 
 upon record, as to their relative merits, except in 
 regard to Dyer's Fleece. " I have been told," says 
 Johnson in his life of Dyer, " that Akenside, who, 
 upon a poetical question, has a right to be heard, 
 said, that he would regulate his opinion of the reign- 
 ing taste by the fate of Dyer's Fleece ; for if that 
 were ill received, he should not think it any longer 
 reasonable to expect fame from excellence." 
 
 His opinion in respect to Pope's fourth Epistle 
 on Man is thus recorded by Dr. Warton * : 
 
 " Our poet having, in the three former epistles? 
 treated of Man in all the three respects, in which 
 he can be considered ; namely, first, of his Nature 
 and State with respect to the Universe ; secondly, 
 with respect to Himself; thirdly, with respect to 
 Society ; seems to have finished his subject in the 
 three foregoing Epistles. The fourth Epistle, there- 
 fore, on Happiness, may be thought to be adsciti- 
 
 * Edition of Pope, vol. ii. 411. 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 91 
 
 tious, and out of its proper place, and ought to 
 have made part of the second Epistle, where Man 
 is considered with respect to Himself. I formerly 
 mentioned this to Dr. Akenside, and Mr. Harris, 
 who were of my opinion." 
 
 In another page Dr. Warton records an opinion 
 of Akenside in regard to Fenton's Ode to Lord 
 Gower : " Akenside frequently said to me, that he 
 thought this ode the best in our language, next to 
 Alexander's Feast *." 
 
 I have read this ode ; and confess, that I could 
 find only two good stanzas in it. 
 
 " Shall Man from Nature's sanction stray, 
 With blind Opinion for his guide, 
 And, rebel to her rightful sway, 
 
 Leave all her bounties unenjoy'd ? 
 Fool ! Time no change of Motion knows ; 
 With equal speed the torrent flows, 
 
 To sweep Fame, Power, and Wealth away: 
 The past is all by Death possess'd; 
 And frugal Fate, that guards the rest, 
 
 By giving, bids him live to-day? 
 
 ***** 
 
 " O Gower ! Through all that destined space, 
 What breath the Powers allot to me, 
 Shall sing the virtues of thy race, 
 United and complete in thee. 
 
 * Edition of Pope, vol. ii. 401. 
 
92 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 O flower of ancient English faith ! 
 Pursue th' unbeaten Patriot-path, 
 
 In which, confirm'd, thy father shone : 
 The light, his fair example gives, 
 Already from thy dawn receives 
 
 A lustre equal to its own." 
 
 A kenside's critical j udgment seems to have been 
 greatly respected by his cotemporaries. u His com- 
 ments," says the Hon . George Hardinge, in a letter 
 to Mr. Nichols, " were cherished by those book- 
 sellers, who lent him new books; and if any one 
 struck him with a powerful impression, I believe it 
 was generally given to him by the publisher."" His 
 judgment is, also, appealed to in a very favourable 
 manner by Dr. Warton : 
 
 " By the favour of Dr. Lowth, the late ex- 
 cellent Bishop of London, I have seen a copy of 
 Spence's Essay on the Odyssey, with marginal 
 observations written in Pope's own hand, and gene- 
 rally acknowledging the justice of Spence's observa- 
 tions; and in a few instances pleading, humorously 
 enough, that some favourite lines might be spared. 
 I speak from experience, when I say, that I know 
 no critical treatise better calculated to form the 
 taste of young men of genius, than this Essay on 
 the Odyssey. And lest it should be thought that 
 this opinion arises from my partiality to a friend, 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 93 
 
 with whom I lived so many years in the happiest 
 intimacy, I will add, that this also was the opinion 
 of three persons, from whose j udgment there can be 
 no appeal, Dr. Akenside, Bishop Lowth, and Mr. 
 James Harris." 
 
 And here we may with propriety introduce, on 
 the authority of Isaac Reed, Esq. another paper, 
 written by Akenside, published in Dodsley's Mu- 
 seum. It is entitled the Balance of Poets ; and 
 can be considered in no other light than as a very 
 curious and important paper, coming, as it does, 
 from so accomplished a person. It may not, how- 
 ever, be presumptuous to hint, that all critics will, 
 perhaps, not feel disposed to coincide with his de- 
 cisions. 
 
 THE BALANCE OF POETS. 
 
 M. De Piles is one of the most judicious authors 
 on the art of Painting. He has added to his treatise on 
 that subject a very curious paper, which he calls the 
 Balance of the Painters. He divides the whole art of 
 painting into four heads : composition, design, colour- 
 ing, and expression; under each of which he assigns 
 the degree of perfection, which the several masters have 
 obtained. To this end he first settles the degree of 
 sovereign perfection, which has never been attained, 
 
94 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 and which is beyond even the taste or knowledge of 
 the best critics at present : this he rates as the twen- 
 tieth degree. The nineteenth degree is the highest of 
 which the human mind has any comprehension; but 
 which has not yet been expressed or executed by the 
 greatest masters. The eighteenth is that to which the 
 greatest masters have actually attained ; and so down- 
 wards, according to their comparative genius and skill. 
 Monsieur de Piles makes four columns of his four chief 
 articles or parts of painting ; and opposite to the names 
 of the great masters, unites their several degrees of per- 
 fection in each article. The thought is very ingenious ; 
 and had it been executed with accuracy, and a just 
 rigour of taste, would have been of the greatest use to 
 the lovers of that noble art. But we can hardly expect, 
 that any man should be exactly right in his judgment, 
 through such a multiplicity of the most delicate ideas. 
 
 I have often wished to see a balance of this kind, 
 that might help to settle our comparative esteem of the 
 greater Poets in the several polite languages. But as 
 I have never seen nor heard of any such design, I have 
 here attempted it myself, according to the best informa- 
 tion which my private taste could afford me. I shall 
 be extremely glad, if any of your ingenious corre- 
 spondents will correct me where I am wrong ; and in 
 the meantime shall explain the general foundations of 
 my scheme, where it differs from that of the French 
 author. For he has not taken in a sufficient number of 
 articles to form a complete judgment of the art of paint- 
 ing : and though he had, yet poetry requires many more. 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 95 
 
 I shall retain his numbers, and suppose twenty to be the 
 degree of absolute perfection, and eighteen the highest, 
 that any poet has attained. 
 
 His first article is Composition; in which his ba- 
 lance is quite equivocal and uncertain. For there are, in 
 painting, two sorts of composition, utterly different from 
 each other. One relates to the eye, the other to the 
 passions: so that the former may be not improperly 
 styled picturesque composition, and is concerned only 
 with such a disposition of the figures., as may render the 
 whole group of the picture entire and well united ; the 
 latter is concerned with such attitudes and connexions 
 of the figures, as may effectually touch the passions of 
 the spectator. There are, in poetry, two analogous kinds 
 of composition or ordonnance ; one of which belongs to 
 the general plan or structure of the work, and is an 
 object of the cool judgment of a connoisseur; the other 
 relates to the most striking situations, and the most 
 moving incidents. And though these are most strictly 
 connected in truth and in the principles of art, yet, in 
 fact, we see them very frequently disjoined ; and they 
 depend indeed on different powers of the mind. Sir 
 Richard Blackmore, a name for contempt, or for 
 oblivion, in the commonwealth of poetry, had more of 
 the former than Shakespeare ; who had more of the 
 latter than any man, that ever lived. The former we 
 shall call Critical Ordonnance, the latter Pathetic; and 
 these make the two first columns of our balance. 
 
 It may, perhaps, be necessary to observe here, that 
 though, literally speaking, these two articles relate only 
 to epic and dramatic poetry ; yet we shall apply them 
 
96 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 to every other species. For in lyric poetry, in satire, in 
 comedy, in the ethical epistle, one author may excel 
 another in the general plan and disposition of his work ; 
 and yet fall short of him in the arguments, allusions, 
 and other circumstances, which he employs to move 
 his reader, and to obtain the end of his particular com- 
 position. 
 
 Our next article answers to that which Monsieur de 
 Piles calls Expression ; but this, likewise, in poetry, 
 requires two columns. Painting represents only a single 
 instant of time ; consequently it expresses only a present 
 passion, without giving any idea of the general character 
 or turn of mind. For poetry expresses this part as well 
 as the other ; and the same poet is not equally excellent 
 in both. Homer far surpasses Virgil in the general de- 
 lineation of characters and manners ; but there are, in 
 Virgil, some expressions of particular passions, greatly 
 superior to any in Homer. I shall, therefore, divide 
 this head of expression, and call the former Dramatic 
 Expression, and the latter Incidental. 
 
 Our next article answers to what the painters call 
 Design, or the purity, beauty, and grandeur of the 
 outline in drawing ; to which the taste of beauty in de- 
 scription, and the truth of expression, are analogous in 
 poetry. But as the term design, except among painters, 
 is generally supposed to mean the general plan and con- 
 trivance of a work, I shall therefore omit it, to prevent 
 mistakes; and substitute instead of it, the Truth of Taste, 
 by which to distinguish the fifth column. And indeed, 
 this article would likewise admit of several subdivisions ; 
 for some poets are excellent for the grandeur of their 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 97 
 
 taste, others for its beauty, and others for a kind of 
 neatness. But they may all be ranged under the same 
 head; as Michael Angelo, Raphael, and Poussin, 
 are all characterised from their design. The truth of 
 taste will, ceteris paribus, belong to the first in the 
 highest degree ; but we must always remember, that 
 there can be no greatness without justness and decorum ; 
 which is the reason that Raphael is counted higher 
 in design than Michael Angelo. For though this 
 latter had a grandeur and more masculine taste, yet 
 Raphael, with a truly grand one, was incomparably 
 more correct and true. 
 
 It is not easy to assign that part of poetry, which 
 answers to the colouring of a painter. A very good 
 judge of painting calls the colouring the procuress 
 of her sister, Design ; who gains admirers for her, 
 that otherwise might not, perhaps, be captivated with 
 her charms. If we trace this idea through poetry, we 
 shall, perhaps, determine poetical colouring to be such a 
 general choice of words, such an order of grammatical 
 construction, and such a movement and turn of the 
 verse, as are most favourable to the poet's invention, 
 distinct from the ideas which those words convey. For 
 whoever has reflected much on the pleasure which 
 poetry communicates, will recollect many words which, 
 taken singly, excite very similar ideas ; but which have 
 very different effects, according to their situation and 
 connexion in a period. It is impossible to read Virgil, 
 but especially Milton, without making this observation 
 a thousand times. The sixth column of the balance 
 shall, therefore, be named from this poetical colouring. 
 
 H 
 
98 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 As for versification, its greatest merit is always 
 provided for by the last article ; but as it would seem 
 strange to many, should we entirely omit it; the seventh 
 column shall, therefore, be allotted for it as far as it 
 relates to the mere harmony of sound. 
 
 The eighth article belongs to the Moral of the 
 several poets, or to the truth and merit of the sentiments 
 which they express, or the dispositions which they in- 
 culcate with respect to religion, civil society, or private 
 life. The reader must not be surprised, if he find the 
 heathen poets not so much degraded, as he might expect 
 in this particular ; for though their representations of 
 Divine Providence be so absurd and shocking, yet this 
 article is intended to characterise the comparative 
 goodness of their moral intention, and not the compara- 
 tive soundness of their speculative opinions. Where 
 little is given, little is required. 
 
 The ninth and last column contains an Estimate 
 of their comparative value and eminence upon the whole. 
 This is greatly wanting in the French author. The 
 degrees of perfection, which he assigns to Rubens, make 
 up a sum, when the four articles are added to each 
 other, exactly equal to what he calculates for Raphael ; 
 so that one, not greatly versed in the study of pictures, 
 might imagine from thence that Rubens was as great a 
 painter as Raphael. This general estimate is also more 
 necessary in the present scheme, as some of the articles, 
 particularly that of Ordonnance, are applied equally to 
 every species of poetry; so that a Satirist will be rated 
 as high, in that article, as an Epic poet ; provided his 
 Ordonnance be as perfect for satire, as that of the other 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 99 
 
 is for heroic poetry. Upon this account, justice to the 
 manes of the divine poets requires, that we should 
 acknowledge their pre-eminence upon the whole, after 
 having thus set their inferiors upon a level with them 
 in particular parts. 
 
 You see this general method is here applied to a few, 
 the greater names of poetry in most polite languages. 
 I have avoided to bring in any living authors, because 
 I know the vanity and emulation of the poetical tribe ; 
 which I mention, lest the reader may find fault with 
 me for omitting Voltaire, Metastasio, or any favourite 
 author of our own nation. 
 
 
 1 | 
 
 
 || 
 
 31 
 
 C vi 
 
 <u 
 
 
 a 
 .2 
 
 c 
 
 "3 * 
 
 
 - s 
 
 
 1 1 
 
 2 S. 
 
 3 
 
 'o & 
 
 
 3 
 
 a 
 
 o 
 
 B 
 
 o 
 % 
 
 
 Ariosto . . 
 
 U T3 
 
 u 
 O 
 
 o 
 15 
 
 
 C X 
 
 
 o 
 
 > 
 
 
 13 
 
 10 
 
 15 
 
 14 
 
 15 
 
 16 
 
 10 
 
 Boileau . . 
 
 18 
 
 16 
 
 12 
 
 14 
 
 17 
 
 14 
 
 13 
 
 16 
 
 12 
 
 Cervantes . 
 
 17 
 
 17 
 
 15 
 
 17 
 
 12 
 
 16 
 
 
 
 16 
 
 14 
 
 Corneille . 
 
 15 
 
 16 
 
 16 
 
 16 
 
 16 
 
 14 
 
 12 
 
 16 
 
 14 
 
 Dante . . 
 
 12 
 
 15 
 
 8 
 
 17 
 
 12 
 
 15 
 
 14 
 
 14 
 
 13 
 
 Euripides . 
 
 15 
 
 16 
 
 14 
 
 17 
 
 13 
 
 14 
 
 
 
 15 
 
 12 
 
 Homer . , 
 
 18 
 
 17 
 
 18 
 
 15 
 
 16 
 
 16 
 
 18 
 
 17 
 
 18 
 
 Horace . . 
 
 12 
 
 12 
 
 10 
 
 16 
 
 17 
 
 17 
 
 16 
 
 14 
 
 13 
 
 Lucretius . 
 
 14 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 17 
 
 17 
 
 14 
 
 16 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 Milton . . 
 
 17 
 
 15 
 
 15 
 
 17 
 
 18 
 
 18 
 
 17 
 
 18 
 
 17 
 
 Moliere 
 
 15 
 
 17 
 
 17 
 
 17 
 
 15 
 
 16 
 
 
 
 16 
 
 14 
 
 Pindar . . 
 
 10 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 17 
 
 17 
 
 16 
 
 
 
 17 
 
 13 
 
 Pope . . 
 
 16 
 
 17 
 
 12 
 
 17 
 
 16 
 
 15 
 
 15 
 
 17 
 
 13 
 
 Racine - . 
 
 17 
 
 16 
 
 15 
 
 15 
 
 17 
 
 13 
 
 12 
 
 15 
 
 13 
 
 Shakspeare 
 
 
 
 18 
 
 18 
 
 18 
 
 10 
 
 17 
 
 10 
 
 18 
 
 18 
 
 Sophocles . 
 
 18 
 
 16 
 
 15 
 
 15 
 
 16 
 
 14 
 
 
 
 16 
 
 13 
 
 Spenser . . 
 
 8 
 
 15 
 
 10 
 
 16 
 
 17 
 
 17 
 
 17 
 
 17 
 
 14 
 
 Tasso . . 
 
 17 
 
 14 
 
 14 
 
 13 
 
 12 
 
 13 
 
 16 
 
 13 
 
 12 
 
 Terence 
 
 18 
 
 12 
 
 10 
 
 12 
 
 17 
 
 14 
 
 
 
 16 
 
 10 
 
 Virgil . . 
 
 17 
 
 10 
 
 17 
 
 17 
 
 18 
 
 17 
 
 17 
 
 17 
 
 16 
 
 H r i 
 
100 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 The estimate stands thus : 
 
 CRITICAL ORDONNANCE. 
 
 First Class. * Homer, Sophocles, Terence, Boileau. 
 
 Second 
 
 Virgil, Tasso, Milton, Racine. 
 
 Third 
 
 Pope. 
 
 Fourth 
 
 Euripides, Corneillc. 
 
 Fifth 
 
 Lucretius. 
 
 Sixth 
 
 Horace, Dante. 
 
 Seventh 
 
 Pindar. 
 
 Eighth 
 
 Spenser. 
 
 Ariosto and Shakspeare disdained critical ordon- 
 nances. 
 
 PATHETIC ORDONNANCE. 
 
 First Class. Shakspeare. 
 
 Second . Homer. 
 
 Third . Sophocles, Euripides, Corneille, Racine. 
 
 Fourth . Dante, Ariosto, Spenser, Milton. 
 
 Fifth . Tasso. 
 
 Sixth . Terence, Horace. 
 
 Seventh . Pindar, Virgil. 
 
 DRAMATIC EXPRESSION. 
 
 First Class. Homer and Shakspeare. 
 
 Second . Virgil. 
 
 Third . Corneille. 
 
 Fourth . Sophocles, Milton, Racine. 
 
 * The reader is requested to observe, that each poet is 
 placed in the following summaries, according to the only 
 order the author's arrangement admits of, viz. a chronological 
 one. 
 
LIFE OF AKEN3IDE. 
 
 101 
 
 Fifth . Euripides, Tasso. 
 
 Sixth . Boileau, Pope. 
 
 Seventh . Terence, Horace, Ariosto, Spenser. 
 
 INCIDENTAL EXPRESSION. 
 
 First Class. Shakspeare. 
 
 Second . Euripides, Pindar, Lucretius, Virgil, Dante, 
 
 Milton, Pope. 
 
 Third . Horace, Spenser, Corneille. 
 
 Fourth . Homer, Sophocles, Ariosto, Racine. 
 
 Fifth . Boileau. 
 
 Sixth . Tasso. 
 
 Seventh . Terence. 
 
 First Class. 
 
 Virgil, Milton. 
 
 Second 
 
 Pindar, Terence, Lucretius, Horace, Spenser, 
 
 
 Boileau, Racine. 
 
 Third 
 
 Homer, Sophocles, Corneille, Pope. 
 
 Fourth 
 
 Ariosto. 
 
 Fifth 
 
 Euripides. 
 
 Sixth 
 
 Dante and Tasso. 
 
 Seventh . 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 COLOURING. 
 
 First Class. Milton. 
 
 Second . Virgil, Horace, Shakspeare, Spenser. 
 
 Third . Homer, Pindar. 
 
 Fourth . Dante, Ariosto, Pope. 
 
 Fifth . Euripides, Sophocles, Terence, Lucretius, Cor- 
 neille, Boileau. 
 
 Sixth . Tasso, Racine. 
 
102 
 
 LIFE OF AKF.NSIDE. 
 
 VERSIFICATION. 
 
 First Class. 
 
 Homer. 
 
 
 
 
 Second 
 
 Virgil, Spenser, Milton. 
 
 
 
 Third 
 
 Lucretius, Horace, 
 
 Tasso, 
 
 Ariosto. 
 
 
 Fourth 
 
 Pope. 
 
 
 
 
 Fifth . 
 
 Dante. 
 
 
 
 
 Sixth 
 
 Boileau. 
 
 
 
 
 Seventh . 
 
 Corneille, Racine. 
 
 
 
 
 Eighth 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 
 
 
 Sophocles, Euripides, Pindar, 
 
 and Terence are 
 
 not num 
 
 bered. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 MORAL. 
 
 First Class. 
 
 Shakspeare, Milton. 
 
 Second 
 
 Homer, Pindar, Virgil, Spenser, Pope. 
 
 Third 
 
 Sophocles, Terence, Corneille, Boileau 
 
 Fourth 
 
 Euripides, Racine. 
 
 Fifth 
 
 Horace, Dante. 
 
 Sixth 
 
 Tasso. 
 
 Seventh . 
 
 Ariosto. 
 
 
 FINAL ESTIMATE. 
 
 First Class. Homer, Shakspeare. 
 Second . Milton*. 
 
 * He pays a fine compliment to Milton in his Ode to the 
 Earl of Huntingdon. 
 
 " Mark, how the dread Pantheon stands, 
 Amid the domes of modern hands : 
 Amid the toys of idle state, 
 How simply, how severely great ! 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE, 10(i 
 
 Third . 
 
 Virgil. 
 
 Fourth . 
 
 Corneille, Spenser. 
 
 Fifth 
 
 Pindar, Sophocles, Horace, Dante, Ariosto, 
 
 
 Racine, Pope. 
 
 Sixth 
 
 Euripides, Tasso*, Boileau. 
 
 Seventh . 
 
 Terence, Lucretius. 
 
 Then turn, and, while each western clime 
 Presents her tuneful sons to time, 
 
 So mark thou Milton's name; 
 And add, ' Thus differs from the throng 
 The spirit, which informed thy awful song; 
 Which bade thy potent voice protect thy country's fame \.'" 
 
 * This low appreciation of Tasso corresponds with a passage 
 in the second book of his poem on the Imagination : 
 
 w Thus from their guardians torn, the tender arts 
 Of mimic fancy and harmonious joy, 
 To priestly domination and the lust 
 Of lawless courts, their amiable toil, 
 For three inglorious ages, have resign 'd 
 In vain reluctant : and Torquaio's tongue 
 Was tuned for slavish paeans at the throne 
 Of tinsel pomp." 
 
 "A lucky word," says Bishop Hurd, in his Letters on 
 Chivalry and Romance, " which sounds well, and every body 
 gets by heart, goes farther than a volume of just criticism. 
 In short, the exact, but cold, Boileau happened to say some- 
 
 t Alluding to the defence of the people of England against 
 Salmasius. 
 
101- LITE OF AK&NSIDE. 
 
 We may now quote two fragments from the 
 pages of Dr. Warton, illustrative of Akenside's 
 
 thing of the clinquant of Tasso : and the magic of this word, 
 like the report of Astolfo's horn in Ariosto, overturned at 
 once the solid and well-built reputation of the Italian poetry. 
 
 " It is not, perhaps, strange, that this potent word should 
 do its business in France. What was less to be expected, it 
 put us into a fright on this side the water. Mr. Addison, 
 who gave the law in taste here, took it up, and sent it about 
 the kingdom in his polite and popular Essays*. It became 
 a sort of watchword among the critics ; and, on the sudden, 
 nothing was heard, on all sides, but the clinquant of Tasso." 
 
 It is curious to observe the presumption of some men, 
 even eminent men as Boileau must certainly be allowed 
 to have been ; though not a great one. Maffei lets out a 
 secret, in respect to him ; for he assures us, that Racine's 
 elder son told him, that Boileau had not only never read 
 Tasso, but that he knew scarcely one word of Italian. 
 
 I cannot but say, that I think Akenside was in some degree 
 deficient in that language also. Had he dipt deeply into that 
 holy fountain, he would, perhaps, in common with Milton, 
 have discovered that Tasso's metal was not tinsel, but solid 
 gold. He would, also, I think, out of regard to so excellent 
 a man, and so lofty a genius, have passed over that part of 
 the poet's life, wherein u his poverty, rather than his will," 
 consented. ft Pardone," said he, in a letter to a friend, 
 " a me quest ardimento di lodar me stesso, poiche to agevol- 
 mente lo perdonata I'importunita d'aver lodati molti contra 
 mia voglia, e contra il proprio giudicio." 
 
 * Spectator, vol. i. No. 5. ; vol. v. No. 369. 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 105 
 
 opinions in regard to correctness of writing ; and 
 the inadequacy of the French language to the ex- 
 pression of poetical ideas. Warton seems to have 
 quoted from the conversation of Akenside. At 
 least, I do not recollect in what book or paper, 
 except in his edition of Pope, the following senti- 
 ments are to be found. 
 
 " 'Tis hard/' said Akenside, u to conceive by what 
 means the French acquired the character of superior 
 correctness. We have classic authors in English, older 
 than in any modern language, except the Italian ; and 
 Spenser and Sidney wrote with the truest taste, when 
 the French had not one great poet they can bear to read. 
 Milton and Chapelin were contemporaries ; the Pucelle 
 
 In a book, printed in black-letter, 1588, entitled The 
 Householder s Phi/osophie, and said to be translated from the 
 Italian of that " excellent orator and poet, Signior Tor- 
 quato Tasso," we have these words: 
 
 " iHani) arc scrbants tig fortune, njat are free h$ nature, 
 antr it is not to fce ntarbailletr at, tfjat mang cruel! conflicts 
 antr traungcrcus toarres are caused antr continued fog sue!) as 
 tfjese. I^otofcett it is a great argument of baseness, tfjat 
 seruile fortune can engender seruile euils in a gentle mintr." 
 Fol. 15. 
 
 This book I take to be an imposition. I see nothing, as- 
 similating with the subject, in any of the general collections 
 of Tasso's works ; but the coincidence of sentiment is re- 
 markable. 
 
106 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 and Paradise Lost were in hand, perhaps frequently, at 
 the seif-same hour. One of them was executed in such 
 a manner, that an Athenian of Menander's age would 
 have turned his eyes from the Minerva of Phidias, or 
 the Venus of Apelles, to obtain more perfect conceptions 
 of beauty from the English poet; the other, though 
 fostered by the French court for twenty years with the 
 utmost indulgence, does honour to the Leonine and the 
 Runic poetry. It was too great an attention to French 
 criticism, that hindered her poets, in Charles the Se- 
 cond's time, from comprehending the genius and ac- 
 knowledging the authority of Milton; else, without 
 looking abroad, they might have acquired a manner more 
 correct and perfect, than French authors could, or can 
 teach them." 
 
 " Were I a Frenchman," said Akenside, " con- 
 cerned for the poetical glory of my country, I should 
 lament its unmusical language, and the impossibility of 
 forming it to numbers or harmony. The French ode 
 is an uncertain mixture of different feet, changing at 
 random the rhythmus or movement of the verse, and dis- 
 appointing one's ear, just as if a dancer in the midst of 
 a minuet should fall a capering in the harlequin step, or 
 break out into a Lancashire hornpipe. Their Alexan- 
 drine measure, which they call heroic, has its pause or 
 caesura in every line in the same place; so that two 
 hammers make just as much music as Racine or Boileau. 
 If this be without remedy in the French language, 
 their language is very unfortunate for Poetry ; but it is 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 107 
 
 diverting to hear these finished critics and masters of 
 correctness valuing themselves upon this wretched, un- 
 musical poverty in their verse, and blaming the licen- 
 tiousness of English poetry ; because it allows a variation 
 of the pause, and a suspension of the period from one 
 verse into any part of another ; without which poetry 
 has less harmony than prose." 
 
 We may now introduce AkensioVs confession of 
 the love and admiration, he always entertained for 
 Greek learning, manners, and sentiments ; and, for 
 the greater variety, we shall adopt the version of 
 the Italian translator. 
 
 " Genio di Grecia, se non tardo i' tenni 
 L'orme tue fide sul difficil calle 
 Di Natura, e Scienza alme nudrici 
 De' bei desiri, e dell' eroiche gesta ; 
 Fa che neli' aura di tua lode il mio 
 Petto s' infiammi ad adeguar Y eccelso 
 Non tentato argomento ; e non fia mai, 
 Che di baldanza alcun m' accusi e adonti., 
 Se nell' ore tranquille d'una sera, 
 Cui pinge April di lusinghevol riso, 
 Fuggo sdegnoso il sordido ricetto 
 Di vile ambizion, del garrir vano, 
 Impaziente di seguirti, o sacro 
 Nume, per le silvestri ombre romite 
 Dal loro infesto pie non tocche ancora. 
 Scendi, O Genio propizio," &c. 
 
 Mazza, I. 721, 
 
108 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 Akenside seems to have been a great friend to 
 Dodsley's Miscellany ; for he occasionally recom- 
 mended papers for insertion in it. Among those, 
 thus recommended, was Welsted's Ode on the Duke 
 of Marlborough *. 
 
 Welsted was an acquaintance of Akenside; but 
 in what estimation he was held, we are not informed. 
 He had a place in the Ordnance office, and a house 
 in the Tower. His great patron was the Duke 
 of Newcastle, and Warburton asserts, that he re- 
 ceived five hundred pounds from the secret service 
 fund for writing anonymously in behalf of the 
 ministry, of which his grace was a member. He 
 was author of a comedy, acted in 1726 in LincolnV 
 Inn-Fields, with some success, entitled " The 
 Dissembled Woman; or, My Son get Money fJ" 
 He wrote, also, in early life, a satire against Pope, 
 called " The Triumvirate;" for which that poet 
 punished him with a parody in the Dunciad. 
 
 1 ' Flow, Yv'elsted, flow ! like thine inspirer, Beer, 
 Though stale, not ripe ; though thin, yet never clear ; 
 
 * War ton. 
 
 t This comedy is supposed to be alluded to in No. 182 
 of the Tatler. 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 109 
 
 So sweetly mawkish, and so smoothly dull; 
 Heady, not strong; o'erflowing, though not full*." 
 
 * Dunciad, III. 169. Pope names him also in his Pro- 
 logue to the Satires : 
 
 " Three thousand suns went down on Welsted's lie." 
 
 " This man had the impudence to tell in print, that 
 Mr. P. had occasioned a lady's death, and to name a person, 
 he never heard of. He also published, that he libelled the 
 Duke of Chandos; with whom (it was added) that he lived 
 in familiarity, and received from him a present of Jive hun- 
 dred pounds: the falsehood of both which is known to his 
 grace. Mr. P. never received any present, farther than the 
 subscription for Homer, from him, or from any great man, 
 whatever." P. 
 
 "Welsted published a translation of Longinus' treatise " On 
 the Sublime." He gave out, that he translated it from the 
 Greek; but the fact was, it was no other than a translation 
 from the French of Boileau. He dedicated it to the Bishop 
 of Winchester. 
 
 He was, also, author of a book (which he inscribed to the 
 Duke of Chandos,) entitled u The Scheme and Conduct of 
 Providence." This consists of observations on that law of 
 the decalogue, which threatens punishment to sons for the 
 crimes of their fathers. 
 
 As a poet, he had some reputation in his day. The fol- 
 lowing specimen is from his Summum Bonum. 
 
 To his great chiefs the conqueror Pyrrhus spoke, 
 
 " Two moons shall wane, and Greece shall own our yoke." 
 
 " Tis well," replied the friend : " admit it so, 
 
 What next?" " Why next to Italy I '11 go, 
 
110 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 In 1749, a company of French Comedians were 
 acting in London by subscription. A part of the 
 public were very indignant at this circumstance ; 
 and Akenside partook of it. But to refuse to listen 
 to the French Drama, because France is our rival, 
 were not only unjust and impolitic ; but absurd, and 
 even ridiculous. Akenside, however, thought other- 
 wise; and, in consequence, wrote what he called 
 the Remonstrance of Shakspeare. As a whole, 
 it is, perhaps, unworthy of the author's genius ; but 
 there is some point in the lines, in which he cha- 
 racterizes the French Drama. 
 
 " Say, does your humble admiration choose 
 
 The gentle prattle of her comic muse ; 
 
 While wits, plain-dealers, fops, and fools, appear, 
 
 Charged to say nought but what the king may hear ? 
 
 Or rather, melts your sympathizing hearts, 
 
 Won by her tragic scenes' romantic arts, 
 
 Where old and young declaim on soft desire, 
 
 And heroes never but for love expire ?" 
 
 And Rome in ashes lay." " What after that?" 
 
 u Waste India's realms." "What then?" "Then sit and 
 
 chat; 
 Then quaff the grape, and mirthful stories tell." 
 " Sir, you may do so now, and full as well." 
 
 Welsted died in 1 717. 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. Ill 
 
 In 1750, Akenside wrote an Ode to William 
 Hall, Esq. of the Middle Temple. Mr. Hall 
 was an intimate friend of Markland, who inscribed 
 to him his Qucestio Grammatka. He ranked, also, 
 among his friends, Lord Jersey, Lord Clarendon, 
 Lord Hampden, and the first Lord Camden. His 
 manners partook of the society he had kept; he 
 had a good person, and a pleasing countenance. 
 He was, besides, a man not only gifted with a fine 
 taste in subjects of art and literature ; but he was 
 a poet of no mean order. His translation from 
 Anacreon* is universally known; and the follow- 
 ing sonnet to Mr. Nicholas Hardinge, on the first 
 impression of Lauder's Forgeries, reminds us of 
 several sonnets, written by the poet, that he cele- 
 brates. 
 
 te Hardinge f ! firm advocate of Milton's fame ! 
 
 Avenge the honour of his injured muse ! 
 
 The bold Salmasius dared not so accuse, 
 And brand him, living, with a felons name ! 
 
 In the dead of the night, when with labour opprest, 
 All mortals enjoy the sweet blessings of rest, 
 
 A Lnv knnnlr'rl at mv rlnnr. Rrn. &ro. 
 
 iin mortals enjoy uie sweet oiessin^ 
 A boy knock'd at my door, &c. &c. 
 
 t Mr. Nicholas Hardinge was a very able critic, and was 
 the first who gave the true reading in a remarkable passage 
 
112 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 Arch-forger, cursed poison to infuse 
 
 In Eve's chaste ear, her freedom to abuse : 
 That lurking fiend, Ithuriel's arm and flame, 
 
 iEtherial gifts detected: but this plot 
 Thou hast an arm, and spear, that can expose; 
 
 With lashes keen, drive, to that traitorous spot. 
 The nurse of base impostors, to his snows, 
 
 And barren mountains, the blaspheming Scot !" 
 
 in one of Horace's Odes. Dr. Bentley was struck with it, 
 and passed a very high but singular commendation of it, 
 characteristic of his own pedantry and wit. A whimsical 
 appeal was made to him, when he was clerk of the House 
 of Commons : Pulteney and Sir Robert Walpole were squab- 
 bling; and the former playfully told the latter, that his 
 Latin was as bad as his politics. He had quoted a line 
 from Horace*, and Pulteney insisted that he had rawquoted 
 it. The other would not give it up. A guinea was laid, 
 and Mr. Hardinge was the arbiter ; who rcse with a very 
 droll solemnity, and gave it against his own patron, Sir 
 Robert. The guinea was thrown across the house, which 
 Pulteney took up, saying, it was " the first public money 
 that he had touched for a long time" He had formerly been 
 in office. It should be added, to make the anecdote com- 
 plete, that at Pulteney 's death, the individual guinea was 
 found, wrapped up in a piece of paper, with a memorandum 
 upon it, recording the circumstance. Nichols. 
 
 * " His murus aheneus esto 
 
 Nil conscire sibi, nulla pallesccre culpa, 
 
 Sir Robert repeated it, " nulli pallesccre culpa-" 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 113 
 
 In spite, however, of all the elegances, by which 
 Mr. Hall was distinguished, there was one passion, 
 to which he was most culpably devoted the love 
 of women : and it was this passion, that induced 
 Akenside to address him with an ode, accompanied 
 with the poems of de Chaulieu, whom he seems to 
 have, in some respects, resembled # . 
 
 * The Abbe de Chaulieu was born at his father's seat at 
 Fontenai, in the Vexen-Normand, in 1639. An excellent 
 education, joined with quick natural parts, and an easy 
 gaiety of disposition, soon rendered him the delight of ele- 
 gant society, and in particular gained him the friendship of 
 the great Duke of Vendome, and his brother, the grand- 
 prior of Malta. They treated him with familiarity, and gave 
 him the management of their affairs, which they repaid with 
 several benefices of considerable value. He, also, possessed 
 the Lordship of Fontenai ; so that he was enabled to follow 
 at his ease the pleasurable life, to which he was addicted. 
 His apartments at the Temple, in Paris, were the resort of 
 a society of lettered friends, whom he charmed by the liveli- 
 ness of his conversation, and the amiable qualities of his 
 heart. 
 
 The poetry, by which Chaulieu distinguished himself, is 
 a mixture of the voluptuous and sentimental, partaking of 
 the gaiety of Anacreon, and the philosophical good-humour 
 of Horace. He was the poetical pupil of Chapelle, whom he 
 imitated in the easy negligence of his verse, and the occa- 
 sional use of double rhymes. Though he was superior to what 
 Pope has denominated "the mob of gentlemen, who write 
 with ease ;" yet he is rather to be classed with the careless 
 
 I 
 
114 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 In this Ode, the poet condemns the licentious- 
 ness of Chaulieu ; but he makes a concession, to 
 which it is impossible to accede. 
 
 <e We own, had Fate to man assign'd 
 Nor sense, nor wish, but what obey 
 Or Venus soft or Bacchus gay ; 
 
 Then might our bard's voluptuous creed 
 
 Most aptless govern human-kind : 
 Unless, perchance, what he hath sung 
 Of tortur'd joints and nerves unstrung, 
 
 Some wrangling heretic should plead." 
 
 Akenside seems, for a moment, to forget, that 
 temperance must, in all cases, be the best luxury ; 
 and that wisdom and virtue are the best rewards. 
 
 men of genius, than with the masters of the art. Voltaire, 
 in his " Temple of Taste/' has thus characterized him : 
 
 Je vis arriver en ce lieu 
 
 Le brillant Abbe de Chaulieu, 
 
 Qui chantoit en sortant de table. 
 
 II osoit caresser le Dieu 
 
 D'un air familier, mais aimable. 
 
 Sa vive imagination 
 
 Prodiguoit, dans sa douce ivresse, 
 
 Des beautes sans correction, 
 
 Qui chocquoient un peu la justesse, 
 
 Et respiroient la passion. 
 
 This Epicurean, notwithstanding frequent attacks of the 
 gout, lived to his 81st year; dying at Paris in 1720. 
 Aikin from Moreri. 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 115 
 
 In 1766, Mr. Hall retired to Bath, to take the 
 benefit of the waters, and there fell into a state, 
 says the Hon. George Hardinge, perhaps unex- 
 ampled in the philosophy of human decay. " He 
 became first weak, then childish ; and from that 
 idiotcy emerged into the wildest paroxysm of de- 
 lirium, in which he died # ." 
 
 Akenside had been some time acquainted with 
 the celebrated Charles Townsend, brother of the 
 first Marquis of Townsend ; one of the best par- 
 liamentary speakers of his timef ; in 1754 a Lord 
 
 * December, 1766. 
 
 t His oratorical powers are thus described by Mr. Burke. 
 <* You understand, that I speak of Charles Townsend, whom 
 I cannot even now remember without some degree of sensi- 
 bility. In truth, he was the delight and ornament of this 
 house, and the charm of every private society which he 
 honoured with his presence. Perhaps there never arose in 
 this country, nor in any country, a man of a more pointed 
 and finished wit; and (where his passions were not con- 
 cerned) of a more refined, exquisite, and penetrating judg- 
 ment. If he had not so great a stock, as some have had, who 
 flourished formerly, of knowledge, long treasured up, he 
 knew better by far, than any man I ever was acquainted 
 with, how to bring together in a short time, all that was ne- 
 cessary to establish, to illustrate, and to decorate that side of 
 the question he supported. He stated his matter skilfully 
 and powerfully. He particularly excelled in a most luminous 
 explanation and display of his subject. His style of argu- 
 
 i2 
 
116 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 of the Admiralty, and, subsequently, Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer. 
 
 To this eminent person, who was, no doubt, one 
 of Akenside^ patients *, the poet addressed two 
 Odes. The first is not distinguished by any pass- 
 age of interest, if we except the allusions to the 
 affliction, with which the poet had been visited on 
 the loss of Olympia. The second seems to have 
 
 ment was neither trite and vulgar, nor subtle and abstruse. 
 He hit the house just between wind and tide. And not being 
 troubled with too anxious a zeal for any matter in question, 
 he was never tedious, or more earnest, than the preconceived 
 opinions and present temper of the house ; and he seemed to 
 guide, because he was always sure to follow it. 
 
 " There are many young members in the house (such, of 
 late, has been the rapid succession of public men), who never 
 saw that prodigy, Charles Townsend; nor of course know 
 what a ferment he was able to excite in every thing by the 
 violent ebullition of his mixed virtues and failings, for 
 failings he had undoubtedly many of us remember them 
 we are this day considering the effect of them. But he had 
 no failings, which were not owing to a noble cause ; to an 
 ardent, generous, perhaps an immoderate passion for fame ; 
 a passion, which is the instinct of all great souls." 
 
 * " Oh ! knew'st thou how the balmy air, 
 The sun, the azure heav'ns, prepare 
 
 To heal thy languid frame ; 
 No more would noisy courts engage, 
 In vain would lying faction's rage 
 
 Thy sacred leisure claim." 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 117 
 
 been written while he was upon a visit to Mr. 
 Townsend in the country; and, like the ode to the 
 Earl of Huntingdon, breathes all that an English- 
 man can desire. Their friendship was, however, at 
 last dissolved. 
 
 Johnson endeavoured to explain this friendship 
 on grounds, not justified by the premises. " Sir,*" 
 said he to Boswell, " a man is very apt to complain 
 of the ingratitude of those, who have risen far above 
 him. A man, when he gets into a higher sphere, 
 into other habits of life, cannot keep up all his 
 former connexions. Then, sir, those who knew 
 him formerly, upon a level with themselves, may 
 think they ought to be treated as on a level, which 
 cannot be. An acquaintance in a former situation 
 may bring out things, which would be very dis- 
 agreeable to have mentioned before higher company; 
 though, perhaps, every body knows of them. This 
 dissolved the friendship of Akenside and Charles 
 Townsend." But this is no appropriate instance, 
 as Mr. Croker justly observes in his late compre- 
 hensive edition of BoswelFs Life of Johnson. 
 " Charles Townsend, the nephew of the Prime 
 Minister, the son of a peer, who was Secretary of 
 State, and leader of the House of Commons, was as 
 much above Akenside in their earliest days, as at 
 
118 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 any subsequent period. Nor was Akenside in rank 
 inferior to Dr. Brocklesby, with whom Charles 
 Townsend continued in intimate friendship, to the 
 end of his life." >-> 
 
 In 1751 appeared a work, under the title of 
 " Memoires pour servir a VHistoire de la Maison 
 de Bra?idebourg" This work, being written by 
 Frederic, king of Prussia, was universally read 
 throughout Europe. It contained many extraor- 
 dinary passages, and among the rest the two fol- 
 lowing: 
 
 " II sefit une migration (the author is speaking of what 
 happened of the Revocation of Nantz*), dont on navoit guere 
 vu d'exemples dans Vhistoire: un peuple entier sortit du 
 royaume par t esprit de parti en haine du pape, et pour re- 
 cevoir sous un autre ciel la communion sous les deux espsces : 
 quatre cens mille ames s'expatrierent ainsi et abandonnerent 
 tous leur biens pour detonner dans d'autres temples les vieux 
 pseaumes de Clement Marot." 
 
 ls La crainte donna lejour a la credulite, et V amour propre 
 interessa bientot le ciel au destin des hommes" 
 
 Perceiving the consequences of these passages on 
 the minds of the ignorant ; more especially since 
 they proceeded from so high a quarter, Akenside 
 wrote an ode to the author. This ode has nothing 
 
 *M. A. 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 119 
 
 very remarkable ; but there is one stanza, and that 
 a very fine one, which we may quote, because it re- 
 spects not only the general argument, but another, 
 he had assumed in his " Pleasures of Imagination ;" 
 viz. that ridicule is the test of truth. 
 
 "O evil foresight, and pernicious care! 
 Wilt thou indeed abide by this appeal ? 
 Shall we the lessons of thy pen compare 
 With private honour, or with public zeal? 
 Whence, then, at things divine those darts of scorn? 
 Why are the woes, which virtuous men have borne 
 For sacred truth, a prey to laughter given ? 
 What fiend, what foe of nature, urged thy arm 
 Th' Almighty of his sceptre to disarm, 
 To push this earth adrift, and leave it loose from Heav'n V 
 
 Three years after, following the same course, 
 Akenside wrote an ode to the truly admirable 
 Hoadley, Bishop of Winchester ; an excellent man, 
 a constitutional politician, and a truly Christian 
 bishop. He had been, successively, Bishop of 
 Bangor, Hereford, and Salisbury; and having long 
 been actively engaged in the endeavour to awaken 
 and keep alive a regard to civil and political liberty, 
 Akenside's ode operated not only as a farther ex- 
 citement, but as a reward : for the virtues of the 
 bishop are celebrated in the best manner; and his 
 
1^0 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 principles recommended to the observance and pre-- 
 servation of all after times # . 
 
 In July, 1755, Akenside read the Gulstonian 
 Lectures before the College of Physicians. In these 
 lectures, he advanced opinions, relative to the 
 lymphatic vessels of animals, in decisive opposition 
 to those of Boerhaave. These opinions may be 
 gathered from the following abstract. " lhat the 
 lymphatics in genera] have their origin among the 
 little cavities of the cellular substance of the muscles, 
 among the mucous solliculi of the tendons, or the 
 membranous receptacles and ducts of the larger 
 glands: that their extremities or roots imbibe from 
 these cavities the moisture, exhaled there from the 
 ultimate arterial tubes, just as the lacteals, which 
 are the lymphatics of the mesentery, do on the con- 
 cave surface of the intestines ; and that the minute 
 imbibing vessels, by gradually opening one into 
 another, fojrn, at length, a lymphatic trunk, fur- 
 nished with valves to prevent the return of its fluid, 
 and tending uniformly from the extremities and 
 from the viscera, to reconvey to the blood that 
 
 * Bishop Hoadley was frequently styled by his adversaries, 
 the Republican Bishop; but the learned and admirable 
 Lowth, in his Life of Wickham, calls him " the great ad- 
 vocate of civil and religious liberty." 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 121 
 
 lymph, or that fine steam, with which they are kept 
 in perpetual moisture ; a circumstance indispensable 
 to life and motion ; while, at the same time, the 
 continual re-absorption of that moisture, by the 
 lymphatics, is no less necessary to preserve the 
 blood properly fluid, and to prevent the putrefac- 
 tion, which would inevitably follow, if this animal 
 vapour were suffered to stagnate in the cavities, 
 where it is discharged."" 
 
 This theory, Akenside asserts, he drew out for 
 himself; and before the delivery of which before 
 the College of Surgeons, no public mention had 
 been made. These observations, he goes on to 
 assure us, he did not print at the time. But a dis- 
 pute having, afterwards, arisen between two other 
 gentlemen, who each claimed for himself the honour 
 of the discovery, Akenside was prevailed upon to 
 give in, at a meeting of the Royal Society, so much 
 of his lectures, as related to the subject in question. 
 This portion of the lectures was, in consequence, 
 laid before the Royal Society; and it being read 
 in the presence of several gentlemen, who had, 
 formerly, heard the lectures themselves, the paper 
 was published in the Philosophical Transactions by 
 the Council of the Royal Society. It was, there- 
 fore, with no small surprise and indignation, that 
 
122 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 Akenside learnt, some time after, that Dr. Alexander 
 Munro, Professor of Anatomy at Edinburgh, had 
 published some Remarks, in a Postscript to a Pam- 
 phlet, entitled Observations, Anatomical and Phy- 
 siological ; insinuating, that Akenside did not dis- 
 cover his conjecture, relative to the lymphatic ves- 
 sels of animals, until Dr. Monro's Treatise on the 
 same lymphatics had been sent to England. 
 
 Akenside's observations had been addressed to 
 the College of Surgeons in 1755. The publication 
 of them took place in 1757; Dr. Monro's Treatise 
 arrived in England in 1756. It was impossible, 
 therefore, that Akenside could have taken the idea 
 from Dr. Monro, as the statement of the latter im- 
 plied : But had the observations been printed in 
 the Philosophical Transactions, without any testi- 
 mony to prove, that they had been previously read 
 before the College of Surgeons, Akenside would 
 have had no small trouble to convince the world, 
 that he was indeed the original discoverer. The me- 
 mory of Akenside has been, in fact, strangely neg- 
 lected by medical men ; and it will give me great 
 pleasure, should these pages become the humble 
 instrument of his being, hereafter, more adequately 
 appreciated. 
 
 I think it probable, that what was said of Dr. 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 123 
 
 Garth might be, with equal justice, applied to Dr. 
 Akenside; viz. that no physician knew his art 
 more, nor his trade less*. 
 
 The year 1757 is remarkable in the life of Aken- 
 side, for his having completed the first book of his 
 second poem on the Pleasures of the Imagination. 
 
 In 1758 he wrote his Ode to the Country Gen- 
 tlemen of England. The poet-laureate, White- 
 head, also published " verses to the people of Eng- 
 land," at the same time ; in the same same form ; 
 and at the same price f . 
 
 " This ode," says Mr. Justice Hardinge, in a 
 
 * " Garth was a man/' says Warton J, " of the sweetest 
 disposition, amiable manners, and universal benevolence; 
 all parties, at a time when party violence was at a great 
 height, joined in praising and loving him." And here I 
 cannot deny myself the pleasure of quoting Pope's opinion of 
 the physicians of his time. 
 
 " There is no end of my kind treatment from the faculty/' 
 said he, in a letter to Mr. Allen a few weeks before he died. 
 " They are, in general, the most amiable companions, and 
 the best friends, as well as most learned men I know" He 
 can have but a very limited knowledge of society, who cannot 
 apply this to the medical men of the present age, as well as 
 to that which is passed. 
 
 t Quarto, sixpence. 
 
 J Ed. of Pope, Vol. I. p. 75. 
 
124 JJFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 letter to Mr. Nichols, " is unequal ; but it has glo- 
 rious passages in it. Mr. Elliott, father of Lord 
 Minto, made an admirable speech in support of the 
 Scotch militia, which I had the good fortune to hear, 
 when I was a boy : and it was reported, that when 
 commended, as he was, on every side, for that per- 
 formance ; ' If I was above myself, 1 answered he, 
 f I can account for it ; for I had been animated by 
 the sublime ode of Dr. Akenside.' " 
 
 The criticisms of cotemporaries on eminent lite- 
 rary characters are of little authority, while those 
 characters are living ; but they become interesting 
 in the distant time. With this impression I insert 
 a criticism on this poem, from the Monthly Review. 
 " The poetical productions of this twofold disciple 
 of Apollo" have this peculiar excellence; they 
 
 * This title was first given to Akenside in Cooper's Call 
 of Aristippus. 
 
 1 ( O thou, for whom the British bays 
 
 Bloom in these unpoetic days, 
 Whose early genius glow'd to follow 
 
 The arts through Nature's ancient ways, 
 Two-fold disciple of Apollo ! 
 
 Shall Aristippus' easy lays, 
 
 Trifles of philosophic pleasure, 
 
 Composed in literary leisure, 
 Aspire to gain thy deathless praise ? " 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 125 
 
 uniformly glow with the sacred fire of liberty ; in- 
 asmuch that our public-spirited doctor well deserves 
 to be styled the poet of the community. In this 
 light we have read his Ode to the Country Gentle- 
 men of England, with peculiar satisfaction. It is 
 spirited, manly, and sufficiently poetical, for those 
 to whom it is addressed ; and as, in former times, 
 the halls of our rural ancestors were adorned with 
 passages from our old chronicles, so we heartily 
 wish, that most of the stanzas of this patriotic per- 
 formance were to supply the place, in our modern 
 mansions, of race-horses, Newmarket jockies, and 
 the trophies of the chase. ,, 
 
 Soon after writing this poem, the author was 
 seized with a violent sickness ; to facilitate his re-, 
 covery from which, he retired, for a short time, to 
 Goulder's Hill, the seat of Mr. Dyson ; where he 
 had the satisfaction of hailing the arrival of a lady, 
 whom his friend had recently married. To this 
 agreeable circumstance he alludes in an ode, written 
 on the occasion of his recovery. Never, in fact, was 
 
 Another writer * says, his Attic urn was 
 
 " Fill'd from Ilyssus by the Naiad's hand." 
 
 * Author of the Epistle to Christopher Anstey, Esq. 
 
126 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 any friendship more beautiful than that, subsisting 
 between these excellent persons ! 
 
 <c While around his sylvan scene 
 
 My Dyson led the white- wing'd hours; 
 Oft from th' Athenian academic bowers 
 Their sages came ; oft heard our lingering walk ; 
 The Mantuan music, warbling o'er the green, 
 And oft did Tully's reverend shade, 
 Though much for liberty afraid, 
 With us of letter'd ease or virtuous glory talk. 
 
 But other guests were on their way, 
 And reach'd, ere long, this favour'd grove ; 
 Ev'n the celestial progeny of Jove, 
 Bright Venus ! with her all-subduing son, 
 Whose golden shaft most willingly obey 
 The best and wisest. As they came, 
 Glad Hymen waved his genial flame, 
 And sang their happy gifts, and praised their spotless throne. 
 
 I saw, when through yon festive gate 
 He led along his chosen maid, 
 And to my friend with smiles presenting said : 
 ' Receive that fairest wealth, which Heaven assign'd 
 To human fortune. Did thy lonely state 
 One wish, one utmost hope, confess ? 
 Behold ! she comes t' adorn and bless; 
 Comes, worthy of thy heart, and equal to thy mind.' " 
 
 Though Akenside never married, it is evident 
 from many passages in his poems, that he was 
 sensibly alive to the comforts of a married state. 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 127 
 
 The loss of Parthenia occurred in early youth ; 
 that of Olympia in maturer manhood : 
 
 Far other vows must I prefer 
 To thy indulgent power ; 
 Alas ! but now I paid ray tear 
 On fair Olympia's virgin tomb, 
 And lo, from thence, in quest 1 roam 
 Of Philomela's bower/' 
 
 Akenside, like many a valiant knight, had laughed 
 at love, when love was at a distance * ; but there 
 seems to have been no period of his life, in which 
 he was not sensible to its impressions. Parthenia and 
 Olympia he lost, when upon the eve of marriage 
 with them ; but he celebrates other ladies, and 
 speaks of them even with affection ; Amoret f and 
 Melissa %. To which of these he alludes in his 
 ode, entitled the Complaint, we are left to con- 
 jecture. 
 
 " I know, I see 
 Her merit, needs it now be shown, 
 
 Alas ! to me ? 
 How often to myself unknown 
 
 * See particularly his Elegy on Love ; his Ode on Love 
 and his Ode to a Friend, unsuccessful in Love. 
 f Ode x. b. ii. 
 X P. of I. second poem, i. v. 366. 
 
128 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 The graceful, gentle, virtuous maid 
 Have I admired ! How often said 
 What joy to call a heart like hers one's own !" 
 
 The feelings of Akenside, at length, relapsed 
 almost into indifference ; but he was always alive 
 to the irksome destitution of comfort, which attends 
 a protracted life of celibacy. " Let the busy, or the 
 wise/"' says he, in one of his odes 
 
 u Let the busy or the wise 
 View him with contemptuous eyes, 
 
 Love is native to the heart. 
 Guide its wishes as you will, 
 IViihout love you HI find it still 
 Void in one essential fart. 
 
 Me, though no peculiar fair 
 Touches with a lover's care, 
 
 Though the pride of my desire 
 Asks immortal Friendship's name, 
 Asks the palm of honest fame, 
 
 And the old heroic lyre j 
 
 Though the day have smoothly gone, 
 Or to letter d leisure known, 
 
 Or in social duty spent, 
 Yet, at eve, my lonely breast 
 Seeks in vain for perfect rest, 
 
 Languishes for true content." 
 
 Akenside's respect for women peeps out every 
 where. In one passage he calls them " chief of ter- 
 restrial nature." 
 
LITE OF AKENSIDE. 129 
 
 -" What sublimer pomp 
 
 Adorns the sect, where Virtue dwells on earth, 
 And Truth's eternal day-light shines around ; 
 What palm belongs to Man's imperial front, 
 And Woman, powerful with becoming smiles, 
 Chief of terrestrial nature! need we now 
 Strive to inculcate?" 
 
 Having, in a former page, alluded to Dr. John- 
 son's slender appreciation of Akenside's Hymn to 
 the Naiads, we may now insert his opinion in re- 
 gard to the odes. But first in respect to the Plea- 
 sures of the Imagination. 
 
 " Mr. Murphy said, * the Memoirs of Gray r, s 
 Life set him much higher in his estimation than 
 his poems did ; for you there saw a man con- 
 stantly at work in literature.'' Johnson acquiesced 
 in this, but depreciated the book ; I thought very 
 unreasonably : for he said, c I forced myself to read 
 it, only because it was the common topic of con- 
 versation. I found it mighty dull ; and as for the 
 style, it was fit for the second table.** Why he 
 thought so, I was at a loss to conceive. He now 
 gave it as his opinion, that Akenside was a superior 
 poet both to Gray and Mason." 
 
 "I see they have published a splendid edition 
 of Akenside's works," said Johnson, on another 
 
 K 
 
130 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 occasion : " one bad ode may be suffered ; but a 
 number of them makes one sick." 
 
 " Akenside's distinguished poem is on the Ima- 
 gination, 1 '' answered Boswell ; " but for my part, I 
 never could admire it, so much as most people do." 
 
 " Sir," said Johnson, " I could not read it 
 through.* 
 
 u I have read it through," returned Boswell, 
 " but I could observe no great power in it." 
 
 That Johnson, who does not appear to have en- 
 joyed much pleasure from the higher orders either 
 of poetry, painting, music, or architecture, should 
 not be able to read the Pleasures of the Imagina- 
 tion through, is not much to be wondered at; 
 that Boswell should have been able to recognize no 
 great power in it is still less to be admired : since 
 beauty and grandeur do not so much exist in the 
 objects observed, as in the mind, observing. 
 
 The fame of Akenside, as a physician, seems 
 now to have acquired some stability. In January, 
 1759, he was appointed assistant physician to St. 
 Thomas's Hospital, and two months after principal 
 physician ; and in the same year assistant physician 
 to Christ's Hospital. 
 
 The next year, 1760, was distinguished by the 
 
LIFT, OF AKENSIDE. 131 
 
 publication of an oration*, delivered before the 
 College of Surgeons. The title stands thus : 
 
 " Oratio anniversaria, quam ex Harveii institutio in 
 Theatro Collegii Regalis medicorum Londine?isis, die Oct. 
 xviii. A. MDCCLIX, habuit Marcus Akenside, M. D. Coll. 
 Med. et Reg. Societ. Socios. Bodsley. MDCCLX" 
 
 This oration was dedicated to Dr. Reeve : 
 
 u Viro eximio Thomce Reeve, M. D. Prcesidi dignissimo, 
 et sociis doctissimis Collegii Regalis Medicorum Londinensis, 
 hanc orationem illorum Jussu editam, D. D. D. Marcus 
 Akenside f." 
 
 A copy of this work Akenside, soon after pub- 
 lication, sent as a present to Dr. Birch, who left it 
 to the British Museum ; in the library of which it 
 
 Dodsley, 4to. One Shilling. 
 
 f " Pope has not, in his art of criticism, followed the 
 examples of the ancients, in addressing their didactic poems 
 to some particular person ; as Hesiod to Perses ; Lucretius to 
 Memmius; Virgil to Mecaenas; Horace to the Pisosj Ovid, his 
 Fasti, to Germanicus ; Oppian to Caracalla. In later times 
 Fracastorius addressed P. Bembo; Vida the Dauphin of 
 France. But neither Boileau in his art, nor Roscommon, 
 nor Buckingham, in their Essays, nor Armstrong, nor Aken- 
 side, have followed this practice." Wartons Pope, i. 270. 
 
 This error of Warton, in respect to Akenside, may be cor- 
 rected by referring to page 32. 
 
 K 2 
 
132 LIFE OF AKENS1DE. 
 
 still remains, with the following MS. memorandum: 
 Tho. Birch, donum authoris, Marin 20, 1760. 
 
 We may here devote a short space to Mr. Jus- 
 tice Hardinge. " The first I can recollect of 
 my own personal acquaintance with Dr. Akenside's 
 name and muse," says he, in a letter to Mr. Nichols, 
 " was my father's recital to me, when I was a boy 
 at Eton school, of the Invocation to Ancient Greece, 
 in that celebrated poem, which has been so depre- 
 ciated by Dr. Johnson, that I fear no error of judg- 
 ment and of taste, manifest in that criticism, can 
 redeem the censure from heavier imputations. This 
 inspired passage, as I think still, was recommended 
 additionally to me by the charm of recitation, in 
 which not even Garrick himself could be superior 
 to Mr. Nicholas Hardinge, though he had no 
 musical ear. But his reading' and repeating ear, 
 if I may use that phrase, was exquisite. It is very 
 singular, but it is true, that Akenside was not a 
 ffood reader of his own verse." Nor were Addison 
 or Thomson. Virgil, on the contrary, was a very 
 fine reader. 
 
 Mr. Justice Hardinge was a very peculiar person ; 
 and left behind him the character of " possessing, 
 rather than profiting by great talents." He had a 
 very expressive countenance, and was possessed of 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 133 
 
 an admirable temper : his manners were playful, and 
 his zeal, in favour of those he protected, is said to 
 have been ardent and unremitting. He was nephew 
 to the great Lord Camden ; many years solicitor 
 to Queen Charlotte; and one of the justices for the 
 counties of Glamorgan, Radnor, and Brecon. He had 
 a due knowledge of legal subjects : but his manner 
 in court was, occasionally, intemperate and not suf- 
 ficiently dignified. His charges, however, were 
 greatly admired. Having been some years connected 
 with the principality, I have frequently heard his 
 addresses to grand-jurymen ; and could not but be 
 greatly struck with the elegance of his manner, the 
 force of his declamation, the pliability of his deport- 
 ment, and his happy facility in making classical allu- 
 sions. The manner in which he delivered his charge, 
 in respect to Napoleon, I shall never forget*. 
 
 " Here, at this period of our intercourse, I should part 
 with you, but for the times. They call upon me with an 
 imperious voice, to animate the high spirit of the day, 
 under your wing, if it should be the last breath of my life. 
 That high spirit beams upon us with a golden ray of hope, 
 that we have a deliverance at hand from the base impostor, 
 as well as the usurping tyrant, of the continent, who 
 would have degraded us and you, if the hand-writing on 
 the wall had not convinced him, that slavery and life 
 never can be reconciled in British adversaries. The most 
 enlightened city of the civilized world, which is, in other 
 
134 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 He was, also, a poet and a critic ; of which a few 
 specimens may not be disagreeable ; since he was a 
 friend, and, for the most part, a great admirer of 
 
 words, to name the City of London, has countersigned, 
 with all the sanction of its proud name, and with all the 
 eloquence of its public spirit, our interesting appeal to 
 the God of battles in the patriot army of Spain. Upon 
 similar occasions I have attested your zeal for your king, 
 and for his government, when your independent mind has 
 approved their conduct. In honour to that independence, 
 I dare not to recommend; but I have the courage to express 
 a sanguine hope, that you will not part, before you have 
 pledged congenial sentiments in your address to the king, 
 and through him to the country, which I will gratefully and 
 proudly forward unto his majesty's hand. We are not only 
 enlisted in the same host, but we are enrolled in the same 
 principle, which is British at the heart's core. It is the 
 cause of native rights and of national independence; it is 
 the generous hatred of a tyrant, whom nothing but the sword 
 can meet who violates every engagement betrays every 
 confidence has polluted every thing he has touched and 
 is, in a human shape, the pestilence not only of the legitimate 
 government, but of the moral world. He has been com- 
 pared, by depraved or timid sycophants, to Alexander and 
 Caesar. The compliment is basely false: those criminal 
 heroes, in their frenzy of ambition, had lucid intervals of 
 clemency, of graceful conduct, and of social virtue : nothing 
 of the kind has yet escaped from him. His resemblance to 
 our usurper, Cromwell, is a little more close ; but he was an 
 observer of treaties, and kept his enemies at bay by his arms 
 not by the tenor of his friendship, the worst of all this 
 tyrant's enmities. 
 
LIFE OF AK EN SIDE. lo5 
 
 the poet, whose life and mind I have undertaken to 
 delineate. 
 
 " Amongst his accumulated perfidies, let me offer to your 
 notice (in a bird's-eye view) his conduct in Spain : 
 
 * Show me his picture ! Let me see his eyes ! 
 That when I note another man like him, 
 I may avoid him.' 
 
 He was the ally of Spain he was debtor to that power for 
 important services he obtained its confidence. He disunited 
 the king from the heir-apparent, his own son he made that 
 son his hero he fomented this family discord into a civil 
 war. He then took upon himself the office of mediator, with 
 an army at his heels, erected an intermediate government in 
 a subordinate janissary's hand, and poured his French troops 
 into the capital of the empire. He took the king, the heir- 
 apparent, and the queen of Spain, with him ; he bound them 
 hand and foot; he made the king and his heir successively 
 abdicate their crown, when they were as free as the felon, 
 who is confined in your gaol ; he made oh infamy of horror ! 
 this queen bastardize her own legitimate son, and branded 
 herself as a degraded prostitute ! He then quoted those very 
 infamies against them in Spain, as proving them unworthy to 
 return, and base to their country. Opposed in these detestable 
 perfidies, he murdered thousands of Spaniards in cold blood ; 
 and at last insulted that high-spirited nation with his in- 
 famous brother's election, by him, to the vacant throne ! 
 
 " It is this man we are to fight ; our own deliverance and 
 that of Europe are combined we are to fight him locally in 
 Spain. But I address men of good sense, equal to their high 
 spirits. They will follow me in the sentiment, that Spain is 
 Britain, that her cause will be felt in every inch of her coast, 
 and of the island we inhabit." 
 
136 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 HINTS OF THE WELSH JUDGE'S CAVALUY*. 
 
 U The Fates have doom'd without remorse 
 Me, to an old and wheezing horse, 
 Unless, to shift the parted blame, 
 I take another, which is lame. 
 A mirror of the rider's fate 
 Appears in his equestrian state ; 
 It's like his fortune's lingering death, 
 It's lame, it's old, it's out of breath." 
 
 In another poem he fables, that he, one day, saw 
 his full-bottomed wig, stripped of its curls, and 
 swept into a corner of a passage ; upon which, he 
 addressed the disconsolate judicial ornament, as if 
 it could hear and speak : 
 
 " Emblem of all state and power, 
 Wing and feather of an hour ! 
 Injured curl ! whose awful trace 
 Once adorn'd a Judge's face ; 
 Once, as frightened Cambria saw, 
 Was the Dignity of Law ; 
 When its penthouse overhung 
 The Judicial Pedant's tongue; 
 And his venerable head 
 Could assume the weight of lead. 
 
 * He generally rode the circuit ; and every now and then 
 took pleasure in disappointing the sheriffs, by taking a by- 
 road into the town, in which he was, the moment after his 
 arrival, to sit as Chief Judge. He is still remembered in 
 South Wales j particularly amongst the ladies. 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 13" 
 
 Then his thunder could appal 
 
 Guilt-convicted in the Hall ; 
 
 Then, with a becoming fury, 
 
 He could reprobate a jury ; 
 
 Or could point his whipping wrath 
 
 At a Felon's table-cloth *. 
 
 Then protection he could pledge 
 
 To a rag upon a hedge. 
 
 Now the comb, as in despair, 
 
 Shuns the abdicated hair ; 
 
 And the Maid's oblivious broom 
 
 Seems to ridicule the doom. 
 
 From the lethargy of rest 
 
 Who shall raise thy dormant crest? 
 
 April soon will pass away ; 
 
 Oh, beware the^r^ of Mayi! 
 
 Rather warn the felon crows, 
 
 Where the ripening herbage grows ; 
 
 Where, though mute, thy sapient form 
 
 Still its terrors can reform ; 
 
 Than degrade thee out of Court, 
 
 For the gazer's common sport ; 
 
 Prohibiting all thy power 
 
 To the mob's insulting hour. 
 
 * " He had censured a jury for acquitting a murderer; 
 and had sentenced a man to be whipped for stealing a table- 
 cloth from a hedge." 
 
 t c( Nothing is more shamefully familiar upon these Sa- 
 turnalia to the common eye, than a judge's wig upon the 
 face of a chimney-sweeper." 
 
138 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 Thus when hair again was grown, 
 Samson made his prowess known, 
 To derision's cruel mirth, 
 By its immolated worth/' 
 
 EPITAPH ON HIMSELF. 
 
 " Here 's the old Boy, whose heart was never cold, 
 Fond as in youth, when all the rest was old. 
 He without pain from house and land could part ; 
 But if he lost a rhyme, it broke his heart. 
 In vanities gay Villiers he surpass'd, 
 The new-born whims improving on the last: 
 Yet has this lunatic one truth impress'd 
 That Fools are happy, and that life 's a jest." 
 
 As a specimen of criticism we may select the fol- 
 lowing letter addressed to Mr. Mudford: 
 
 " I am not such an enthusiast for Lord Byron as 
 you are, and I confess that I think Walter Scott 
 very superior to him ; Crabbe, though a mannerist, 
 is a particular favourite of mine. Rogers and Camp- 
 bell have a thousand beauties. Lord Byron is un- 
 questionably a gifted creature, full of genius, fancy, and 
 poetical effect ; but he is desultory and unequal. His 
 thoughts are often bold and original ; his expressions 
 happy and striking ; but he is often quaint and forced 
 in his images, at least as / think. But you must not 
 kill me, if I say in my old age, I almost begin to think 
 that taste, as it is called, in our judgment of the Muse, 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 139 
 
 has more whim than solidity, and that our ear is often 
 too imperious to be governed by rules. Nothing can 
 be more unlike than Gray and Cowper ; yet I am 
 enraptured of them both. I am wicked enough to think 
 Dryden very superior to Pope. Prior and Waller, 
 in some of their playful graces, enchant me; but I 
 cannot admire Mason or Thomson." 
 
 I have paid the greater attention to Mr. Har- 
 dinge *, because he brings a charge against Aken- 
 side of political apostacy. 
 
 It is certain that Mr. Dyson forsook his party, 
 and became a tory ; but it does not appear that 
 Akenside, whatever his friend might do, ever for- 
 sook his principles; at least, his second poem on 
 the Pleasures of Imagination is, to the full, as 
 remarkable for a fine glow of liberty as the first. 
 Two or three passages may be supposed to militate 
 against this opinion ; but, I think, they will, in no 
 respect, bear an interpretation hostile to the prin- 
 ciples, by which Akenside seems always to have 
 been governed. Mr. Hardinge thought otherwise. 
 " I must not forget to mention," says he, " perhaps 
 the most curious feature of his life. It is in the 
 
 * He died at Presteigne, April 16, 1816, in the 72d year 
 of his age. 
 
1 10 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 partial, but very awkward change, which Aken- 
 side's new politics at court made in those of the 
 poet. You will find a memorable proof to this 
 point. In the first edition of the work these lines 
 appear : 
 
 u Wilt thou, kind Harmony, descend, 
 And join the festive train : for with thee comes 
 Majestic Truth ; and where Truth deigns to come, 
 Her sister, Liberty, will not be far." 
 
 And in the second edition, 
 
 a For with thee comes 
 
 * Wise order ; and where order deigns to come, 
 Her sister Liberty will not be far." 
 
 I confess, I see no derogation of principle here : 
 Order being the sister of Liberty as well as Truth ; 
 and both, as it were, the parents of that Harmony, 
 the poet celebrates. 
 
 In the first edition of the ode "On leaving Hol- 
 land," the poet says 
 
 " I go where Freedom in the streets is known, 
 And tells a monarch on his throne, 
 Tells him, he reigns, he lives, but by her voice." 
 
 * In the MS. corrected poem the following line is intro- 
 duced : 
 
 " The guide, the guardian, of their mystic rites." 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 141 
 
 In the last edition 
 
 " I go where Libei-ty to all is known, 
 And tells a monarch on his throne, 
 He reigns not hut by her preserving voice." 
 
 Surely there is no difference here, that can be 
 twisted into any, even the slightest, variation of 
 sentiment. Neither is there any thing of import^ 
 ance in the alteration, made in his Ode to the Earl 
 of Huntingdon : 
 
 " But here, where freedom's equal throne, 
 To all her valiant sons are known ; 
 Where all direct the sword, she wears, 
 And each the power which rules him shares." 
 
 In the subsequent editions (third line), 
 
 " Where all are conscious of her cares." 
 
 No one can have a greater contempt for the ad- 
 ministration of Lord Bute than I have ; but Mr. 
 Dyson might have been a supporter of that mini- 
 ster, and yet Akenside remain innocent of the 
 change. That courtly acquaintance might have an 
 influence on the mind of a physician, desirous of 
 practice, is not to be wondered at ; but that he 
 ever became as zealous a partisan of the Tories, as 
 he had been of the Whigs, is not only not to be 
 credited, but is an assertion, that bears within 
 
142 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 itself the balance of a contradiction. For, had he 
 been as zealous a lover of too extended an autho- 
 rity, as he had previously been of Liberty and a 
 due administration of the laws, he would, like 
 many, I had almost said most, of his poetical 
 brethren, have left something better behind him, 
 wherewith to mark the change, than some of the 
 finest sentiments, that human language will admit 
 of. I have, I say, a strong dislike to the me- 
 mory of the Bute and North administrations; 
 but I still think, that a physician might be so 
 prudent as not to offend a party, which had ad- 
 vanced him ; and yet remain a decided enemy to 
 the foes of his country, whether from within or 
 from without. 
 
 Even so late as 1770, the year in which he died, 
 Akenside wrote lines ; than which nothing can 
 breathe a purer spirit, or be indicative of a more 
 exalted imagination. 
 
 " Nor shall e'er 
 
 The graver tasks of manhood, or th' advice 
 Of vulgar wisdom move me to disclaim 
 Those studies, which possess'd me in the dawn 
 Of life, and fix'd the colour of my mind, 
 For every future year." 
 
 P. I. Second Poem, iv. v. 4G. 
 
 In his third book, too, finished long after the 
 
LIFE OE AKENSIDE. 143 
 
 period of which we have been lately speaking, with 
 what contempt and ridicule does he visit 
 
 u The abject soul, 
 
 Who, blushing, half resigns the candid praise 
 Of temperance and honour ; half disowns 
 A freeman's hatred of tyrannic pride, 
 And hears, with sickly smiles, the venal mouth, 
 With foulest licence, mock the patriot's name*." 
 
 P. L Second Poem, 1. 222. 
 
 Indeed, that his love of true liberty had become, 
 in no degree, impaired by political associations, is 
 not only evident from the passages above quoted, 
 but from the circumstance of the whole episode of 
 Solon having been written with no other design, 
 than that of showing the influence, which poetry 
 has in duly enforcing the cause and interests of 
 freedom. 
 
 In the second poem there is an alteration, strikingly 
 confirmative of the preceding observations : pre- 
 vious to exhibiting which, however, I shall state an 
 
 * His contempt of flattery, when addressed to tyrants, is 
 amply shown in his appreciation of Horace: 
 
 '*. Whose verse adorn'd a tyrant's crimes; 
 Who saw majestic Rome betray 'd, 
 And lent the imperial ruffian aid." 
 
144 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 alteration, which occurs in the MS. corrected copy 
 of the first. 
 
 ORIGINAL. 
 
 " Nor be my thoughts 
 
 Presumptuous counted, if amid the calm. 
 That soothes this vernal evening into smiles, 
 I steal, impatient, from the sordid haunts 
 Of strife and low ambition, to attend 
 Thy sacred presence in the sylvan shade, 
 By their malignant footsteps ne'er profaned." 
 
 MS. CORRECTION. 
 
 " If I from superstition's gloomy haunts 
 Impatient steal, and from th' unseemly rites 
 Of barbarous domination, to attend 
 With hymns thy presence in the lonely shades, 
 By their malignant footsteps unprofaned." 
 
 In the Second Poem : 
 
 " If I, from vulgar superstition's walk, 
 
 Impatient, steal, and from th' unseemly rites 
 Of splendid adulation, to attend 
 With hymns," &c. 
 
 These alterations are very curious. First, he 
 desires to steal from strife and low ambition ; then 
 from the gloomy haunts of superstition and domi- 
 nation ; lastly, not only from the haunts of ambition, 
 but the unseemly rites of splendid adulation. The 
 
LIFE OP AKENSIDE. 14.> 
 
 first denotes the period of youth, when life was 
 opening upon him in the midst of low-minded per- 
 sons ; the next, when he had entered the high career 
 of existence, and was, no doubt, taunted with the 
 thoughts he bore to the exquisite advantages of 
 universal toleration ; the last when he had entered 
 the precincts of a court, and saw flattery assume a 
 form, that could not be otherwise than revolting to 
 an elegant and noble mind. 
 
 In 1763, Akenside communicated the following 
 account of a blow and its effects upon the heart, 
 to the Royal Society, where it was read Dec. 22, 
 and soon after published in the Philosophical Trans- 
 actions. 
 
 " On the 11th of September, 1762, Richard Bennet, 
 a lad about fourteen years of age, was brought to a con- 
 sultation of the physicians and surgeons of St. Thomas's 
 hospital. His disorder was a palpitation of the heart j 
 so very violent to the touch, that we all concluded it to 
 he an aneurism, and without remedy. He had a fre- 
 quent cough. His pulse was quick, weak, and uneven; 
 but not properly intermitting. It was apparent that 
 nothing could be done, farther than by letting blood in 
 small quantities, and by the use of emollient pectoral 
 medicines, to lessen, now and then, however inconsider- 
 ably, the extreme danger to which he was continually 
 
146 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 subject. He was taken into the hospital that same day, 
 being Saturday; and treated according to what had 
 been agreed upon. But on the Tuesday morning fol- 
 lowing he died, without any previous alarm or alteration. 
 " The origin of his complaint was a blow, which he 
 had received six months before, from the master whom 
 he served, as a waiter in a public-house. The master 
 owned, that he had pushed him slightly on the left side 
 with his hand. The boy informed us, that he himself 
 was then carrying a plate under his arm ; and that the 
 blow or push from his master drove the edge of the 
 plate forcibly between two of his ribs. He was imme- 
 diately very ill from the hurt ; sick, and in great pain. 
 His mother, also, informed us, that she thought the pal- 
 pitation was more violent about a fortnight after the 
 accident, than when we examined him. The day after 
 the blow, they took eight ounces of blood from his arm ; 
 about three weeks after that they again opened a vein, 
 but got not much from it ; and three weeks from thence, 
 they let him blood the last time to the amount of eight 
 ounces. He began to have a cough soon after the hurt, 
 with frequent spittings of blood in very large quantities; 
 and had nocturnal sweats almost the whole six months, 
 during which he survived the blow. About four months 
 after it, there came over the umbilical region of the 
 abdomen, a livid appearance like a mortification : but it 
 went off gradually, and at length vanished. He had 
 nothing particular in his habit of body or state of health; 
 save that, about a year before this accident, he had been 
 crippled with the rheumatism. He was, when we saw 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 147 
 
 him, a good deal reduced ; but had not a hectic nor a 
 consumptive look. 
 
 (t On the day of his death Mr. Cowell opened him ; 
 when, to our great surprise, we found no aneurism, nor 
 the least extravasation of the blood, either from the 
 cavities of the heart, or the large vessels. But on the 
 left ventricle of the heart, near its apex, there was a 
 livid spot, almost as large as a half-crown piece, bruised 
 and jelly-like; the part underneath being mortified 
 quite to the cavity of the ventricle. From thence up- 
 ward, toward the auricle, there went several livid specks 
 and traces of inflammation, tending in like manner to 
 gangrene. The heart did also, through its whole sur- 
 face, adhere very closely to the pericardium ; and the 
 whole outer surface of the pericardium as closely to the 
 lungs. The other viscera were quite sound. 
 
 " So that the mischief here was properly a contusion 
 of the heart ; the edge of the plate having struck it, pro- 
 bably at the instant of its greatest diastole. This pro- 
 duced an inflammation on its surface, followed by a 
 gangrene, and terminating in that double adhesion : by 
 which the whole heart was fast tied up ; till, on this 
 account, as well as by reason of the mortification, it was 
 no longer able to circulate the blood." 
 
 In 1764, Akenside published the most important 
 of his medical works; viz. De Dysenteria Com- 
 mentarius*. On this work the medical fame of 
 
 * De Dysenteria Com mentarius. Auctore Marco Aken- 
 side, Coll. Med, Londin. Socio. Reg. Societ. Sodali, et Magna? 
 
 l2 
 
1 IS LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 Akenside principally rests. The dysentery seems 
 to have been very little understood before his time ; 
 and he attributes the causes to nearly the same as 
 those of the rheumatism, between which, he insists, 
 there is a great affinity. Hence he calls the bloody 
 flux a rheumatism of the intestines*; and he re- 
 commends, as a cure, the bleeding of persons of 
 a full habit ; and certain portions of ipecacuanha. 
 To cure the diarrhoea, which so frequently succeeds 
 the flux, he recommends particularly one ounce of 
 fresh mutton suet, melted in a pint of boiling milk. 
 The causes of the action of ipecacuanha on the 
 subjects of this distemper, he resolves into its 
 aperient power, and its faculty of relaxing the coats 
 of the intestines, and thence abating the violence of 
 
 Britannia Reginae Medico. Londini : apud R. et I. Dodsley. 
 mdcclxiv. 
 
 Table of Contents : 
 
 Cap. I. De dysenteriae historia. 30 pp. 
 
 II. De dysentericorum curatione. 27 pp. 
 
 III. De causis dysenteriae. 16 pp. 
 
 IV. De actione ipecacoanhae in dysentericos. 1 5 pp. 
 
 * " Denique hanc morborum similitudinem toties jam 
 observavi et perspexi, ut Dysenteriam jamdudum pro Rheu- 
 matismo intestinorum habeam nos vero, id vocabulum a 
 doloribus artuum et musculorum ad intestina transferendo, 
 similem plane utriusque morbi causam et materiam esse 
 contendimus." 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 149 
 
 the tenesmus. In short, he supposes it to possess a 
 kind of anodyne and antispasmodic virtue, which no 
 other opiate possesses in this distemper ; which he, 
 contrary to the opinions of Sydenham *, and Boer- 
 haave, whom he styles " ingeniossimus et can- 
 didissimus, r ' and Meadf, thinks ought seldom to be 
 classed among acute diseases J. 
 
 The latinity of this work is singularly pure and 
 elegant; and to advance a knowledge of its con- 
 tents, Dr. Ryan undertook to translate it; but this 
 version being faulty in many respects, Mr. Motteux 
 attempted it: neither versions, however, are re- 
 markable for style, or even for a close adherence to 
 the author's text. 
 
 In 1766, Akenside published his ode to Thomas 
 Edwards, Esq. It was printed in folio, published 
 
 * Vid. Observat. de Morb. Acut, sect. i. c. 2, sect. iv. c. 3. 
 
 f Vid. Monita et Prsecept. Med. c. vii. sect. 1. 
 
 % The use of ipecacuanha in this disorder appears to have 
 been some time known on the Continent ; for we read in the 
 life of Helvetius, p. vi., that Adrian, grandfather to Hel- 
 vetius, gained great reputation in Holland, by discovering 
 a cure for the dysentery by the exhibition of ipecacuanha. 
 Vid. also Piso, de Indies utriusque re JSfaturali et Medica. 
 " Drachmae duae radicis ipecacuanha in ^iiij liquoris appro- 
 priati coctae, vel per noctem maceratae, cujus infusum cum 
 vel sine oxymelis Jj exhibetur." Lib. ii. c. ix. The Am- 
 sterdam edition, which is by far the best, has it c. xi. 
 
150 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 by Dodsley, and sold for sixpence. This ode had 
 been written as early as 1751 ; and it has created 
 surprise, that he should have so long withheld 
 the publication. Doubtless, his anger against 
 Dr. Warburton had long subsided; but War- 
 burton, now become Bishop of Gloucester, inflamed 
 it again by publishing a new edition of the Divine 
 Legation of Moses, with the obnoxious postscript 
 he had before appended to his preface ; and that, 
 too, without any reference to the arguments, which 
 had been adduced on the other side, a practice not 
 unusual with the learned bishop, who seems to have 
 thought, on most occasions, that an attack upon 
 him, even when in self-defence, was as great a crime 
 as treason against the state. " And yet, who is 
 Dr. Warburton ?" inquired Mr. Edwards, u what 
 is his birth, and whence his privilege? that the 
 reputations of men, both living and dead, of men 
 in birth, character, station, in every instance of true 
 worthiness, much his superiors, must lie at the 
 mercy of his petulant satire, to be hacked and 
 mangled, as his ill-mannered spleen shall prompt 
 him ; while it shall be unlawful for any body, under 
 penalty of degradation, to laugh at the unscholarlike 
 blunders, the crude and far-fetched conceits, the 
 illiberal and indecent reflections, which he has en- 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 151 
 
 deavoured, with so much self-sufficiency and arro- 
 gance, to put off upon the world, as a standard of 
 true criticism*." 
 
 Mr. Edwards was descended from a family, 
 which had, for many years, been settled at Pitz- 
 hanger, in the county of Middlesex. He was edu- 
 cated at Eton ; whence he removed to King's Col- 
 lege, Cambridge ; but after graduating there some 
 time, he determined, since his fortune was limited, 
 neither to study the law, divinity, nor physic; but 
 to enter the army. He afterwards altered his plan, 
 quitted the military life, entered himself at Lincoln's 
 Inn, and, after the usual terms, was called to the bar. 
 
 At this period Akenside became acquainted with 
 him ; and their acquaintance soon ripened into 
 esteem, and thence into friendship. Mr. Edwards, 
 like his associate, was an accomplished scholar. 
 His manners were mild and bland, and his disposi- 
 tion affectionate to the last degree. He was the 
 last of his family ; and as the sonnet, he wrote on 
 seeing a family picture, which brought to his recol- 
 lection the melancholy circumstance of his having 
 lost four brothers, and four sisters, is remarkable for 
 an elegant and pathetic simplicity, I shall quote it. 
 
 Canons of Criticism. Pref. 7. 3d ed. 17.50. 
 
152 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 ON A FAMILY PICTURE. 
 
 ' f When pensive on that portraiture I gaze, 
 
 Where my four Brothers round about me stand 
 And four fair Sisters smile with graces bland, 
 The goodlier monument of happier days ; 
 And think, how soon insatiate Death, who preys 
 On all, has cropp'd the rest with ruthless hand, 
 While only I survive of all that band, 
 Which one chaste bed did to my father raise ; 
 
 It seems that like a column left alone, 
 The tottering remnant of some splendid fane, 
 'Scaped from the fury of the barb 'rous Gaul, 
 
 And wasting time, which has the rest o'erthrown, 
 Amidst our house's ruin I remain. 
 
 Single, unprop'd, and nodding to my fall." 
 
 Besides this sonnet, Mr. Edwards wrote many 
 others ; several of which are preserved in Dodsley's, 
 Pearch , s, and Nichols"* collections. But the work, 
 which raised him to a rank with men of letters, 
 was his Canons of Criticism, written in direct 
 hostility to Warburton, on his having published 
 an edition of Shakspeare; an edition which laid 
 the reverend editor but too justly open to critical 
 retaliation. 
 
 Between Dr. Warburton and Mr. Edwards there 
 had, for some time, existed a very strong mutual 
 dislike; the cause of which is thus stated in the 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 153 
 
 Gentleman's Magazine *. " Being at Bath, some 
 time after he went into the army, Mr. Edwards, 
 not long after the marriage of Warburton with Mr. 
 Allen's f niece, was introduced en famille. The 
 conversation was, not unfrequently, turning on lite- 
 rary subjects, and Warburton generally took the 
 opportunity of showing his superiority in Greek ; 
 not having the least idea, that an officer in the 
 army understood any thing of that language; 
 till, one day, being accidentally in the library, 
 Mr. Edwards took down a Greek author, and 
 explained a passage in it in a manner, that War- 
 burton did not approve. This occasioned no small 
 
 * Vol. liii. p. 288. 
 
 f Mr. Allen was a man of plain good sense, and the most 
 benevolent temper. He rose to great consideration by farm- 
 ing the cross-posts ; which he put into the admirable order, 
 in which we now find them ; very much to the public advan- 
 tage, as well as his own. He was of that generous disposi- 
 tion, that his mind enlarged with his fortune ; and the wealth, 
 he so honourably acquired, he spent in a splendid hospi- 
 tality, and the most extensive charities. His house, in so 
 public a scene, as that of Bath, was open to all men of rank 
 and worth, and especially to men of distinguished parts and 
 learning; whom he honoured and encouraged; and whose 
 respective merits he was enabled to appreciate by a natural 
 discernment and superior good sense, rather than any ac- 
 quired use and knowledge of letters. His domestic virtues 
 were beyond all praise. Hurd's Life of Warburton, p. 45. 
 
154 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 contest; and Mr. Edwards (who had now disco- 
 vered to Warburton, how he came by his know- 
 ledge) endeavoured to convince him, that he did 
 not understand the original language ; and hinted 
 that his knowledge arose from French translations. 
 Warburton was highly irritated; an incurable 
 breach took place ; and this trifling altercation (after 
 Mr. Edwards had quitted the army, and was en- 
 tered of Lincoln's Inn) produced the Canons of 
 Criticism. 1 "' 
 
 This work is not now often referred to; the 
 occasion, for which it was written, having passed 
 away ; but as its table of contents exhibits no slight 
 degree of that species of humour, for which Swift 
 has been so greatly celebrated, I shall give an ab- 
 stract of it in a note *. 
 
 * A professed critic has a right to declare, that his author 
 wrote whatever he ought to have written, with as much de- 
 termination, as if he had been at his elbow 1 ; that he has a 
 right to alter any passage he does not understand *; and that 
 these alterations he may make, in spite of the exactness of the 
 measure^. 
 
 "Where he does not like an expression, and cannot mend 
 it, he may abuse his author for it*; or he may condemn it as 
 an idle interpolations. As every author is to be corrected into 
 all possible perfection 6 ; and of that perfection the critic is 
 
 1 Canons, p. 1. * p. 5. 3 p. 25. * p. 30. 5 p , 32. p. 34. 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 155 
 
 Dr. Warton says of these Canons, n all impartial 
 critics allow, that they remain unrefuted and un- 
 answerable." 
 
 the sole judge, it follows, as a matter of course, that he may 
 alter any word or phrase, which does not want amendment, 
 or which will do, provided he can think of any thing, which 
 he imagines will do better. He may, also, find out obsolete 
 words, or coin new ones, and put them in the place of such 
 as he does not like, or does not understand >. 
 
 He may prove a reading, or support an explanation by any 
 sort of reading, good or bad, provided he likes it*; he may 
 interpret his author, so as to make him mean directly con- 
 trary to what he says 3; he is under no necessity of allowing 
 any poetical licences, which he does not understand 4 j and 
 he may make any amendments, however foolish ; and give 
 any explanations, whether those explanations are wanted or 
 not, provided he can, by those amendments or explanations, 
 enhance the value of his critical skill 5. 
 
 He may discover any immoral meaning in his author, 
 where there does not appear to be any hint of the kind fi : he 
 is under no obligation himself to attend to such trivial matters 
 as orthography or pointing; but he may ridicule, as much 
 as he pleases, such trivial errors in others 7. Yet, when he 
 pleases to condescend to such matters, he may value himself 
 upon it; and not only restore lost puns, but point out such 
 quaintnesses, where, perhaps, the author never thought of 
 them 8 . He may explain a difficult passage by words, ab- 
 solutely unintelligible ; and he may contradict himself for 
 
 1 Canons, p. 42. * p. 58. 3 p. 83. 4 p. 94. 5 p. qq. 
 6 p. 98. 7 p . 101. 8 p# 104# 9 108# 
 
156 LIFE OF AKENS1DE. 
 
 Akenside had not forgotten the contemptuous 
 manner in which his theory, in respect to the sub- 
 ject of ridicule, had been treated by Warburton. 
 The Canons of Criticism, therefore, united him 
 
 the sake of showing his critical skill on both sides ' ; and he 
 should take care to be provided, beforehand, with a good 
 number of pedantic and abusive expressions, to throw about 
 upon proper occasions \ 
 
 He may explain his author, or any former editor of him, 
 by supplying such words, or pieces of words, or marks, as he 
 may think fit for that purpose 3; and he may use the very 
 same reasons for confirming his own observations, which he 
 has disallowed in his adversary*. 
 
 As the design of writing notes is not so much to explain 
 the author's meaning, as to display the critic's knowledge s ; 
 it may be proper, to show his universal learning, that he 
 minutely point out from whence every metaphor and allusion 
 is taken. It will be, also, especially if he be a married man, 
 proper, in order to show the greatness of his wit, to take 
 every opportunity of sneering at the fair sex 6 : he may mis- 
 quote himself, or any body else, in order to make an occasion 
 of writing notes, when he cannot otherwise find one 7; and, 
 lest he may not furnish a proper quota to his bookseller, he 
 may write notes out of nothing 8 ; and lastly 9 , he may dispense 
 with truth at all times, and in any manner agreeable to him- 
 self, provided, by these violations, he can give the world a 
 higher opinion, than it would otherwise entertain, that he is 
 a man of great parts. 
 
 Canons, p. 110. 2 p. 112. 3 p. 114. 4 p. 118. s p. 1 19. 
 G p. 128. 7 p . 132. B p . 134. I p. 141. 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 157 
 
 more intimately with Mr. Edwards. For as War- 
 burton's attack upon his philosophy had produced 
 some effects, little favourable to his fame as a poet, 
 he feared it might also, perhaps, prove, in some 
 degree, injurious to him as a physician. 
 
 Why he delayed the publication of his ode for 
 so long a period as fifteen years, viz. from 1751 to 
 1766, does not appear ; but when he did publish it, 
 it produced effects, very important for a time, to 
 the fame of a critic, who had revelled in the almost 
 unlimited authority, which he took pleasure in 
 establishing within the empire of criticism. For, 
 in a note, appended to this ode, Akenside roundly 
 charged the right reverend critic with having zeal- 
 ously cultivated the friendship of Theobald and 
 Concanen with the rest of the tribe, who confe- 
 derated against Pope. In proof of which, he pro- 
 duced a letter, which had been written by War- 
 burton in 1726. " This letter, 1 ' says Akenside, 
 " was found in the year 1750, by Dr. Gavin Knight, 
 first librarian to the British Museum, in fitting up 
 a house, which he had taken in Crane-court, Fleet- 
 street. The house had, for a long time before, been 
 let in lodgings, and in all probability, Concanen had 
 lodged there. The original letter has been many 
 years in my possession, and is here most exactly 
 
158 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 copied, with its several little peculiarities in grammar, 
 spelling, and punctuation. April SO, 1766. M. A? 
 
 Letter from Mr, W. Warburton to Mr. M. Con- 
 canen. 
 
 " Dear Sir, 
 cc Having had no more regard for those papers, which 
 I spoke of and promised to Mr. Theobald, than just 
 what they deserved, I in vain sought for them through a 
 number of loose papers that had the same kind of abor- 
 tive birth. I used to make it one good part of my 
 amusement in reading the English poets, those of them 
 I mean whose view flows regularly and constantly, as 
 well as clearly, to trace them to their sources ; and 
 observe what oar, as well as what slime and gravel they 
 brought down with them. Dryden I observe borrows 
 for want of leasure, and Pope for want of Genius; 
 Milton out of pride, and Addison out of modesty. 
 And now I speak of this latter, that you and Mr. 
 Theobald may see of what kind those Idle collections 
 are, and likewise to give you my notion of what we may 
 Safely pronounce an Imitation, for it is not I presume 
 the same train of Ideas, that follow in the same descrip- 
 tion of an Ancient and a modern, where nature autorize 
 us to pronounce the latter an Imitation, for the most 
 judicious of all poets, Terence, has observed of his own 
 science, ( Nihil est dictum, quod non sit dictum prius :' 
 for these reasons I say I give myselfe the pleasure of 
 setting down some imitations I observed in the Cato of 
 Addison. 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 159 
 
 ADDISON. 
 
 * A day, an hour of virtuous liberty 
 Is worth a whole eternity in bondage.' 
 
 Act II. Sc. 1. 
 
 e TULLY. 
 
 e Quod si immortal Has consequeretur pr&sentis periculi 
 fugam, tamen eo magis ea fugienda esse videretur, quo diu- 
 turnior esset servitus.' Philipp. Ob. 10. 
 
 'ADDISON. 
 
 c Bid him disband his legions, 
 Restore the commonwealth to liberty, 
 Submit his actions to the public censure, 
 And stand the judgement of a Roman Senate; 
 Bid him do this, and Cato is his friend.' 
 
 f TULLY. 
 
 ( Pacem vult ? arma deponat, roget, deprecetur. Neminem 
 equiorem reperiet quam me.' Philipp. 5. 
 
 c ADDISON. 
 
 f But what is life ? 
 
 'Tis not to stalk about and draw fresh air 
 
 From time to time 
 
 'Tis to be free. When liberty is gone, 
 Life grows insipid and has lost its relish.' 
 
 Sc. 3. 
 
 ( Non enim in spiritu vita est : sed ea nulla est omnino 
 servienti.'VHii^iPF. 10. 
 
160 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 c ADDISON. 
 
 ' Remember, O my friends, the laws, the rights, 
 The generous plan of power deliver'd down 
 From age to age by your renowned forefathers. 
 O never let it perish in your hands.' 
 
 Act III. Sc. 5. 
 
 f TULLY. 
 
 c Hanc (lihertatem scilt) retirete, quwso, Quirites, 
 
 quam vobis, tanquam hereditatem, majores nostri reliquerunt.' 
 Philipf. 4. 
 
 ' ADDISON. 
 
 ' The mistress of the world, the seat of empire, 
 The nurse of heroes, the Delight of Gods/ 
 
 ' TULLY. 
 
 1 Roma domus virtutis, imperii dignitatis, domicilium 
 gloria, lux orbis terrarum.' De Oratore. 
 
 " The first half of the 5 Sc, 3 Act, is nothing but 
 a transcript from the 9 book of Lucan between the 
 300 and the 700 line. You see by this specimen 
 the exactness of Mr. Addison's judgement who wanting 
 sentiments worthy the Roman consul sought for them 
 in Tully and Lucan. When he would give his subject 
 those terrible graces which Dion. Halicar. complains he 
 could find no where but in Homer, he takes the assist- 
 ance of our Shakespear, who in his Julius Ccesar has 
 painted the conspirators with a pomp and terrour, that 
 perfectly astonishes. Hear our British Homer : 
 
LIFE OF AKFNSIDE. 161 
 
 ' Between the acting of a dreadful thing, 
 And the first motion, all the Int'rim is 
 Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream ; 
 The Genius and the mortal Instruments 
 Are then in council, and the state of man, 
 Like to a little kingdom, suffers then 
 The nature of an insurrection.' 
 
 Mr. Addison has thus imitated it : 
 
 ( ( ) think what anxious moments pass between 
 The birth of plots, and their last fatal periods ! 
 () 'tis a dreadful interval of time, 
 Fill'd up with horror all, and big with death !' 
 
 " I have two things to observe on this imitation : 
 I. The decorum this master of propriety has observed. 
 In the Conspiracy of Shakespear's description, the for- 
 tunes of Caesar and the Roman Empire were concerned ; 
 and the magnificent circumstances of 
 
 ' The Genius and the mortal Instruments 
 Are then in council,' 
 
 is exactly proportioned to the dignity of the subject. 
 But this would have been too great an apparatus to the 
 desertion of Syphax and the rape of Sempronius, and 
 therefore Mr. Addison omits it. II. The other thing 
 more worth our notice is, that Mr. A. was so greatly 
 moved and affected with the pomp of Shakespear's de- 
 scription,, that instead of copying his Author s sentiments, 
 he has before he was aware given us only the marks of 
 his own impressions on the reading him. For, 
 
 M 
 
1^2 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 ' O 'tis a dreadful interval of time, 
 Fill'd up with horror all, and big with death !' 
 
 are but the affections raised by such lively images as 
 these 
 
 ( all the Int'rim is 
 
 and, 
 
 Like a phantasma or a hideous dream ;' 
 
 the state of man, 
 
 Like to a little kingdom, suffers then 
 The nature of an insurrection.' 
 
 "Again, when Mr. Addison would paint the softer 
 passions, he has recourse to Lee, who certainly had a 
 peculiar genius that way : thus, his Juba, 
 
 ' True she is fair ( > how divinely fair !' 
 
 coldly imitates Lee in his Alex. : 
 
 " Then he would talk : good gods, how he would talk !" 
 
 I pronounce the more boldly of this, because Mr. A. 
 in his 39 Spec, expresses his admiration of it. My 
 paper fails me, or I should now offer to Mr. Theobald 
 an objection against Shakespear's acquaintance with the 
 ancients. As it appears to me of great weight, and as it 
 is necessary he should be prepared to obviate all that 
 occur on that head. But some other opportunity will 
 present itselfe. You may now, s r , justly complain of 
 my ill manners in deferring till now, what shou'd have 
 been first of all acknowledged due to you, which is my 
 
LIFE OF AKENS1DE. 1 63 
 
 thanks for all your favours when in town, particularly 
 for introducing me to the knowledge of those worthy 
 and ingenious gentlemen that made up our last night's 
 conversation. I am, sir, with all esteem your most 
 obliged friend and humble servant, 
 
 " W. Warburton. 
 " Newarke, Jan. 2. 1726. 
 
 For 
 
 Mr. M. Concanen at 
 Mr. Woodward's at the 
 half moon in ffleetstrcei 
 London." 
 
 It is unnecessary to enter much into the history 
 of this subject. Concanen, to fchom Warburton 
 thus familiarly writes, was author of a multitude 
 of scurrilities in the London journals ; in which he 
 accused Pope of passing off Broome's verses, as 
 well as those of the Duke of Buckingham, for his 
 own*; and, having thrown out some abuse against 
 Lord Bolingbroke, became acquainted with Sir 
 Win. Yonge ; and having written for Sir Robert 
 Walpole, he was made Attorney-General of Ja- 
 maica. 
 
 Thus promoted, he married an opulent widow ; 
 returned to London in 1748, (whether upon his 
 
 * Warburton. 
 
 m 2 
 
164 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 own resignation, or from having been turned out 
 by Governor Trelawney is not decided) ; and died, 
 very rich, of a consumption in 1749. He is thus 
 stigmatized in the Dunciad* 
 
 u True to the bottom, see Concanen creep, 
 A cold, long-winded native of the deep : 
 If perseverance gain the diver's prize, 
 Not everlasting Blackmore this denies. 
 No noise, no stir, no motion canst thou make ; 
 Th' unconscious stream sleeps o'er thee like a lake." 
 
 The Ode to Mr. Edwards +, to illustrate which 
 the preceding very remarkable letter has been intro- 
 duced, was written in derision of Warburton's edi- 
 tion of Pope : and soon after its publication, the 
 two following curious letters appeared in the Public 
 Advertiser. 
 
 ' ' To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 u Amidst that torrent of abuse, which is daily 
 pouring out on the most illustrious characters of the 
 age, the learned Bishop of G could not fail to come 
 
 * Book II. 299. 
 
 t Mr. Edwards spent the latter part of his life at Turrick ; 
 died when on a visit to his friend, Mr. Richardson, at Par- 
 son's Green, unmarried ; and was buried at Ellesborough in 
 Buckinghamshire. Nichols. 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 165 
 
 in for his share. To omit numberless other instances, 
 a thing, called ' An Ode to J. Edwards, Esq/ (him of 
 the Dunciad), is just published, and retailed with much 
 industry, in the public prints. The writer, it seems, 
 is Dr. Akenside ; and the date, as we are told in the 
 title page, 1751. 
 
 u What provocation the Doctor then had for this in- 
 genious piece of revenge, every body understands ; but 
 what determined him to make it public at this time 
 may require to be explained. The secret, I suppose, is 
 no more than this : The bishop has, just now, given a 
 new edition of the first volume of his Divine Legation ; 
 and has thought fit to reprint the Censure, he had 
 before made on a certain note of this poet that very 
 Censure, which had occasioned the ingenious Ode of 
 1751. Hinc illce lachrymce. But what ! the reader will 
 say, this censure is of a critical and controversial kind: it 
 shows Dr. Akenside to be an ill-reasoner, and how is 
 this charge evaded by the Doctor's attempt to show the 
 Bishop to be an ill man ? Certainly, not at all : but it 
 was something to blacken whom he could not refute. 
 
 " In the mean time, the triumphant superiority of 
 the Bishop's pen is very conspicuous. But who, that 
 could have answered the Writer, would have had the 
 meanness to attack the Man ? 
 
 " But what, after all, is this attack ? Why, the 
 Bishop, it seems, thought favourably of a dunce, then 
 his acquaintance, and entertained some unfavourable 
 sentiments of a wit, afterwards his friend. And what 
 is there in all this (admitting the fact to be as re- 
 lated), which can be thought to lessen the character of 
 
166 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 the learned Prelate ? What great man has never made 
 an acquaintance with a little one ? Or., what wise man 
 has never been misled by Prejudice ? I am not in the 
 secret of the Bishop's History; but I could tell the 
 Doctor of many dull men, whom this generous Prelate 
 has had the condescension to treat with more civility, 
 than they deserved ; and if he has had his prejudices 
 against some ingenious men, I could tell him how 
 frankly, upon better information, they have been given 
 up. The truth is, these petty cavils give no shock to a 
 great character, which ever sustains itself by its own 
 proper merits, and is sure to have justice done it, when 
 the offensive splendour of those merits is withdrawn. 
 For, as his great friend (to whom, and to dulness, the 
 Bishop has long since atoned for any injustice, he might 
 formerly have done to either), said divinely well, 
 
 ' Direct we feel their beam intensely beat ; 
 These suns of glory please not till they set.' 
 
 " I am, Sir, 
 
 '* Your humble servant, 
 
 " </. L. 
 "MayQ, 1766." 
 
 " To the Printer of the Public Advertiser. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 " Observing in your paper of May 10 some 
 strictures upon an Ode to T. Edwards, Esq., ascribed 
 to Dr. Akenside, it brought to my mind another piece 
 of poetry, entitled The Pleasures of Imagination, pub- 
 
LIFE OF AKEN3IDE. 167 
 
 lished about twenty years ago, and ascribed to the same 
 author ; in which are the following lines ; 
 
 * Others of graver mien, behold ; adorn'd 
 With holy ensigns, how sublime they move, 
 And, bending oft their sanctimonious eyes, 
 Take homage of the simple-minded throng, 
 Ambassadors of heaven.' 
 
 This passage, it seems, gave offence to the learned writer, 
 who is supposed to be the subject of the little piece 
 of satire inscribed to Mr. Edwards, above-mentioned ; 
 and who, in a preface to some Remarks on several occa- 
 sional Reflections, published in 1 744, calls these lines 
 ' an insult on the whole body of the Christian clergy ;' 
 and comments upon them thus : 
 
 iC f And well do they (the clergy) deserve this moral 
 ridicule, supposing them to be drawn like : for, if I un- 
 derstand any thing of colouring, the features are pride, 
 hypocrisy, fraud, and imposture. I call it an insult on 
 the whole body of the clergy, because I know of no 
 part of them, who hold that the ministry of the Gospel 
 (or, as St. Paul calls it, of Reconciliation^), was given 
 them by the religion of Christ, but hold likewise* 
 with the same apostle (who speaks of himself here as a 
 simple minister of the Gospel), that they are ambassa- 
 dors for Christ.' 
 
 " Whether Dr. Akenside intended the description, 
 contained in these lines, for the whole body of the 
 Christian clergy, must be left to his own conscience ; for 
 I do not know, that he ever explained himself farther 
 
168 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 upon the subject. If he included the whole body of the 
 clergy in the description, it is, doubtless, an insult upon 
 them all ; but, in my opinion, there is no occasion to un- 
 derstand the words in that extent. The lines contain 
 a description of a sort of personal demeanour, which, Dr. 
 Akenside must have known, is not common to all the 
 clergy. And it is obvious enough, that it cost the 
 learned commentator some pains to accommodate the 
 poetry with his interpretation. But let us now attend 
 to another piece of poetry. 
 
 " In the year 1743 (the year immediately preceding 
 the publication of this Reproof to Dr. Akenside) came 
 out a pompous edition of the Dunciad in 4to, enriched 
 with some additional remarks as we are informed in an 
 advertisement, placed immediately after the title leaf, 
 and signed with the initials W. W. The world (with 
 what justice I pretend not to say) ascribed the addi- 
 tional Remarks to the same learned hand, who com- 
 mented, as above, upon the passage, cited from Dr. 
 Akenside's poem. 
 
 " In this edition of the Dunciad, we meet with the 
 following lines, at page 113. 
 
 f He ceas'd, and spread the robe ; the crowd confess 
 The rev rend Flamen in his lengthen'd dress. 
 Around him wide a sable army stand, 
 A low-born, cell-bred, selfish, servile band, 
 Prompt or to guard or stab, to saint or damn, 
 Heav'n's Swiss, who fight for any God or man.' 
 
 " On these we have the following additional remark : 
 ' It is to be hoped, that the satire in these lines will be 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 169 
 
 understood in the confined sense, in which the author 
 meant it, ofsuch only of the clergy, who, though solemnly- 
 engaged in the service of religion, dedicate themselves to 
 servile and corrupt ends, to that of ministers or factions : 
 and, though educated under an entire ignorance of the 
 world, aspire to interfere in the government of it, and 
 consequently to disturb and disorder it/ &c. 
 
 " How the remarker could hope this, as there is no 
 more (if so much), in these lines, than in those of Dr. 
 Akenside, to limit to a certain, such of the clergy only, 
 I cannot perceive. He says, the author meant it so. If 
 he did, he expressed his meaning very awkwardly; for 
 the comment puts a restriction upon the text, which the 
 words can, by no artifice, be brought to admit of; as 
 the poet, beyond all shadow of a doubt, intended to 
 characterize the religious as well as the political achieve- 
 ments of these heavenly Swiss. In my opinion, Pope 
 has given his description more of the air of an universal 
 character, than the lines of Dr. Akenside exhibit ; and 
 if I may have leave to go the round about way, after 
 Dr. Akenside's commentator, I think I can prove it. 
 For example ; the Swiss of Heaven must be soldiers in 
 the pay of Heaven; and what clergyman, who professes 
 to be a soldier of Jesus Christ, in view of the prize of 
 his high calling, a crown of righteousness, but will ac- 
 knowledge himself one of Heavens Swiss: whereas, if 
 I am rightly informed, the drudges of the ministry are 
 looked upon, even by the order itself, rather to be the 
 ambassadors of their superiors in office, than ambassa- 
 dors immediately deputed by commissions from Heaven; 
 
170 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 at least, till they rise to stations, in which the character 
 
 may be supported with suitable dignity. 
 
 ****** 
 
 u I have not the pleasure to have the least personal 
 knowledge of Dr. Akenside ; but from his general 
 character must conclude, that he has no objection to 
 connexions of esteem and friendship with ingenious and 
 liberal-minded men among the English clergy, any more 
 than with scholars and gentlemen of other professions : 
 and as some of these would certainly not come under 
 the description given in those lines of his, above cited ; 
 it cannot be fairly supposed, he meant them for a satire 
 upon the whole order, whatever his own religious senti- 
 ments might be. 
 
 " Mr. Pope had quite other reasons for being dis- 
 gusted with the English established clergy of his own 
 times. He was a Roman Catholic; they were Pro- 
 testants, whose principles and duty to the government 
 were inducements to them to exercise their attention 
 and vigilance against the superstition and disloyalty of 
 the members of the church of Rome, to the political as 
 well as religious doctrines of which Mr. Pope betrays, 
 in some of his writings, a very strong attachment, not- 
 withstanding his affected neutrality on particular occa- 
 sions. It is, therefore, highly probable, that his little 
 piece of satire was intended to comprehend the whole 
 body of the English clergy; and this the rather, as, 
 when the verses were first penned, it is likely, he had 
 no experience, that there was so remarkable an excep- 
 tion to the general character, he had given of the clergy, 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 171 
 
 as he afterwards found in the course of his friendship 
 with that steady, pious, simple-minded, consistent, hum- 
 ble, and peaceable divine, to whom he consigned the 
 sole privilege of commenting upon his works : for as to 
 his connexions with Atterbury and Swift, he must be 
 very sensible, with all his seeming friendship for them, 
 that there was nothing in their characters, that would 
 require to have the censure limited either with respect 
 to them, or some others of the same stamp, with whom 
 he might happen to have some accidental acquaintance. 
 " I find, indeed, that it is a problem with some critics, 
 whom I have consulted on the present occasion, whether 
 if the connexion with Theobald, Concanen, &c. had 
 lasted a little longer, and if, during that connexion, and 
 an estrangement from Mr. Pope, it had fallen within 
 the province of the Remarker on Dr. Akenside's poem, 
 to benotify the Dunciad; it is, I say, a question of some 
 people, whether, in that case, Mr. Pope would not have 
 been chastised with as much severity as Dr. Akenside 
 was, the year following, for insulting the whole body of 
 the Christian Clergy. 
 
 " I am, Sir, 
 
 " Your humble servant, 
 
 " CONTRASTER." 
 
 The opinions of Akenside were in strict accord- 
 ance with Whig principles. Hence arose the ad- 
 miration of Mr. Hollis. That gentleman, however, 
 extended his partialities so much farther than Aken- 
 side, that he was actually, in principle, a Republican. 
 
172 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 Hence, when he purchased a bed, in 1761, which 
 had once belonged to Milton, and in which that 
 great poet died, he presented it to " that modern 
 poet, whom he thought, not only in political senti- 
 ments but in poetical genius, most resembled him." 
 The bed was accompanied with the following note: 
 " An English gentleman is desirous of having 
 rt the honour to present a bed, which once belonged 
 " to John Milton, and on which he died ; and if 
 " Dit. Akenside, believing himself obliged, and 
 " having slept on that bed, should prompt him to 
 " write an ode to the memory of John Milton, and 
 " the assertor of British liberty, that gentleman 
 " would think himself abundantly recompensed. 11 
 
 Akenside is said to have received the present with 
 satisfaction ; but whether he wrote an ode, as re- 
 quested, does not appear. It is most probable, 
 that he did write one ; but that he could not please 
 himself in the execution. 
 
 Akenside was never a Republican ; he was an 
 ardent supporter of the principles, which seated 
 King William on the throne of this country. Mr. 
 Dyson's opinions were the same; but, on the ac- 
 cession of George the Third, and the elevation of 
 Lord Bute, he had relaxed the severity of his de- 
 clarations ; and having been admitted into the ad- 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 173 
 
 ministration, had sufficient influence to get his friend 
 appointed Physician to the Queen, who was, every 
 day, expected to land. 
 
 Soon after Akenside' s return from Holland, he had 
 been admitted, by mandamus, to the same degree 
 at Cambridge, that he had taken at Leyden. When 
 that university sent up a congratulatory address 
 to the King and Queen, on their marriage, there- 
 fore, he accompanied the deputation : but, having 
 no band, he wrote to Dr. Birch to lend him one. 
 
 " Dr. Akenside presents his compliments to Dr. 
 " Birch, and begs the favour, that he would lend 
 " him a band, in order that he may attend the 
 " Cambridge Address to-morrow. 
 
 " Craven-street, 
 "Sept. 13, 1761/' 
 
 As there are only a few letters (or notes) of 
 Akenside known to be in existence, except some to 
 Mr. Dyson, which will be mentioned in a subse- 
 quent page, perhaps I may be excused for intro- 
 ducing two of them in this place. Their subjects 
 are not very important; but having been written 
 by so eminent a person, unimportant as they are 
 in other respects, they cannot be considered in any 
 other light than as interesting curiosities. 
 
174 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 " DEAR SIR, 
 
 " I return you many thanks for the pleasure, 
 " which I have had in reading these books. 
 
 " I see, this instant, in the Public Advertiser, 
 " that Dr. Warburton is made King's Chaplain, 
 " and enters into waiting immediately. Can you 
 " tell me, whether this is true ? If there be any 
 " hazard of finding him at Kensington, I shall not 
 " choose to go thither to-day. 
 
 " I am your affectionate 
 
 " humble servant, 
 
 " M. AKENSIDE. 
 
 " Bloomslury- square, * 
 
 " Saturday morn. Sept. 28. 
 
 " To the Rev. Dr. Birch, 
 
 " in Norfolk-street." 
 
 44 Dr. Akenside presents his compliments to Dr. 
 " Birch, and returns him many thanks for his kind 
 " present. He has left an unpublished letter of 
 " Lord Bacon, which he thinks a valuable one, and 
 " which he had leave to communicate to Dr. Birch ; 
 " and desires that when he has done with it, he 
 " would be so good as to send it to Burlington- 
 " street. 
 
 " To the Rev. Dr. Birch. 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 175 
 
 These notes are preserved in MSS. at the British 
 Museum. 
 
 The deputation from Cambridge was attended by 
 the chancellor and a considerable number of members 
 of the university, Drs. Reeve, Akenside, and many 
 other physicians. They were introduced to the 
 King and Queen by the Duke of Newcastle, Chan- 
 cellor of the University ; and to the Princess Dowager 
 by the Duke of Manchester, Lord Chamberlain. 
 
 Here we may pause a few moments, to notice 
 a poetical impropriety, on the part of Akenside, 
 not a little curious. He had been admitted, as 
 before stated, to a doctors degree at Cambridge; 
 but a jealousy subsisting, at that time, between the 
 Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, Akenside, 
 in his Hymn to the Naiads, expressly mentions 
 Cambridge, when his subject required him to 
 mention Oxford: since Oxford stands upon the 
 Thames ; and it is to " The blue-eyed Progeny of 
 Thames," that headdresses himself throughout the 
 whole of his poem. 
 
 " Tarry, nymphs! 
 
 Ye nymphs ! ye blue-eyed Progeny of Thames ! 
 Who now the mazes of this rugged heath 
 Trace with your fleeting steps; who all night long- 
 Repeat amid the cool and tranquil air 
 Your lonely murmurs, tarry, and receive 
 My ofFer'd lay." 
 
176 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 The passage, to which I have referred, is this 
 " From noon to eve, 
 
 Along the river and the paved brook 
 Ascend the cheerful breezes, hail'd of bards, 
 Who, fast by learned Cam, th' iEolian lyre 
 Solicit; nor unwelcome to the youth, 
 Who on the heights of Tibur, all inclin'd, 
 Or rushing Anio, with a pious hand 
 The reverend scene delineates ; broken fanes 
 Or tombs, or pillar'd aqueducts, the pomp 
 Of ancient time; and haply, while he scans 
 The ruins, with a silent tear revolves 
 The fame and fortune of imperious Rome." 
 
 In 1762, Mr. Dyson resigned his clerkship of 
 the House of Commons to Mr. Tyrwhitt*, and 
 having been elected Member of Parliament for the 
 borough of Haslemere, he became identified with 
 many of the measures of Lord Bute ; as he became 
 afterwards with those of the Duke of Grafton and 
 Lord North. 
 
 * This gentleman is well known as the editor of Chaucer, 
 and a part he took in the controversy in regard to Rowley's 
 poems. But he has a higher praise, viz. that arising from his 
 having been the early patron of Dr. Burgess, the present ex- 
 cellent Bishop of Salisbury. " Soon after I had published 
 Dawes's Miscellanea Critica" says Dr. Burgess (then Bishop 
 of St. David's, in a letter to Mr. Nichols t) " and was entering 
 
 f Dated Aberguilly Palace, March 27, 1815. 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 177 
 
 Mr. Justice Hardinge, who knew Mr. Dyson 
 well, says, in a letter to Mr. Nichols, that he never 
 saw any thing like the friendship of Mr. Dyson 
 and Dr. Akenside. It extended even to their sen- 
 timents; " and yet," says he, li nothing could be 
 more dissimilar than they were. Mr. Dyson was 
 quite a man of business, of order, of parliamentary 
 forms, and of political argument. He had neither 
 fancy nor eloquence; and though he had strong 
 prejudices, he veiled them in obliging manners.'' 1 
 
 on the term, in which I was to take my master's degree, Mr. 
 Tyrwhitt asked me, ' how I meant to dispose of myself, after 
 I had taken my degree ?' I told him it was my intention to 
 take a curacy in the country, till I should be called again to 
 college to serve those offices, which are usually held by the 
 fellows in rotation.' He said, 'You must not leave col- 
 lege. In the country, and with your new duties, you would 
 not have the means and opportunities of pursuing your old 
 studies, which the university possesses above all other places. 
 You shall be my curate. I will beg you to accept, annually, 
 from me what will be equivalent to a curate's stipend.' 
 I accepted his generous offer," continues the bishop, " and 
 remained at college. I was soon after appointed to the office 
 of college tutor. But Mr. Tyrwhitt continued his annual 
 present till the emolument of my office enabled me to relin- 
 quish a gratuity, which I knew he would bestow on some 
 protege, who wanted it more than myself. The literary ad- 
 vantages, which I derived from my continuing at college, at 
 that time, and, of course, my obligations to my generous 
 friend, are greater than I can express." 
 
 N 
 
178 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 Sir John Hawkins relates, in his Life of Dr. 
 Johnson, that a person, named Sax by, who held a 
 situation in the custom-house, and who was of that 
 despicable order, who have the privilege of saying 
 just what they please, was in the constant habit of 
 venting his sarcasms against the medical profession. 
 One evening, says Sir John, this man, after having 
 laboured some time to prove, that the profession 
 of physic was all imposture, turned suddenly upon 
 Akenside " Doctor," said he, " after all you have 
 said, my opinion of the profession is this : the an- 
 cients endeavoured to make it a science and failed ; 
 and the moderns to make it a trade, and succeeded."" 
 The company laughed, and Akenside joined in it 
 with good humour. 
 
 Sir John relates, also, another anecdote, relative 
 to a low-minded man, named Ballow. This person 
 was a lawyer of great learning, but of no practice ; 
 full of spleen; of vulgar manners; and having some 
 connexion with the government, he thought, as 
 many persons, standing in the same relative situa- 
 tion, would have the ignorance to believe, that he 
 was entitled to hate Akenside, for those liberal sen- 
 timents, which he seldom thought it necessary either 
 to qualify or to disguise. A dispute, one evening, 
 was the consequence; and Ballow having made use 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 179 
 
 of some expressions, little conforming with the 
 manners of a gentleman, Akenside degraded him- 
 self so far as to demand an apology. On this occa- 
 sion Akenside seems to have been insensible to the 
 beauty, and even sublimity, of that sentiment which 
 teaches, that 
 
 " Affronts are innocent, when men are worthless." 
 
 Ballow was courageous enough to insult, but not 
 sufficiently so to pay the penalty. He, therefore, 
 screened himself from punishment by keeping out 
 of the way. Akenside's anger soon subsided ; and 
 then some mutual friends adjusted the difference. 
 Sir John seems disposed to cast an air of ridicule 
 over Akenside' s conduct in this matter; but to 
 challenge a man, like Ballow, must have been in 
 itself a punishment to the sensitive mind of Aken- 
 side, in itself sufficient, for having given way to a 
 weakness so unworthy a poet of high rank, and 
 more especially a philosopher of no mean order. 
 
 Few men ever lived, who had a greater inward 
 detestation of tyranny and bigotry, than Akenside. 
 This feeling is indicated in all his poems ; and he 
 had an equal contempt for hypocrisy. Consider- 
 ing, with Shaftesbury *, that the Deity was the 
 
 * Characteristics, ii. 294. 
 
 n2 
 
180 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 sovereign source of all beauty, he was always in- 
 dignant, when the name of that most wonderful 
 Being was alluded to in a gross, vulgar, or indif- 
 ferent manner. " People would assert," he was 
 accustomed to say, " that I imitated Newton, or I 
 should never allude to the Deity, or hear him alluded 
 to by others, but I should make an inclination of 
 my body.'" And one day, being in company with 
 Mr. Meyrick's father at a coffee-house, in the 
 neighbourhood of Charing-cross, having listened, 
 for some time, with impatience to the oratory of a 
 Mr. Warnefield, who was making some severe re- 
 marks not only on Warburton's Divine Legation of 
 Moses, but on the Bible itself, he, at length, in- 
 terrupted him. " I tell you what, sir," said he ; 
 " Warburton is no friend of mine ; but I detest 
 hearing a man of learning abused. As to the Bible 
 believe or not, just as you please ; but let it con- 
 tain as many absurdities, untruths, and unsound 
 doctrines, as you say it does, there is one passage, 
 at least, that I am sure, you, with all your ingenuity, 
 and with all the eloquence you possess, have not the 
 power to surpass. It is where the prophet says, 
 1 The children of men are much wiser than the 
 children of light.' " 
 
 And here I take pleasure in citing a passage sent 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 181 
 
 to me by an octogenarian of great learning, who 
 assures me, that he has every reason to think, 
 that it formed part of a letter from Akenside 
 to Dr. Grainger, author of the Sugar Cane *. 
 " Your friend seems to doubt whether he has a 
 soul or not ; and yet surely he will not attempt to 
 place himself on a level with Kepler; and so far 
 was he from doubting, that he had a soul, he gives 
 one even to the earth itself -J-."" " In respect to its 
 nature," said he, on another occasion, "it is past 
 my judgment, whether material or immaterial. 
 Perhaps it may partake of both natures. Tertul- 
 lian not only makes the soul material J, but he gives 
 
 * " Grainger/' says Dr. Percy, Bishop of Droraore, " was 
 not only a man of learning, but of excellent virtue ; one of 
 the most friendly, generous, and benevolent men I ever 
 knew." Grainger's Georgic is now chiefly known by the 
 tale of Junio and Theana. There are, however, some fine 
 passages in it; and many beautiful descriptions of tropical 
 vegetation. 
 
 t Probably, Akenside alluded to the following passage : 
 " Denique terra globus tale corpus erit, quale est alicujus 
 animalis : quidque animali est sua anima, hoc erit telluri 
 haze, quam quasrimus, natura suhlunaris" 
 
 % " Nos autem animam corporalem, et hie profitemur, et 
 in suo volumine probamus habentem proprium genus sub- 
 stantias, et soliditatis, per quam quid, et sentire, et pati 
 possit." " Quis negavit Deum esse corpus." 
 
182 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 a corporal body even to God himself; and Job says, 
 * In my flesh I shall see God.' The Christian doc- 
 trine, also, implies it ; since it speaks of the resur- 
 rection of the body. Certainly, every thing that 
 exists must have shape ; and if shape, form ; and if 
 form, substance. But there may be many sub- 
 stances, and no doubt there are, beyond what we 
 know of at present. Simplicius says, there is in 
 nature an active principle and a passive one: the 
 soul may partake of the same differences; the former 
 principle, associating with light; the latter with 
 colour. Maximus Tyrius makes even a bolder as- 
 sertion ; for, he says, that God's oracles and men's 
 understandings are of near alliance. Hence the 
 assertion of Proclus, that all our souls are the chil- 
 dren of God. But the fact is, we know little of 
 these things. It is a great satisfaction, however, 
 that we live in a world, presenting, every moment, 
 something to exercise our faculties; and that the 
 grand mover of the whole will, no doubt, make 
 ample allowances for human infirmity.'" 
 
 Akenside, however, seldom conversed on subjects 
 of this kind. They are very dangerous for medical 
 men to touch upon. The religious creed of Akenside, 
 if we may judge by his poem, seems to have associated 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 183 
 
 with that of Lord Shaftesbury*, pure theism : but 
 that he had a high respect for the Christian Reve- 
 lation, and a profound reverence for the Christian 
 doctrine, is very evident from his ode to the Bishop 
 of Winchester, and that to the author of the Me- 
 moirs of the House of Brandenburg. There is, 
 perhaps, a still more striking proof of his respect for 
 Christianity. For, when a boy, I remember hear- 
 ing Sir G rey Cooper, Bart., read a paraphrase of the 
 Benedicite, which, he told my father, was written 
 by Akenside. " I know it has been attributed to 
 other persons, 11 said Sir Grey, " but I have very 
 good reasons for believing, that it was written by 
 Akenside ; and I am proud of it ; for Akenside was 
 a townsman of mine ; and I remember hearing, that 
 he was, also, author of one of the Christmas Carols f 
 
 * See Characteristics, ii. 11, 71, 72, 73, 74, 267, 268, 358, 
 Ed. 1737. 
 
 f Mr. Brand alludes to Carols of this kind in his observa- 
 tions on Popular Antiquities. (See Ellis's edition, vol. i. 
 350, 4to.) "J. Boemus Aubanus tells us, that in Franconia, 
 on the three Thursday nights of our Lord, it is customary 
 for the youth of both sexes to go from house to house, 
 knocking at the doors, singing their Christmas Carols, and 
 wishing a happy new year. They get, in return, at the 
 houses, they stop at, pears, apples, nuts, and even money. 
 
 u Little troops of boys and girls still go about, in this very 
 manner, at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and other places in the 
 
184 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 which used to be sung about the streets of New- 
 castle many years ago.' 1 This paraphrase we do not 
 venture, however, to insert ; since, had it really been 
 written by Akenside, it would, assuredly, have been 
 inserted in Mr. Dyson's edition of 1772. It is too 
 beautiful to have been omitted. 
 
 Sir Grey Cooper was born at Newcastle-upon- 
 Tyne, and was bred to the profession of a barrister ; 
 and a speech still remains upon record, delivered by 
 him at the bar of the House of Commons, which 
 may perhaps be cited as one of the best, ever de- 
 livered on a mere local subject*. He wrote a 
 pamphlet, entitled " A Pair of 'Spectacles for Short- 
 sighted Politicians,'''' which had the good fortune to 
 recommend him to the ministry of the day; and he 
 became, subsequently, Member of Parliament for 
 the borough of Sandwich, and Secretary to the 
 
 north of England, some few nights before, on the night of 
 the eve of Christmas-day, and on that of the day itself. 
 The Hagmena (as it is called) is still preserved among them, 
 and they always conclude their begging song with wishing 
 a merry Christmas, and a happy new year." 
 
 * " State of the proceedings in the House of Commons on 
 the petition of the Duke and Duchess of Atholl, against 
 the Bill, ' for the more effectually preventing the mischiefs 
 arising to the revenue and commerce of Great Britain and 
 Ireland, from the illicit and clandestine trade to and from 
 the Isle of Man.'" 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 185 
 
 Treasury, during the whole administration of Lord 
 North. His use to that minister, on particular oc- 
 casions, is thus illustrated in the correspondence of 
 Sir John Sinclair *. 
 
 " Lord North was often lulled into a profound sleep 
 by the omniferous oratory of some of the parliamentary 
 speakers. Sir Grey Cooper (one of the Secretaries 
 of the Treasury), meanwhile took notes of the principal 
 arguments of his opponents, which, by glancing his eye 
 over the paper, Lord North was enabled immediately to 
 answer. On a naval question, a member thought proper 
 to give an historical detail of the origin and progress of 
 ship-building, which he deduced from Noah's Ark, and 
 in regular order brought down to the Spanish Armada. 
 Sir Grey, inadvertently, awoke his lordship at this 
 period ; who asked, to what era the honourable gentle- 
 man had arrived ? Being told, ' to the reign of Queen 
 Elizabeth,' he instantly replied, c Dear Sir Grey, why 
 did you not let me sleep a century or two more ?' " 
 
 On the resignation of Lord North, Sir Grey 
 retired into private life. Having spent all the earlier 
 part of my life in the village and neighbourhood to 
 which he retired, I had many opportunities of seeing 
 and conversing with him. He had a small temple 
 or summer-house, in a remote part of the village, 
 called the Hall-Grove. This summer-house was 
 
 * Vol. i. p. 76. 
 
186 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 generally kept unlocked, and every one might go 
 into it that pleased. I frequently availed myself 
 of this liberty ; and one day found a copy of Aken- 
 side, which had been left on the table by one of 
 Sir Grey's family ; and seating myself on a small 
 parapet, overhung with jessamine, honey-suckles, 
 and clematis, opened the book, and imbibed, for the 
 fiist time, that ardent admiration of the works of 
 this poet, which has continued through life,, and 
 led at last to the presumption of endeavouring to 
 illustrate his life, writings, and genius*. 
 
 Sir Grey was rather haughty, when displeased ; 
 but the most condescending of men, when in good 
 humour. He had great dignity in his deportment ; 
 was of a kind and humane disposition ; and one 
 of the best and most indulgent of parents. One 
 day my father charged me with the deliverance of 
 a letter, when Sir Grey took me into his private 
 apartment, and presented me with a copy of two 
 poems, he had printed for the use of his friends. 
 One of these I presume to insert, either out of 
 gratitude or resentment, for having first awakened 
 
 * Bowles. " The influence of the imagination, on the 
 conduct of life, is one of the most important points in moral 
 philosophy. It were easy, by an induction of facts, to prove, 
 that the imagination directs almost all the passions, and 
 mixes with almost every circumstance of action or pleasure." 
 Akenside. 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 187 
 
 in me an ambition to be remembered a few short 
 days beyond the hour of death. 
 
 " TO THE NYMPH OF THE FOUNTAIN OF TEARS. 
 
 " Hail, pious nymph ! whose guardian power 
 The holy spring of Tears protects, 
 And each soft drop and tender shower 
 From the mysterious source directs : 
 
 * Not tears, that, on th' approach of death, 
 Down the pale cheek of tyrants roll, 
 When Conscience, to the latest breath, 
 Holds up the mirror to the soul : 
 
 " Nor such as moisten the dark cells 
 
 Where, midst the slaves the rack prepare, 
 The stern inquisitor compels 
 E'en godlike virtue to despair. 
 
 " These bitter waters of distress 
 
 Arise from other springs than thine ; 
 Springs, which infernal gnomes possess, 
 Dread ministers of wrath divine ! 
 
 " Heaven gives to thee the sacred part 
 
 Of watching the pure streams, that flow 
 From the soft motions of the heart, 
 That learns to feel another's woe : 
 
 " To raise the head by care depress'd, 
 With gentle, delicate, relief; 
 To pour into the wounded breast 
 The balm of sympathetic grief. 
 
188 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 " Such soothing offices engage 
 
 Thy sylphs, the messengers of grace, 
 Sent by thy order to assuage 
 The sorrows of the human race. 
 
 " To thee belong the gushing rills 
 Of sudden joy and glad surprise, 
 The rapt soul's transport, that distils 
 Glistening in th' expressive eyes. 
 
 " Let me, thy suppliant, take my part 
 In all thy pleasures, all thy pains ; 
 And ne'er, though exquisite the smart, 
 Of sensibility complain : 
 
 " Oft let me leave the busy scene, 
 Devotion at thy shrine to pay ; 
 Oft taste with thee the calm serene 
 Evening of a well-spent day ; 
 
 " And, in thy grotto's hallow'd shade, 
 Gaze at the children of the world, 
 In vanity's light barks convey'd, 
 With every glittering sail unfurl'd : 
 
 " Smile at the great, for what they choose 
 In each fond wish and fickle mood; 
 And pity them for what they lose 
 The power divine of doing good. 
 
 " View the mild glory round the throne, 
 Love with obedience command ; 
 For other's rights maintain its own, 
 And rule to bless a grateful land. 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 189 
 
 " To cheer me in the vale of tears. 
 
 Still, pensive nymph ! thy grace impart, 
 Still let thy spring of tender tears 
 Enlarge and purify my heart ; 
 
 " For with those social feelings glow 
 The best affections of the mind; 
 The warmth of friendship, and the glow 
 Of charity to all mankind*." 
 
 * The following letters, which have lately appeared in 
 the Garrick correspondence, are important in more lights 
 than one : 
 
 H Tuesday morning. 
 
 " MY DEAR GARRICK, 
 
 " I give you my most cordial thanks for the de- 
 light I received last night ; and Lord North commands me 
 to express his obligation to you in the strongest manner. I 
 cannot go in comfort to my wife and children at Windsor, 
 till I am assured, that you have not suffered for this inimi- 
 table exertion of your powers. I never remember to have 
 seen or heard you greater, tarn in concitatis quam in remissis 
 qffectibus, which Quintilian says of Cicero in one of his 
 finest orations. I beg my compliments to Mrs. Garrick. I 
 saw her stooping from her cloud and gazing at you. I 
 thought the spirit of Shakspeare was, probably, doing the 
 same, and with equal applause. By the by, why should not 
 those fine lines, in the Essay on Man, be applied to your 
 demi-god, as well as Newton ? 
 
 ' Superior beings, when of late they saw 
 A mortal man unfold all nature's law/ &c. 
 
 " I am, my dear sir, very affectionately yours, 
 
 " Grey Cooper." 
 
190 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 Among the friends of Akenside may be, also, 
 mentioned Mr. Wray ; to whom Mr. Edwards ad- 
 
 <c Parliament Street, March 14, 1771. 
 
 ** MY DEAR SIB, 
 
 " I will not fail to use my best endeavours to 
 obtain what you request, and I am well assured, that Lord 
 North will receive the application with a favourable im- 
 pression, as it comes from you. At the same time I must 
 acquaint you, that the same indulgence, which Mr. R. Burke 
 desires, was, last year, refused to Mr. Haliday, the collector of 
 Antigua, on the ground of his having been only one year at- 
 tending his duty, since his former leave of absence expired. 
 This is the very case of Mr. Richard Burke; but as my 
 heart always inclines me to go beyond the severe rules of my 
 duty, in soliciting the petitions of the lowest officers of the 
 crown, when they apply for leave of absence on account of 
 their health, or the urgency of their private affairs, even 
 when the facts do not come so well vouched, as they ought 
 to be by the rules of office, I cannot refuse my assistance to 
 the recommendations of a friend, whom upon much greater 
 occasions I should be happy to oblige. Lord North is the 
 best-natured man in the world, and I know, he will as readily 
 do a favour, or grant a reasonable indulgence, to the brother 
 of Mr. E. Burke, as to any of those who stand in the rank 
 of his political friends. Nothing but public consideration, 
 and the tendency of the example, can prevent him from 
 granting what is requested. 
 
 "I am, my dear sir, with the truest regard, your very 
 faithful servant, 
 
 " Grey Cooper." 
 
 Endorsed, 
 " Sir Grey Cooper. March 17, 1771. 
 
 H Richard Burke." 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 191 
 
 dressed a sonnet, peculiarly characteristic of their 
 different fortunes in life. 
 
 " Treasury Chambers. 
 
 "March 18,1771. 
 
 " DEAR SIR, 
 
 ft I have the pleasure (because I know it will 
 give you pleasure) to acquaint you, that I have obtained 
 Lord North's permission to order a warrant for granting 
 leave of absence to Mr. Richard Burke for one year. 
 
 " By some expressions in your last letter, you seem to 
 misunderstand what I wrote to you. I never conceived, 
 that any gentleman should be refused an ordinary and rea- 
 sonable indulgence on account of his political conduct; much 
 less that of his relations. The warrant will, I hope, be 
 signed to-morrow. 
 
 " I am, my dear sir, yours ever most faithfully, 
 
 " Grey Cooper." 
 
 " Parliament Street, Nov. 8, 1771. 
 
 " MY DEAR SIR, 
 
 u I have received your letter this morning, and 
 sent it to Lady North. She and my lord must be much 
 pleased with the polite offer you make them of your charming 
 villa; though I should suppose, that my lord's business 
 (which grows upon him every hour we get nearer to parlia- 
 ment) will not suffer him to avail himself of it. I attended 
 her ladyship and my wife last night to the play. How I 
 was mortified that I did not see you, and how grieved for 
 the cause of your absence ! I beg to know particularly how 
 you do : T would have waited upon you, if I had not been 
 still very lame, of a sprained ancle. Mr. R. Burke has 
 called on me, and I have returned his visit. Junius writes 
 again to-day both in the shape of a letter and a card. 
 
192 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 " Wray, whose dear friendship in the dawning years 
 Of undesigning childhood first began, 
 Though youth's gay morn with even tenour ran, 
 My noon conducted, and my evening cheers, 
 
 " With regard to the subject of your former letter, my 
 constant conduct and language have been, that though, in read-' 
 ing the letters, I teas often led to conjecture and to believe, 
 that they were written by that person*, I as often felt myself 
 restrained and controlled from entertaining such suspicions, 
 by the solemn declarations, and the parole of the honour of a 
 gentleman, which I had heard from you he had given, and 
 which every gentleman holds more sacred than his 
 
 LIFE. 
 
 " I am, my dear sir, yours most truly, 
 
 w Grey Cooper." 
 
 MR. GARRICK TO SIR GREY COOPER. 
 
 Adelphi, Feb. 1, 1774. 
 
 " MY DEAR SIR, 
 
 * It is not possible for me to believe, what my 
 servant tells me, nay I should scarce have believed my own 
 eyes, had I seen it. He tells me, that you in company with 
 a certain lord, whom I most honour and would soonest obey, 
 called yesterday at the Adelphi ! Impossible ! I beg and 
 beseech you, my good friend, not to make me too vain ; but 
 if there are any commands to either of the Indies ; if it is 
 
 * Mr. Edward Burke. Since Sir Grey entertained this 
 opinion, it is most probable, that Lord North did the same ; 
 and there are few things more remarkable in the history of 
 that mystery. 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 193 
 
 Rightly dost thou, in whom combined appears, 
 Whate'er for public life completes the man, 
 With native zeal strike out a larger plan, 
 
 No useless friends of senators and peers j 
 Me talents moderate, and small estate, 
 Fit for retirement's unambitious shade. 
 
 Nor envy I, who ne'er approach the throne, 
 But joyful see thee mingle with the great, 
 
 And praise my lot, contented with my own *." 
 
 thought proper that I should be commander-in-chief; or if 
 I should be fixed to make the Bostonians drink tea, as they 
 ought, or send them after the tea into the Atlantic, pray 
 let me know directly, that I may resign the kingdoms of 
 England and Scotland, in the persons of Richard the Third 
 and Macbeth, and prepare to go any where, as that noble 
 lord should be pleased to command me. 
 
 " I am your most obliged and obedient, 
 
 " D. Garrick." 
 
 Reply. 
 
 " MY DEAR SIR, 
 
 " The wit and pleasantry of your letter have 
 delighted us all. Lord North cannot afford, either on the 
 account of his taste or his popularity, to send the favourite 
 of the nation to such barbarous places as Bengal or Boston. 
 He hopes, however, that you will soon prove, that you have 
 neither abdicated nor deserted the kingdoms of Scotland or 
 England. 
 
 " Ever yours most faithfully, 
 
 " Grey Cooper." 
 
 * The character of Mr. Wray is thus sketched by Mr. 
 Justice Hardinge. 
 
 o 
 
194 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 Akenside having completed, in 1765, the second 
 book of his new poem on the Imagination, took 
 
 u It may appear, at the first glance of it, a paradox, but, 
 I believe, it will be found correct, when it is analysed, 
 and compared with experience, to say, that nothing is more 
 difficult than to give the portrait of a singular man; I 
 mean the features and the countenance of his mind. I shall, 
 therefore, only attempt a faint impression of a deportment 
 and of a manner, the most original, that I ever knew. 
 
 " Mr. Wray had a vivacity, and laughing air, half ludi- 
 crous, yet exciting no ridicule, and bordering upon levity, 
 but never too near it more juvenile at least than his age j 
 but in this comic humour he was never coarse, or ill-bred ; 
 was never too free, and never ill-natured. He was blessed 
 with a power to make instruction pleasant, which no colours 
 can reach. 
 
 * I have known men of distinguished parts, and wit, who 
 seem to have got by heart a whole string of epigrams in 
 prose, and bon mots, to be let off in the course of the day. 
 Shakspeare, who was at home in every human character, and 
 walked in every path of it, says of those men, as represented 
 by one of his dramatic figures, 
 
 ' This fellow picks up wit, as pigeons pease, 
 And utters it again, as Jove doth please.' 
 
 " Horace describes the jester of his day: 
 
 'facetos 
 
 Qui capiat risus hominum, famamque dicacis.' 
 
 " Mr. Wray had no such ambition ; he was above it: all 
 his whims of thought, fancy, or expression, were not only 
 his own, but were prompted by the casual impulse of the 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 195 
 
 occasion, the following year, to read it to Lord and 
 Lady Dacre, at their seat, called Mount Ararat. 
 This circumstance is related by Mr. Wray in a 
 letter to one of his friends *. " I was at Mount 
 Ararat to attend Lord and Lady Dacre, accom- 
 panied by Akenside, who passed the evening there, 
 and communicated the second and part of a third 
 book in his great work. In the former, and in the 
 
 * Sept. 23, 1766. 
 
 moment. He had a right even to be as dull, as he was 
 brilliant, from his perfect indifference to the effect of all, 
 that he said, except that he was happy in communicating 
 pleasure to those around him. 
 
 " In general society he had no imperious air of the pedant, 
 or fopperies of taste. He had no oracles to deliver ; no little 
 senate for his laws ; but ' spared his own strength +/ in 
 wisdom or in wit. He had a light and familiar note, that 
 made its party good with boys and girls. He rather said in 
 a lively and comic style what carried the weight of a power- 
 ful intellect, than what are foolishly called 'good things.' 
 
 " I can remember a thousand bons mots of those wits pro- 
 fessed, Chesterfield, Horace Walpole, and Selwyn. 
 Of Wray, I recollect none : and it is not because they did 
 not exist; it is because they were melted into something 
 better and superior." Nichols' Illustrations. 
 
 t Parcentibus viribus. Hor. 
 
 o2 
 
196 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 same philosophical way, he is eloquent on the topics 
 of truth and virtue, vice and the passions. In the 
 latter, Solon is introduced giving a fable on the 
 origin of evil. It is introduced by an episode from 
 Herodotus of Argavistds Marriage, the daughter 
 of Clisthenes, which is delightfully poetical." 
 
 In 1768 Akenside published three essays in the 
 Medical Transactions. 1. On Cancers ; 2. On the 
 Use of Ipecacuanha in Asthmas ; 3. On the best 
 Method of treating White Swellings of the Joints. 
 
 1. In the first he gives an instance of a cancer in 
 utero, which was cured by the cicuta and the bark ; 
 one, in which a cancer in the tongue was cured by 
 the cicuta, corrosive sublimate, and the bark ; and 
 a third, in which a cancered lip was cured in the 
 same manner; with this difference, that the cicuta, 
 having removed the pains, which was all that could 
 be expected from it, was laid aside at the end of ten 
 days. 
 
 2. In respect to asthmas, Akenside directs, that 
 where the indisposition is chronical and habitual, 
 from three to five grains of ipecacuanha every 
 morning. " The effects," says the author, " do not 
 depend on exercise, or the action of vomiting ; but 
 upon the antispasmodic virtues of ipecacoan." 
 
 3. In regard to white swellings of the joints, 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 197 
 
 Akenside recommends the application of a blister 
 round the part affected ; which he directs to be kept 
 open, and reduced to such a size, as the nature of 
 the complaint may seem to require: but nothing, 
 he adds, is to be expected from this treatment, 
 when there is any sensible collection of fluid within 
 the joint. 
 
 Having been appointed Krohnian Lecturer, 
 Akenside chose for his subject the History of the 
 Revival of Learning ; and he read three lectures on 
 that comprehensive theme before the College of 
 Physicians. But some of the members having 
 justly remarked, that the subject was foreign to the 
 purposes of that institution, he declined proceeding 
 farther. 
 
 About the same period he read an account of 
 some observations, he had made at St. Thomas's 
 Hospital, on the putrid erysipelas. These observa- 
 tions he intended for the second volume of the 
 Medical Transactions; but death prevented their 
 publication *. 
 
 * It has been generally believed that there are several 
 MSS. of Akenside at the College of Physicians, or at the 
 College of Surgeons. This, however, is not the fact; as 
 may be seen by the following letters : 
 
198 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 I shall now say something of my old and respected 
 friend, Mr. Meyrick. He lived in Swallow-street 
 many years, and died at Hammersmith in 1807. 
 When I was first introduced to him, which was in 
 the early part of that year, he shook me so cordially 
 by the hand, at parting, that it ached for many 
 minutes afterwards. He was, nevertheless, far from 
 
 * Royal College of Surgeons, Oct 17, 1831. 
 
 " SIR, 
 
 " In reply to your letter of yesterday I have to acquaint 
 you that I do not find, among the papers, preserved at this 
 College, any MSS. or memoranda whatever, relating to Dr. 
 Akenside. 
 
 u I am, Sir, 
 " Your most obedient humble servant, 
 
 " Edmund Belfour." 
 
 " College of Physicians, Oct. 2d, 1831. 
 
 U SIR, 
 
 " I am requested by Sir Henry Halford, President of 
 the Royal College of Physicians, to inform you that there 
 are no MSS. or other papers relating to Dr. Akenside, to be 
 found in the College Library; and to assure you, that had 
 there been any such, every facility of access to them would 
 have been readily afforded to you. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, Sir, 
 
 " Your obedient servant, 
 
 " Francis Hawkins, M. D. 
 " To Charles Bucke, Esq." 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 199 
 
 being rough or rude in his manners. He was, on 
 the contrary, good-nature itself. He had a great 
 dislike to be thought to have more information, 
 than he really had, and was strongly averse to any 
 thing like authorship. " I have known many 
 authors," he would say, " but I never saw any 
 thing in their fortunes or physiognomies to envy.'" 
 " I '11 tell you a witty saying of mine," said he, one 
 day. " Glover came once into my shop ; and 
 putting a prescription into my hand, desired me to 
 make it up for him. c I think I am coming to a 
 sad pass, said he ; * my health declines daily.' 
 6 No,' said I ; 4 no, sir, you are not yet come to a 
 sad pass ; for if you were, you could not have made 
 Leonidas fight so gallantly at the pass of Thermo- 
 pylcB? Glover," continued he, " was one of the 
 best men I ever knew. Some people want us to 
 believe, that he wrote Junius's letters. Why, he 
 was a friend of Mr. Dyson; could he, therefore, 
 write of Mr. Dyson as Junius did ? Besides, the 
 Duke of Bedford had done him several small pieces 
 of service. It is a libel upon human nature to 
 suppose such a thing."' 1 
 
 Junius, indeed, wrote very irreverendly of Mr. 
 Dyson. Soon after his resignation of the clerkship 
 of the House of Commons, Mr. Dyson was appointed 
 
200 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 Secretary to the Treasury. In 1768 he was ap- 
 pointed one of the Lords of the Treasury, under 
 the Duke of Grafton, in conjunction with Lord North 
 (Chancellor of the Exchequer), Mr. Onslow, the 
 once celebrated Charles Jenkinson, and Mr. Charles 
 Townsend. He does not appear to have been a very 
 eloquent debater, nor indeed a frequent speaker: 
 but his opinions were always characterised by plain, 
 practical, common sense ; and as his name must 
 always command great respect, and even reverence, 
 for the magnificence of his conduct to Akenside, the 
 insertion of one of his speeches, by way of specimen, 
 cannot fail to be interesting. 
 
 " Jan. 9, 1770. We have been told, sir, in a laboured 
 harangue (from Mr. Serjeant Glynn), that we have lost 
 the love and confidence of the people ; that an honour- 
 able gentleman, who has reproached us with betraying 
 our trust, has spoken the sentiments of the people ; that 
 we are, at this moment, in danger of being called to an 
 account by the people ; that the people are ready to do 
 themselves justice upon us; and that we should be 
 aware what we do, because the people, whom, by one 
 of those rhetorical nourishes, which are so useful, on 
 other occasions, he calls the avenger, is at the door. Sir, 
 it is hard to say, whether this insult is more gross 
 against this house, or the people. Is the rabble, that 
 is now supposed to be gathered about the door, the 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 201 
 
 people ? Are the writers of the newspapers, who wish 
 for a prison or the pillory, that their libels may be 
 thought more important, the people ? The people are 
 too great, too respectable a body, to become the tool, the 
 puppet of any faction. They are not to be hired to 
 halloo and hiss with porter and geneva ; they are not 
 to be brought gaping to an inn, by such tricks and de- 
 vices, as gull clowns at a fair. An honourable gentle- 
 man has told us, that he did not seek petitioners ; but 
 that petitioners sought him : but it is well known, that 
 though this may be true in appearance, it is false in 
 fact. When a great man has a mind to be thus sought, 
 intimations are given to proper persons, that they must 
 seek him ; a few stanch friends meet together, with an 
 invitation to the great man, drawn up by himself, in 
 their pocket. When this is formally sent to him, he 
 graciously vouchsafes to attend. A general meeting is 
 then proposed ; advertisements are inserted in the news- 
 papers; cards cf invitation are everywhere distributed; 
 and agents attend on market days at inns and alehouses, 
 to see, who can be picked up by the influence of a cus- 
 tomer, or the hopes of a treat. The great man receives 
 another copy of the invitation to himself; and he again 
 deigns to accept it. When he comes, he is pressed to 
 take the chair, as has been preconcerted, and thus he is 
 happily sought and found. From the chair he relates 
 what he has heard from the minority of this house, of 
 wicked ministers and injured liberty; taking care to 
 suppress the arguments, by which the majority support 
 the wisdom of parliament and the rectitude of adminis- 
 
202 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 tration ; and then, producing a petition, hands are col- 
 lected, like money at the church-door for a brief; and 
 when this rhapsody of malice and sedition, in which ma- 
 jesty and ministry are involved in one general charge 
 of combining against the constitution, is brought up to 
 insult the king and disgrace government, we are told it 
 is the sense of the people ! We have been superciliously 
 warned of tyranny, and told, that it is advancing against 
 us in hasty strides. I am an enemy to tyranny, sir ; 
 and, therefore, I cannot without indignation hear this 
 house threatened with the most preposterous and horrid 
 of all tyranny, that of a mob. To insinuate, that the 
 measures of a legislative body should be influenced by 
 echoes of sedition from the rabble, is to insinuate, that all 
 government should be at an end. It is to restrain those, 
 with whose vengeance we are now threatened, that all 
 government is instituted ; and if they are not restrained, 
 a state of nature will return, and the earth will be 
 filled with violence and oppression, under the pretence 
 of liberty and justice. If our liberties are in danger, 
 it is from those, who have set up the cry; it is from 
 those, who insult both majesty and administration ; and 
 not from those who would support the best of princes, 
 in the exercise of constitutional rites, and the measures 
 to which he gives the sanction of his authority." 
 
 Jan. 26, 1769. Mr. Dyson spoke in favour of 
 Lord North's measures, in regard to America. 
 March 15, 1770. He spoke on the subject of 
 
LIFE OE AKENSIDE. 203 
 
 the Remonstrance of the city of London to the 
 king. 
 
 March 28 (same year). He spoke against Mr. 
 Granville's bill for regulating the trials of contested 
 elections. 
 
 Feb. 27, 1771. He spoke against a bill, intro- 
 duced to repeal a clause in the act for quieting the 
 possession of the subject, called the nullum tempest 
 act. 
 
 April 25, 1771. He spoke on the Shoreham 
 bill: and on March 2, 1773, he delivered his sen- 
 timents in favour of the bill, introduced by Sir 
 Henry Hoghton, for the further relief of his ma- 
 jesty's protestant subjects, dissenting from the 
 church of England. 
 
 These are all the instances, recorded, in which 
 Mr. Dyson took any prominent part in the debates 
 of the house ; but as debates were not published in 
 those times, in the manner they are at present ; it 
 is impossible now to ascertain how frequently he 
 otherwise spoke, on what subjects, and to what 
 purport. 
 
 In February, 1770, we find him resigning his 
 situation of a Lord of the Admiralty in favour of 
 Mr. Fox, upon a pension being granted him on the 
 Irish establishment, for his own life and those of his 
 
204 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 three sons. This pension, however, he did not en- 
 joy quite two years. It was taken up in the Irish 
 house of parliament, upon the ground of its being 
 an unnecessary charge upon that country ; and on 
 a division Mr. Dyson lost his pension by a ma- 
 jority of one*. On this occasion Mr. Flood made 
 one of those furious attacks, for which he was so 
 greatly remarkable. " Of all the burthens which 
 it has pleased government to lay upon our devoted 
 shoulders," said Mr. Flood, " that, which is the 
 subject of the present debate, is the most grievous 
 and intolerable. Who does not know Jeremiah 
 Dyson, Esq. ? We know little of him indeed, 
 otherwise than by his name in our pension list ; but 
 there are others, who know him by his actions. 
 This is he, who is endued with those happy talents, 
 that he has served every administration, and served 
 every one with equal success, a civil, pliable, good- 
 natured gentleman, who will do what you will, and 
 say what you please, for payment." 
 
 Mr. Flood was here interrupted. " The honour- 
 able gentleman," said a member, " ought to pay 
 more respect to Mr. Dyson, as one of his majesty's 
 officers, and, as such, on whom his majesty was 
 graciously pleased to repose confidence in." 
 * Nov. 25, 1771. 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 205 
 
 " As to the royal confidence,'" answered Mr. 
 Flood, " reposed in Mr. Dyson, his gracious ma- 
 jesty (whom God long preserve) has been graciously 
 lavish of it, not only to Mr. Dyson, but to the 
 friends of Mr. Dyson ; and I think the choice was 
 good : the royal secrets will, I dare say, be very 
 secure in their breasts, not only for the love they 
 bear to his gracious majesty, but for the love they 
 bear themselves. In the present case, however, we 
 do not want to be informed of that part of Mr. 
 Dyson's character we know enough of him, 
 every body knows enough of him. Ask the British 
 treasury the British council ask any English- 
 man who he is, what he is, they can all tell you, 
 for the gentleman is well known. But what have 
 we to do with him ? He never served Ireland, nor 
 the friends of Ireland. And if this distressed king- 
 dom was never benefited by his counsel, interest, 
 or service, I see no reason why this kingdom should 
 reward him ! Let the honourable members of this 
 house consider this, and give their voices accord- 
 ingly. For God's sake, let every man consult his 
 conscience: If Jeremiah Dyson, Esq. shall be 
 found to deserve this pension, let it be continued; 
 if not, let it be lopped off our revenue as burthen- 
 some and unnecessary." 
 
206 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 In respect to politics, it is wise to pass no judg- 
 ments. Like every other man, Mr. Dyson had a 
 right to think for himself. For my own part I have 
 seen so many patriotic talkers tyrants in their own 
 fields, houses, circles, and neighbourhoods ; and so 
 many advocates for aristocratical power mild, gentle, 
 and conciliating, that I have long ceased to form 
 judgments of men, grounded on the questionable 
 basis of political opinion. Mr. Dyson thought for 
 himself, and acted for himself. As a private cha- 
 racter, he appears to have been highly estimable. 
 " He was an excellent father,"" says Mr. Hatsell, 
 who dedicated to him the second volume of his 
 precedents of the proceedings of the House of Com- 
 mons ; " of comprehensive knowledge, acuteness of 
 understanding, and inflexible integrity, great know- 
 ledge of history in general, and of the laws and 
 constitution of this country in particular.'" As the 
 friend and patron of Akenside he must always be 
 reverenced, and can never be forgotten *. 
 
 * Mr. Dyson survived his friend rather more than six 
 years. He died Sept. 16, 1776, universally respected and 
 beloved. At the time of his death, he was M. P. for Hors- 
 ham, a member of the Privy Council, and cofferer to the 
 household of George the third. 
 
 There are two letters, still extant, in MS., in which Mr. 
 Dyson is mentioned, from the celebrated Adam Smith to 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 207 
 
 The whole correspondence of Akenside with Mr. 
 Dyson, if preserved, would have been, doubtless, 
 
 Dr. Roebuck of Birmingham. These letters are very re- 
 markable ; not so much as they respect Mr. Dyson, as they 
 are in regard to the methods, which they develope, pursued 
 by the administration (of which Mr. Dyson was a member), 
 in respect to the British colonies in America. 
 
 " MY DEAR FRIEND, 
 
 M This letter is wrote to you in perfect con- 
 fidence, and at the particular desire of a man of very con- 
 siderable consequence in this country. The contents of it 
 must be kept as secret as possible, even tho' you should 
 be disposed to comply with the proposal. If, after having 
 read and maturely considered it, you should not be disposed 
 to comply with it, I will beg the favour of yon to throw it 
 in thejire. 
 
 " By the latest accounts from the Congress in America, it 
 appears, that the Deputies from Maryland, New York, Pen- 
 sylvania, and New Hampshire, all firmly opposed a non-im- 
 portation agreement as absurd and ineffectual; they proposed 
 to try the interest of the Colonies in England, by sending a de- 
 putation with a petition to the King and Parliament ; and to 
 endeavour to accommodate matters with the mother coun- 
 try, in the best manner that they could. This measure was 
 likely to be adopted, when letters arrived from Dr. Franklin, 
 recommending a non-importation agreement, as the measure 
 most likely to interest the merchants of England in their 
 favour, and to bring petitions to Parliament from all the 
 principal manufacturing towns, praying a repeal of the late 
 acts, relating to the town of Boston, and colony of Massa- 
 chusset's Bay. These letters altered entirely the disposition 
 
208 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 a high treat to the intellectual reader. Only a 
 small portion of that correspondence, however, re- 
 
 of the Congress. The deputies of New York, however, being 
 convinced of the impropriety of the non-importation agree- 
 ment, but not being able to prevent it, were endeavouring 
 to evade it by modifying it. A general non-importation 
 agreement was allowed, on all hands, to be absurd ; as there 
 were some commodities, which they could not do without. 
 These necessary commodities were not the same in all the 
 different colonies. It was necessary, therefore, to regulate 
 what commodities should be excluded only from certain 
 colonies. This was the state of the debates when the last 
 letters came away. 
 
 " In the mean time, Franklin's agents, assisted by some of 
 the worst and most unprincipled members of the opposition, 
 have been extremely active in some of the principal manu- 
 facturing towns of the North, particularly among the dis- 
 senters, to prepare the people for making and supporting such 
 petitions. 
 
 " There is nothing so much wanted, at present, as a man 
 of known piobity, candour, and judgment, and of esta- 
 blished credit and authority in these towns, who would take 
 some pains to explain to the principal people the nature and 
 probable effects of this scheme ; that it is in reality nothing 
 less, than an infamous conspiracy to dismember the British 
 empire. 
 
 " If, under pretence of your own private business, you could 
 undertake, as soon as possible, for there is very little time to 
 lose, a journey through Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, 
 Sheffield, &c, and, on seeing your friends, explain to them, 
 in a proper manner, the real state of the case, you would be 
 received here, by the principal members of administration, 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 209 
 
 mains; and this, it is hoped, will be, one day, given 
 to the world. 
 
 as a person, who had rendered the most important service to 
 the state. 
 
 " If there was any hope, that we should ever see your 
 friend Dyson in the state of health, in which you left him, 
 there is nothing, I am sure, would give him so much plea- 
 sure, or increase so much, if that be possible, the cordial 
 esteem he has always had for you. By the accounts I had 
 from his house to-day, I find he continues better, and, it 
 is to be hoped, is out of immediate danger, but still not 
 what he was. 
 
 " Franklin said, some years ago, in the presence of a par- 
 ticular friend of mine, with much triumph, that whatever 
 measures Great Britain might choose to pursue, with regard 
 to her colonies, whether mild or vigorous, they would equally 
 tend to bring about this great and desirable event of the en- 
 tire independency of America. Be assured, that this is his 
 determined purpose; which to his friends, he makes no 
 scruple of avowing. Will you suffer your friends to be 
 made the tools of this* the worst citizen I ever knew in 
 Great Britain. 
 
 " I received, some weeks ago, a letter from Mr. Johnson. 
 His project lies a little out of my road, as I know few mer- 
 cantile people here. Diligent inquiry, however, neither has 
 been, nor shall be wanting. I shall write to him, as soon 
 as I know with certainty, whether I can or cannot be of any 
 
 *The following words are lined in the MS. "proud, 
 supercilious, and malignant knave, without any exception, the 
 worst citizen," &c. 
 
210 LIFE OF AKENSIDK. 
 
 " Newgrove, Petzvorth, Oct. 7, 1831. 
 
 " SIR, 
 
 " I received yesterday from my son your 
 letter, requesting * to be informed whether Dr. 
 
 use to him. Remember me to Mrs. Roebuck and to all the 
 young gentlemen, and let me hear from you soon. 
 " I ever am, my dear friend, 
 
 '* Most faithfully yours, 
 
 (Signed) "A. Smith. 
 
 " Suffolk Street, Charing Cross, No. 27. 
 " Xlth Nov. 1774." 
 
 " MY DEAR FRIEND, 
 
 " I shall begin this letter with a circumstance, 
 which I am sure, will be agreeable. Your friend, Mr. 
 Dyson, is in a fair way towards a complete recovery. He 
 sits up the greater part of the day ; his spirits are very good, 
 and his judgment, memory, and speech are all restored. 
 
 " Your letter of the 28th of November, I communicated 
 to the Solicitor-general *, who desired leave to keep it for 
 some days, till he had an opportunity of showing it to Lord 
 North, and conversing with him at leisure on the subject. 
 His lordship, as well as my friend, expressed the highest 
 satisfaction at the honest zeal which your letter expressed, 
 as well as the highest confidence in the prudence, with which 
 they expect you will conduct this business. They both 
 consider themselves, as well as the state, as under very par- 
 
 Mr. Wedderburne, afterwards Lord Loughborough. 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 211 
 
 Akenside had left any papers, that could be in- 
 teresting to his ' numerous appreciators and ad- 
 mirers.' 
 
 " I have only some letters from him to my father, 
 in the early period of their friendship (from 1742 to 
 1745), which I looked at yesterday evening. There 
 are passages in them which show the warmth of his 
 heart, the extent of his classical knowledge, and the 
 highness of his mind. But I doubt whether they 
 would now interest the public ; and as my father 
 never communicated them to any editor of his 
 friend's life, you will think me justified in follow- 
 ing his example. 
 
 ticular obligations to you; and, when you come to town, 
 will be very happy in any opportunity of expressing their 
 sense of so important a service. Leeds, I find, is the town 
 that is most suspected, and where the discontented party 
 have been making the greatest efforts to procure petitions. 
 If petitions cannot be prevented altogether, the expedient, 
 you propose, of counter-petitions is certainly the best. I 
 shall be very happy to hear from you in the course of your 
 journey. 
 
 " I ever am, my dear sir, 
 
 " most faithfully yours, 
 (Signed) A. Smith. 
 
 " Suffolk Street, JVo. 27, Charing Cross, 
 " 9th Dec. 1774." 
 
 p2 
 
212 LTFE OF AKEKS1DE. 
 
 " With every acknowledgment of the terms in 
 which you speak of my father, 
 
 " I remain, Sir, 
 
 " Your obedient servant, 
 
 ''J. Dyson. 
 " Charles Bucket Esq" 
 
 Akenside was a great admirer of Gothic archi- 
 tecture. " I have occasionally caught him," said 
 Mr. Meyrick, " contemplating with great earnest- 
 ness the exterior of Westminster Abbey. He would 
 frequently sit, of a fine moonlight night, on the 
 benches in St. Jameses Park, gazing on that sublime 
 structure; and I remember he once told me, that 
 he seldom thought of the passage in his own poem, 
 
 ' The radiant sun, the moon's nocturnal lamp/ &c. 
 
 but he thought of a still finer one in Pope's Homer. 
 
 As when the moon, refulgent lamp of light ! 
 O'er heaven's clear azure spreads her sacred light; 
 When not a breath disturbs the deep serene, 
 And not a cloud o'ercasts the solemn scene ; 
 Around her throne the vivid planets roll, 
 And stars, unnumber'd, gild the glowing pole ; 
 O'er the dark trees a yellower verdure shed, 
 And tip with silver every mountain's head ; 
 Then shine the vales, the rocks in prospect rise, 
 And floods of glory burst from all the skies.'" 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 213 
 
 And this reminds me of Bloomfield, author of 
 that immortal Georgic, "The Farmer's Boy." 
 He was a great admirer of Akenside. " There are 
 many parts of his great poem," said he to me, one 
 day, as we were walking together in his humble 
 garden, near the Shepherd and Shepherdess fields, 
 " that I do not comprehend; but what I do under- 
 stand, I cannot express my admiration of. I never 
 read his poem till after I had written my own ; 
 but I think I must have somewhere seen this 
 passage : 
 
 ' Some to higher hopes 
 
 Were destined ; some within a finer mould 
 She wrought, and tempered with a purer flame: 
 To these the sire omnipotent unfolds 
 The world's harmonious volume, there to read 
 The transcript of himself/ 
 
 I never read these lines, but I feel myself, for 
 the moment, a poet of a far superior order than 
 that to which I really belong." 
 
 In a life of Lord Byron, published a year or 
 two since, I was greatly surprised, and, as a friend 
 of the party, whose memory is aggrieved, not a 
 little offended at the biographer's having given per- 
 manence to what, I should hope, was but a mere 
 momentary opinion of Lord Byron, in respect to 
 Bloomfield. 
 
 Lord Byron was, doubtless, a captivating poet ; 
 
214 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 but his critical qualifications were slight. To be so 
 good a man as Robert Bloomfield were a distinction 
 almost enough for any. That he should have pined 
 away the latter years of his life in hopeless poverty 
 is a disgrace to the times, in which he lived ; and 
 England can no longer reproach Scotland with bit- 
 terness for the fate of Burns. A more innocent, 
 mild, and unassuming man never adorned the 
 humble sphere in which he moved. His modesty 
 and merit, therefore, ought to have protected his 
 memory from the cold and heartless sneer of worth- 
 less vanity. Lord Byron might have learnt many 
 noble lessons of conduct from the poet, he presumed 
 to despise; since that poet born in one of the 
 humblest stations in civilized society never wrote 
 one word, and probably never entertained one 
 thought, that might not be written in letters of 
 gold. 
 
 Bloomfield was of mean parentage ; and so was 
 Akenside. The lower the rank, the greater the 
 merit. Though many persons affect to despise pe- 
 digree, it is very certain, that no one really does so, 
 who has any distinction of that sort to boast of. 
 It is characteristic of the duke, the peasant, and 
 the savage. But these are not times in which men 
 can be successfully ridiculed for their birth, profes- 
 sions, callings, or trades. The best of sovereigns 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 215 
 
 was a husbandman*. If ridicule must be cast, 
 let it be thrown on vice, folly, insolence, and 
 pretension ; but let it not be cast on men, more 
 intrinsically to be admired, than many members of 
 the first families in the kingdom. Had Bacon only 
 been a viscount, would he have stood at the head 
 of modern philosophy ? Had Byron only been a 
 baron, he had already fulfilled the purpose for 
 which he lived; and might now sleep assured of 
 forgetfulness in the vault of his ancestors. 
 
 The subject of Akenside was of the highest class ; 
 it could not, therefore, be made a subject for con- 
 tempt with any one. Can the poetry of Bloomfield ? 
 He borrowed nothing from the Greek, the Latin, 
 the French, or the Italian : though some of his 
 coincidences with the Greek poets are particularly 
 remarkable. Nature only was his book ; hence his 
 pastorals are superior to any others in the lan- 
 guage; and his poem, descriptive of a Farmer's 
 life, is, perhaps, second only to Virgil's Georgics. 
 
 " Fret not thyself, thou glittering child of pride, 
 That a poor Villager inspires my strain ; 
 With thee let Pageantry and Power abide; 
 The gentle Muses haunt the sylvan reign ; 
 
 * Piastus, King of Poland. 
 
216 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 Where through wild groves at eve the lonely swain 
 Enraptur'd roams, to gaze on Nature's charms. 
 They hate the sensual, and scorn the vain ; 
 The parasite their influence never warms ; 
 Nor him, whose sordid soul the love of gold alarms." 
 
 Akenside had now advanced to the 49th year of 
 his age. He was in the zenith, as it were, of in- 
 tellectual life ; in the enjoyment of an agreeable, 
 though not an extensive practice ; celebrated as a 
 poet ; blessed with many friends, and one not to be 
 surpassed ; and in connexion with all which, he was 
 blessed beyond the ordinary race of mortals, in the 
 power of commanding true happiness in the enjoy- 
 ment of an elegant mind, a benevolent heart, and 
 views, far from being too ambitious for his peace. 
 
 In the midst of all this, he was suddenly seized 
 with a putrid sore throat, which terminated in his 
 death on the 23d of June, 1770. He died in 
 Bloomsbury-square, and was buried in St. James's 
 church. Mr. Dyson administered to his effects, 
 and became possessor of his books, furniture, MSS., 
 and other property, as Akenside had directed, pre- 
 vious to his death. 
 
 Though Akenside did not attach himself to any 
 of his brother-poets, he had a long list of friends ; 
 amongst whom, in addition to those already men- 
 tioned, were Sir Francis Drake, Bart., the Earl 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 217 
 
 of Huntingdon, Dr. Markham, Lord North, Dr. 
 Reeve, Sir John Hawkins, Mr. Cracherode, Dr. 
 Wharton, and Dr. Birch. 
 
 " He was a most unprejudiced and candid esti- 
 mater of contemporary poets," says Mr. Hardinge; 
 " for which I admired him the more on account of 
 its amiable singularity/ 1 The opinion of his judg- 
 ment by friends may be judged of by the following 
 letter from Dr. Birch to Mr. Wray. " You 
 know the eagerness of our curiosity here for what 
 occurs in the republic of letters ; for which reason 
 you will furnish yourself, before your journey, 
 with such new productions as may deserve our 
 perusal, or such an account of them as may be 
 equivalent to the works themselves. Vaillant may 
 probably supply you with some Journaux des 
 Sfavans, imported within this month or six weeks. 
 But we do not exact from you the purchase of 
 the ' Memoirs of Lord Bolingbroke, 1 which, I 
 judge, from Dr. Akenside's account of the book, 
 not to be worth it ; though, if any friend of yours 
 has hazarded four shillings for it, and is willing to 
 spare it, for a few days, we shall not be disinclined 
 to see what the Apologist can say for a character 
 so exceptionable*.'" 
 
 * Nichols' Illust. iv. 534. 
 
218 LIFE OF AKENSIDE* 
 
 The features of Akenside were expressive and 
 manly in a very high degree; but his complexion 
 was pale, and his deportment solemn. He dressed, 
 too, in a very precise manner, and wore a powdered 
 wig in stiff curl. In respect to disposition, he is 
 said to have been irritable, and to have had little 
 restraint upon his temper before strangers; with 
 whom he was precise and ceremonious, stiff, and 
 occasionally sententious and dictatorial. 
 
 He had no taste for humour ; had little patience 
 in respect to jests ; and having no wit himself, could 
 ill brook the coarse wit of others ; and was, more- 
 over, of Lord Waldegrave's opinion, that a true 
 gentleman never jests. Yet he was himself a sa- 
 tirist, and had no mean talent that way, as many 
 of his poems testify. But in the following passage, 
 it is impossible, that he could have alluded to Pope, 
 as some have asserted, and many have believed. 
 
 " Thee, too, facetious Momion ! wandering here ; 
 Thee, dreaded censor ! oft I have beheld, 
 Bewilder'd unawares : alas ! too long 
 Flush'd with thy comic triumphs, and the spoils 
 Of sly derision .'till on every side, 
 Hurling thy random bolts, offended Truth 
 Assign'd thee here thy station, with the slaves 
 Of Folly. Thy once formidable name 
 Shall grace her humble records, and be heard, 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 219 
 
 In scoffs and mockery, bandied from the lips 
 Of all the vengeful brotherhood around ; 
 So oft the patient victims of thy scorn." 
 
 P. 7,B.IILL 179. 
 
 Some, I say, have imagined the poet to have, in 
 this passage, alluded to Pope ; and Mrs. Barbauld, 
 after admitting its probability, goes on to observe 
 " Surely, no man of just moral taste can reflect 
 without regret, that a capital work of one of our 
 best poets, composed in the height of his reputation, 
 and during the perfection of all his powers, should 
 have no other end, than to gratify the spleen of an 
 offended author, and to record the petty warfare of 
 rival wits." 
 
 These observations are, certainly, just : but the 
 fact is, Akenside could not allude to Pope in this 
 passage; for it is evident that the poet had seen 
 the person whom he satirizes. 
 
 " Thee, dreaded censor ! oft / have beheld 
 Bewilder d unawares : alas ! too long 
 Flush'd with thy comic triumphs, and the spoils 
 Of sly derision." 
 
 Now, few things are more certain, than that Aken- 
 side never visited London, till his arrival from 
 Leyden ; and that he offered his poem to Dodsley 
 almost immediately after is equally certain. It 
 
220 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 is very unlikely, that he should have seen Pope 
 during the time, in which his poem was print- 
 ing: but even if he had done so, it must have 
 been with complacency (and then not " often") ; 
 since Pope had desired Dodsley to make him no 
 mean offer, as he was " no every day writer ." The 
 passage, there can be little doubt, refers to some 
 pompous, facetious, and censorious blockhead, 
 whom Akenside had been in the habit of seeing at 
 Newcastle, at Edinburgh, or at Leyden. 
 
 The Hon. George Hardinge says in his letter 
 to Mr. Nichols, that Akenside's u great powers, 
 besides the talent for poetry, were, those of eloquent 
 reasoning, historical knowledge, and philosophical 
 taste, enlivened by the happiest and most brilliant 
 allusions. 1 ' " He had, too, a most astonishing me- 
 mory, and a most luminous application of it." 
 
 Sir John Hawkins says of his conversation, 
 that it was of the most delightful kind ; learned, 
 instructive, and without any affectation of wit; 
 cheerful and highly entertaining: and he gives an 
 account of a dinner party, which he enjoyed with 
 him, Mr. Dyson, and another friend, at Putney ; 
 when the poet, surrounded by his friends, and en- 
 joying their society in the enlivening sunshine of a 
 summer's day, seemed to feel a joy, that he lived 5 
 
LIFE OF AKENSIDE. %2l 
 
 and in consequence poured out his gratulations and 
 thanksgiving to the great Dispenser of all felicity 
 in words, which Plato himself might have uttered 
 on a similar occasion. 
 
 Yet he was not always agreeable in conversation. 
 He had a high sense of his own merits ; and when 
 persons of an inferior cast presumed upon their 
 ignorance, or want of good-breeding, to intrude 
 their observations too unceremoniously, Akenside 
 seldom denied himself the satisfaction of chastising 
 their presumption, by the adoption of a manner, 
 perhaps too severe, satirical, and splenetic. But in 
 the society of those mild and gentle spirits, who 
 admired his genius, and respected his virtues, he 
 was kindness itself. His language flowed chastely, 
 gracefully, and eloquently ; and his varied know- 
 ledge, argumentative reasonings, and nice distinc- 
 tions; his fine appreciation of philosophical allusions, 
 and keen relish for the beauties of the creation, would 
 display themselves in pure and copious streams of 
 eloquence, never, perhaps, surpassed by the greatest 
 masters of social life, the world ever knew. 
 
 His memory was at once discriminative and com- 
 prehensive. He retained all the riches of art, 
 science, and history, legislation, poetry, and philo- 
 sophy ; and these he would draw out and embody 
 
222 LIFE OF AKENSIDE. 
 
 to suit the occasion, required, in a manner, not more 
 wonderful to those, who were partially informed, 
 than delightful to those, who could follow his track, 
 and continue with him to the end. 
 
 Yet he is said to have, in general, wanted gaiety 
 of heart in society. He was naturally of a cheerful 
 temper; but his cheerfulness was accompanied 
 by a mellowness of feeling, which sometimes re- 
 lapsed into melancholy. Not that corrosive me- 
 lancholy, however, which unstrings the mind and 
 renders it incapable of life and action ; but of that 
 sweet and delightful nature, which Dyer has so 
 beautifully characterized in his " Ruins of Rome." 
 
 There is a mood 
 
 (I sing not to the vacant or the young), 
 
 There is a kindly mood of melancholy, 
 
 That wings the soul, and points her to the skies,' 
 
NOTES, &c 
 
NOTES, &c. 
 
 w Soon after the publication of the Pleasures of 
 Imagination, Akenside," says Mr. Dyson, " became 
 conscious that it wanted revision and correction : 
 but so quick was the demand for successive editions, 
 that in any of the intervals to have completed the 
 whole of his corrections was impossible. He chose, 
 therefore, to continue reprinting it without any 
 corrections or improvements, until he should be 
 able at once to give them to the public complete ; 
 and with this view he went on, for several years, to 
 review and correct his poem at leisure, till at length 
 he found the task grow so much upon his hands, 
 that, despairing ever being able to execute it to his 
 own satisfaction, he abandoned the purpose of cor- 
 recting, and resolved to write the poem over anew, 
 upon a somewhat different and enlarged plan ; and 
 in the execution of this design, he had made a con- 
 siderable progress ." He printed the first and second 
 books for his own private use; and transcribed a 
 considerable portion of the third book, in order to 
 
 Q 
 
226 NOTES. 
 
 its being printed in the same manner : " and to 
 these,'" continues Mr. Dyson, " he added the in- 
 troduction to a subsequent book, which in MS. is 
 called the fourth, and which appears to have been 
 composed at the time, when the author intended to 
 comprise the whole in four books ; but as he after- 
 wards determined to distribute the poem into more 
 books, might, perhaps, more properly be called the 
 last book. This," continues Mr. Dyson, " is all 
 that is executed of the new work ; which, although 
 it appeared to the editor too valuable, even in its 
 imperfect state, to be withholden from the public, 
 yet (he conceives) takes in by much too small a part 
 of the original poem to supply its place, and to 
 supersede the republication of it." 
 
 Besides this, Akenside left behind him a copy of 
 the original poem with marginal alterations, which 
 came into the possession of the late Mr. Pinkerton, 
 who published them in a collection of letters on 
 various subjects, under the name of Robert Heron. 
 
 What Akenside proposed in the second poem is 
 thus laid down by himself in the general argument. 
 
 " The Pleasures of the Imagination proceed either 
 from natural objects ; as from a flourishing grove, a 
 clear and murmuring fountain, a calm sea by moon- 
 
NOTES. 227 
 
 light J or, from works of art, such as a noble edifice, 
 a musical tune, a statue, a picture, a poem. 
 
 " In treating of these pleasures, we must begin with 
 the former class ; they being original to the other ; and 
 nothing more being necessary, in order to explain them, 
 than a view of our natural inclination towards greatness 
 and beauty, and of those appearances, in the world 
 around us, to which that inclination is adapted *. 
 
 " But the pleasures, which we receive from the 
 elegant arts, from music, sculpture, painting, and 
 poetry, are much more varied and complicated. 
 
 " In them (besides greatness and beauty, or forms 
 proper to the imagination) we find interwoven frequent 
 representations of truth, of virtue and of vice, of cir- 
 cumstances, proper to move k us with laughter, or to 
 excite in us pity, fear, and the other passions f. 
 
 " With the above-mentioned causes of pleasure, 
 which are universal in the course of human life, and 
 appertain to our higher faculties, many others do ge- 
 nerally occur, more limited in their operation, or of an 
 inferior origin : such are the novelty of objects, the 
 association of ideas, affections of the bodily se?ises, in- 
 fluence of education, national habits, and the like%. 
 
 * " This is the subject of the first book." 
 
 t " These moral and intellectual objects are described in 
 the second book; to which the third properly belongs as an 
 episode, though too large to have been included in it." 
 
 % et To illustrate these, and from the whole to determine the 
 character of a perfect taste, is the argument of the fourth 
 book." 
 
 q2 
 
228 NOTES. 
 
 ft Hitherto the Pleasures of the Imagination belong to 
 the human species in general. But there are certain 
 particular men, whose imagination is endowed with 
 powers, and susceptible of pleasures, which the gene- 
 rality of mankind never participate. These are the 
 men of genius, destined by nature, to excel in one or 
 other of the arts, already mentioned. 
 
 " It is proposed, therefore, in tbe last place, to de- 
 lineate that genius, which, in some degree, appears 
 common to them all ; yet with a more particular con- 
 sideration of poetry; inasmuch as poetry is the most 
 extensive of those arts, the most philosophical, and the 
 most useful." 
 
 That Pope injured the Dunciad, by extending it 
 from tbree books to four, is universally admitted ; 
 and that Akenside's second poem is inferior to the 
 first, is, I believe, as universally conceded. It is 
 dangerous for an author to be too difficult to please, 
 and too diffident of himself. Founded on the papers 
 of Addison in the Spectator, bearing the same title; 
 and many of its passages being associated with the 
 works of Shaftesbury and Hutcheson, there may be 
 some question as to whether Akenside can be strictly 
 styled an original writer; yet, I think, that praise 
 cannot justly be denied to him ; since in his poem, 
 as an elegant critic has observed with great propriety, 
 he has united the grace of Virgil, the colouring of 
 
NOTES. 229 
 
 Milton, and the incidental expression of Shake- 
 speare, to paint the finest features of the human 
 mind, and the most lovely forms of true morality and 
 religion. 
 
 His periods are, however, frequently too long ; 
 many of his images are too splendid to be clearly 
 observed ; there is, occasionally, a redundancy of 
 words; and Johnson criticises with his accus- 
 tomed judgment, when he says, that the reader 
 wanders through the gay diffusion, sometimes 
 amazed, and sometimes delighted ; that the sense is 
 carried on through a long intertexture of compli- 
 cated clauses; and that his images are displayed 
 with such luxuriance of expression, that they are 
 lost under a superfluity of dress. 
 
 The second poem has more solidity than the first ; 
 but less power. It is more correct and severe; but 
 less brilliant, less touching, less enchanting ; and the 
 imagination is seldom so agreeably carried 
 
 " Beyond the visible diurnal sphere." 
 
 " Had Akenside completed his plan," says Dr. 
 Aikin, " his poem would have lost as much in 
 poetry as it would have gained in philosophy." 
 " If his genius," says Mrs. Barbauld, " is to 
 be estimated from this poem, it will be found to be 
 
280 NOTES. 
 
 lofty and elegant, chaste, correct, and classical; not 
 marked with strong traits of originality, not ardent, 
 nor exuberant. His enthusiasm was rather of that 
 kind, which is kindled by reading, and imbibing 
 the spirit of authors, than by contemplating at first 
 hand the works of nature. As a versifier, Akenside 
 is allowed to stand amongst those, who have given 
 the most finished models of blank verse. His periods 
 are long, but harmonious; the cadences full of 
 grace ; and the measure is supported with uniform 
 dignity. His Muse possessed the mien erect, and 
 high commanding gait We shall scarcely find a 
 low or trivial expression introduced, a careless and 
 unfinished line permitted to stand. His stateliness, 
 however, is somewhat allied to stiffness. His verse 
 is sometimes feeble, through too rich a redundancy 
 of ornament ; and sometimes laboured into a degree 
 of obscurity, from too anxious a desire of avoiding 
 natural and simple expressions." 
 
 Such is the appreciation of Mrs. Barbauld; and, 
 as a kindred specimen of criticism, we may append 
 the opinion of a French critic. 
 
 " Le poeme des Plaisirs de V Imagination, qui a 
 eti accueilli avec enthousiasme dans son origine, est 
 encore regarde comme un des plus beano: monuments 
 de la potsie Anglaise ; il est cependant mains lu 
 
NOTES. 231 
 
 qiiil rtest admire. II est ecrit en vers blancs, comme 
 le poeme de Milton ; et Akenside a peut-etre rnieux 
 connu que Milton meme Vliarmonie propre a ce genre 
 de poesie. Le style est digne du sujet; le ton en est 
 eleve, la couleur brillante, et la diction tres-figurte; 
 mais les idtes trop metaphysiques qui y dominent, 
 Vemploi trop frequent des termes abstraits, et 
 Tabus des metaphores repandent sur tout Vouvrage 
 une certaine obscuritt que fatigue V esprit? 
 
 In the first instance, the poem, as before observed, 
 is founded on Addison's celebrated papers in the 
 Spectator, illustrative of the same subject; and cer- 
 tain passages in Lord Shaftesbury's Characteristics, 
 and Hutcheson's Inquiry into the Original of our 
 Ideas of Beauty and Virtue. Some thoughts are, 
 also, acknowledged to have been taken from Plato 
 and Aristotle; one from Longinus; and several 
 from the De Rerum Natura of Lucretius. 
 
232 NOTES. 
 
 BOOK THE FIRST 
 
 M Attend, ye powers 
 
 Of musical delight !" 
 
 B. I. I. 6. 
 
 Whether Akenside ever attached himself to any 
 musical instrument does not appear. But that he 
 was passionately devoted to music, as a hearer, 
 there can be little doubt. The love of sweet sounds 
 is almost native to the poetical character. But we 
 have a still better evidence to offer ; and that is a 
 note, appended to the original edition of his great 
 poem, which has, wherefore I am at a loss to con- 
 jecture, been omitted in most of the subsequent 
 editions. 
 
 " The word musical is here taken in its original and 
 most extensive import ; comprehending as well the 
 pleasures, we receive from the beauty or magnificence 
 of natural objects, as those which arise from poetry, 
 painting, music, or any other of the elegant and ima- 
 ginative arts. In which sense, it has already been used 
 in our language, by writers of unquestionable autho- 
 rity." 
 
 From this note it appears, that Akenside attached 
 the idea of music to every thing, that was agreeable 
 to him, whether in Nature or in Art. 
 
NOTES. 233 
 
 But the love 
 
 Of Nature and the Muses bid explore, 
 
 Through secret paths, erewhile untrod of man, 
 
 The fair poetic region, to detect 
 
 Un tasted springs, to drink inspiring draughts, 
 
 And shade my temples with unfading flowers, 
 
 Cull'd from the laureate vale's profound recess, 
 
 Where never poet gain'd a wreath before." 
 
 7.48. 
 
 Partly from an exquisite passage in Lucretius : 
 
 " Nunc age, quod super est, cognosce, et clarius audi : 
 Nee me animi fallit, quam sit obscura ; sed acri 
 Percussit thyrso laudis spes magna meum cor, 
 Et simul incussit suavem mi in pectus amorem 
 Musarum : quo nunc instinctus, inente vigenti 
 Avia Pieridum peragro loca, nullius ante 
 Trita solo : juvat integros adcedere funteis, 
 Atque haurire; juvatque novos decerpere flores, 
 Insignemque meo capiti petere inde coronam, 
 Unde prius nulli velavint tempora Musae." 
 
 De Rerum Natura, Lib. I. v. 920. 
 
 Virgil, too: 
 
 " Nee sum animi dubius, verbis ea vincere magnum 
 Quam sit, et angustis hunc addere rebus honorem. 
 Sed me Parnassi deserta per ardua dulcis 
 Raptat Amor ; juvat ire jugis, qua nulla priorum 
 Castaliam molli devertitur orbita clivo." 
 
 Georg. III. 289. 
 
23 1 NOTES. 
 
 Ere the radiant sun 
 
 Sprang from the east, or mid the vault of night 
 
 The moon suspended her serener lamp ; 
 
 Ere mountains, woods, or streams adorn'd the globe, 
 
 Or wisdom taught the sons of men her lore; 
 
 Then lived the Almighty One." /. Z. 59. 
 
 This fine passage seems to have been con- 
 ceived from a few lines in a poem, containing an 
 insufferable degree of bombast with some portion, 
 and more imitation, of Miltonic fire. It is entitled 
 the Last Day; written by J. Bulkeley, Esq. of 
 Clare Hall, Cambridge, and published in 1720. 
 
 " Ere Titan learn'd to shower his golden streams, 
 Ere clouds adorn'd the air, or stars the void, 
 Nature dropp'd dormant, in the bosom lost 
 
 Of savage chaos 
 
 Rude rocks, misshapen hills, and globes unform'd, 
 Then rose the Almighty," &c. 
 
 Probably Akenside had read Georgius : 
 
 w Unus perfectus Deus est, qui cuncta creavit, 
 Cuncta fovens, atque ipse fovens super omnia in se ; 
 Quis capitur mente tantum, qui mente videtur;" 
 &c. &c. 
 
 Franc Georg. in Lib. de Hermo de Mund.* 
 
 * Beauties and Sublimities of Nature, vol. iv. p. 163. 
 
NOTES. 235 
 
 Thus Milton : 
 Before the sun, 
 
 Before the heavens thou wert; and at the voice 
 Of God, as with a mantle, didst invest 
 The rising world of waters, dark and deep, 
 Won from the dark and formless infinite." 
 
 Thus Maximus Tyrius: " God is the Father 
 and Creator of every thing, that exists ; before the 
 sun he is ; and before the heavens existed, to him a 
 being.'"' 
 
 In Ovid, we read : 
 
 " Ante mare et tellus, et, quod legit omnia, ccelum, 
 
 Unus erat toto Natura? vultus," &c. 
 
 Met. I. I 5. 
 
 In the Psalms, xl. 2. " Before the mountains 
 were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the 
 earth and the worlds, even from everlasting to 
 everlasting thou art God" 
 
 In the laws of Menu : " This universe existed 
 only in the first divine idea, yet unexpanded, as if 
 involved in darkness, and as if it were wholly im- 
 mersed in sleep. Then the self-existing power 
 appeared expanding his idea," &c. 
 
 Petrarch has a very extravagant idea: " The 
 beauty of Laura existed in the conception of the 
 Divinity, before the creation of the universe." 
 
236 NOTES. 
 
 From the first 
 
 Of days, on them his love divine he fix'd 
 His admiration ; till in time complete 
 What he admired and loved, his vital smile 
 Unfolded into being." /. /. 70. 
 
 There is a singular coincidence of thought be- 
 tween this fine passage, and a beautiful one in a 
 Hindoo hymn to " the Spirit of God/' translated 
 by Sir Wm. Jones. There is, also, a similar idea 
 in a fragment of Orpheus, quoted by Proclus ; and 
 another in the Edda of Saemund. 
 
 " With wise intent, 
 
 The hand of Nature on peculiar minds 
 Imprints a different bias ; and to each 
 Decrees its province in the common toil." 
 
 B. I. v.. 82. 
 Thus Lucretius : 
 
 " Quam vis doctrina politos 
 
 Constituat pariter quosdam, tamen ilia relinquit 
 JVatura quoiusque animi vestigia prima." 
 
 Be Rer. Nat. III. 308. 
 
 " For as old Memnon's image, long renown d 
 By fabling Nilus, to the quivering touch 
 Of Titan's ray, with each repulsive string 
 Consenting, sounded through the warbling air 
 Unbidden strains ; e'en so did Nature's hand, 
 To certain species of external things, 
 Attune the finer organs of the mind." 
 
 I. /. 109. 
 
NOTE*. 237 
 
 Akenside appears to have caught this idea from 
 a passage in one of Moliere's comedies : " Made- 
 moiselle, ne phis, ne moms que la statue de Mem- 
 non rendolt un son harmonieux lorsqiielle venoit a 
 etre eclair ee des rayons du soleil ; tout de meme me 
 sens-je anime oVun doux transport a Vapparition 
 du soleil de vos beautes? 
 
 Le Malade Imaginaire, A. II. S. 5. 
 
 There is, also, a passage, allied to this, in Lope 
 de Vega's heroic poem of "La Hermosura de 
 Angelica ;" 
 
 " Que coma con la musica se haze, 
 Concorde son," &c. &c. * 
 
 Porphyry has a beautiful idea. The original is 
 not at hand; but the sense stands thus: " In our 
 sensations, the soul moves, as if embodied Harmony 
 itself should play upon an instrument, and smartly 
 touch the well-tuned strings; but the body is like 
 that harmony, which dwells in the springs them- 
 selves, which have no perception of it."" 
 
 * Vid. Beauties, Harmonies, and Sublimities of Nature, 
 vol. iv. p. 161. 
 
238 NOTES. 
 
 In the MS. corrected copy the reading stands thus : 
 
 "As Memnon's marble form, renown'd of old 
 By fabling Nilus, at the potent touch 
 Of morning utter'd from its inmost frame 
 Unbidden music ; so hath Nature's hand 
 To certain species of external things 
 Attuned the finer organs of the mind. 
 So the glad impulse of congenial powers, 
 Or of sweet sound, or fair proportion'd form, 
 The grace of motion, or the pomp of light, 
 Shoots through Imagination's tender frame; 
 Through every naked nerve ; till all the soul 
 To that harmonious movement now resigns 
 Her functions. Then the inexpressive strain 
 DifFuseth its enchantment. Fancy dreams, 
 Rapt into high discourse with sainted bards ; 
 And, wandering through Elysium, fancy dreams 
 Of mystic fountains, and inspiring groves ; 
 Fountains, the haunt of Orpheus; happy groves, 
 Where Milton dwells. The intellectual power 
 Bends from his solemn throne a wondering ear 
 And smiles : The Passions to divine repose 
 Persuaded yield ; and Love and Joy alone 
 Are waking ; Love and Joy, such as await 
 An angel's meditation." 
 
 It is, perhaps, not too much to say, that this is 
 the finest and most splendid passage in the whole 
 range of didactic poetry. 
 
 In respect to the statue, Akenside, in the original 
 edition, had appended the following note : 
 
NOTES. 239 
 
 " The statue of Memnon, so famous in antiquity, 
 stood in the temple of Serapis at Thebes, one of 
 the great cities of old Egypt. It was of a very 
 hard, iron -like substance*; and, according to Ju- 
 venal, held in its hand a lyre, which, being touched 
 by the sun-beams, emitted a distinct and agreeable 
 sound. Tacitus mentions it as one of the principal 
 curiosities, which Germanicus took notice of, in his 
 journey through Egypt ; and Strabo -)* affirms, that 
 he, with many others, heard it." 
 
 The first seven lines, as originally written, are thus 
 rendered by Mazza : 
 
 " Come rimago di Memnon, cui nome 
 Eterno die la favolosa Egitto, 
 Agli urti primi del Titanio raggio 
 Prouta movea l'obbedienti corde, 
 Che, tremolando, lo spontaneo suono 
 Per entro il gorgheggiante aere spandeano, 
 Cosi Natura ancor gli esterni oggetti 
 A' nostri piu sottili organi accorda/' 
 
 * Philostratus says it was of black marble. In Vit. Apol. 
 vi. c. 4. 
 
 f It is mentioned, also, by Pliny {Nat Hist. vii. c. 56.), 
 Pausanias, and Juvenal: 
 
 " Dimidis magicae resonant ubi Memnone Chordfe." 
 
240 NOTES. 
 
 " Then the inexpressive strain," &c. 
 
 B. I. I 124. 
 
 " When we want to render an object beautiful or 
 magnificent, 1 '' says Blair, " we borrow images from 
 all the most beautiful or splendid scenes of nature; 
 we thereby, naturally, throw a lustre over our object; 
 we enliven the reader's mind ; and dispose him to go 
 along with us, in the gay and pleasing impressions, 
 which we give him of the subject. This effect of 
 figures is happily touched in the following lines of 
 Akenside, and illustrated by a very sublime figure : 
 
 f Then the inexpressive strain 
 
 Diffuses its enchantment,'" &c. 
 
 O, attend. 
 
 Whoe'er thou art," &c. /. /. 132. 
 
 This passage stands differently in the MS. : 
 
 O ! attend, 
 
 Whoe'er thou art, whom these delights can touch, 
 Whom Nature s aspect, Nature's simplest garb. 
 Can thus command ; O ! listen to my song, 
 And I will guide thee to her blissful walks, 
 And teach thy solitude her voice to hear, 
 And point her gracious features to thy view." 
 
 Second Poem. 
 
 " O ! attend, 
 
 Whoe'er thou art, whom these delights can move, 
 
NOTES. 241 
 
 Whose candid bosom this primaeval love 
 Of Nature warms ; O ! listen to my song, 
 And I will guide thee to her holiest walks, 
 And teach her solitude thy voice to hear, 
 And point her awful features to thy view." 
 
 MS. 
 
 " The powers of Fancy, her delighted sons 
 To three illustrious orders have referr'd, 
 Three sister Graces, whom the painter's hand, 
 The poet's tongue, confesses ; the sublime, 
 The wonderful, the fair." 
 
 B. I. 142. 
 
 This division is from Addison : the poet, how- 
 ever, in his second poem, reduces the number from 
 three to two. 
 
 " In two illustrious orders comprehend 
 Self-taught. From him, whose rustic toil, the lark 
 Cheers warbling, to the bard, whose daring thoughts 
 Range the full orb of being, still the form 
 Which fancy worships, or sublime or fair, 
 Her votaries proclaim." 
 
 B. I. 183. 
 
 In the MS. corrected copy : 
 
 '* To the bard, ivhose mighty mind 
 
 Grasps the full orb of being ; still the form 
 Which fancy worships, or sublime or fair, 
 Their eager tongues proclaim." 
 
 These alterations it is highly important to note. 
 
242 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 They are delightful evidences of the mechanism of 
 a poet's mind ; than which nothing, perhaps, is more 
 agreeable to the imagination in the whole labora- 
 tory of mental exercise. 
 
 w Say, why was man so eminently raised 
 Amid the vast creation " 
 
 down to 
 
 " Who that from Alpine heights, his labouring eye 
 
 Shoots round the wide horizon to survey 
 
 Nilus, or Ganges, rolling his bright wave, 
 
 Through mountains, plains, through empires black with 
 
 shade, 
 
 And continents of sand, will turn his gaze 
 
 To mark the windings of a scanty rill, 
 
 That murmurs at his feet ?" 
 
 B.I. v. 151 183. 
 
 These admirable lines are founded on a passage 
 in Longinus* ; which the poet acknowledges and 
 translates^. 
 
 * De Sub. Sect. xxxv. 
 
 t w Those god-like geniuses were well assured, that 
 Nature had not intended man for a low spirited or ignoble 
 being ; but bringing us into life, and in the midst of this 
 wide universe, as before a multitude assembled at some heroic 
 solemnity, that we might be spectators of all her magnificence, 
 and candidates high in emulation for the prize of glory. She 
 has, therefore, implanted in our souls an inextinguishable 
 love of every thing great and exalted, of every thing which 
 appears divine beyond our comprehension. Whence it comes 
 
NOTES. 843 
 
 ff Who that from Alpine heights, &c?" 
 
 B. I. I 177. 
 
 Dr. Johnson objects to the epithet Alpine. His 
 note is a curious instance of the facility, with which 
 
 to pass, that even the whole world is not an object, sufficient 
 for the depth and rapidity of human imagination, which 
 often sallies forth beyond the limits of all that surrounds us. 
 Let any man cast his eye through the whole circle of our 
 existence, and consider how especially it abounds in excellent 
 and grand objects, he will soon acknowledge for what enjoy- 
 ments and pursuits we were destined. Thus by the very 
 propensity of nature we are led to admire, not little springs 
 or shallow rivulets, however clear and delicious, but the 
 Nile, the Rhine, the Danube, and, much more than all, 
 the ocean *." 
 
 * It must be confessed, that this version is greatly inferior 
 to that of Smith : which forms, perhaps, the most sublime 
 passage in the whole extension of translated prose. It has, 
 in fact, almost every quality, by which excellence in the 
 higher departments of language can be recognised. 
 
 " Nature never designed Man to be a grovelling and un- 
 generous animal : but brought him into life, and placed him 
 in the world, as in a crowded theatre, not to be an idle spec- 
 tator, but spurned on by an eager thirst of excelling, ardently 
 to contend in the pursuit of glory. For this purpose, she im- 
 planted in his soul an invincible love of grandeur, and a 
 constant emulation of whatever seems to approach nearer to 
 divinity than himself. Hence it is, that the whole universe 
 is not sufficient for the extensive reach and piercing specula- 
 
 r2 
 
24 4< NOTES. 
 
 even eminent minds can fall into the errors, they 
 are ambitious of correcting. 
 
 " The sense of his words is strained," says 
 Johnson, " when he views Ganges from Alpine 
 heights; that is, from mountains like the Alps; 
 and the pedant surely intrudes (but when was 
 blank verse without pedantry?) when he tells us 
 how planets absolve the stated round of time." 
 Surely, this is in itself an instance of true pedantry, 
 Akenside, however, seems himself to have wavered, 
 in respect to the propriety of using this finely de- 
 scriptive epithet ; for in the second poem, he writes 
 " aerial ;" and in his marginal notes " mid-air. " 
 
 "Now, amazed, she views 
 
 The empyreal waste, where happy spirits hold, 
 Beyond the concave heaven, their calm abode." 
 
 /. v. 201 
 
 tion of the human understanding. It passes the bounds of 
 the material world, and launches forth at pleasure into end- 
 less space. Let any one take an exact survey of life, which, 
 in its every sense, is conspicuous on account of excellence, 
 grandeur, and beauty ; and he will soon discern for what noble 
 ends we were born. Thus the impulse of nature inclines us 
 to admire, not a little, clear, transparent rivulet, that ad- 
 ministers to our necessities; but the Nile, the Isther, the 
 Rhine, and still more the ocean." 
 
NOTES. 
 
 245 
 
 The passage, quoted from Leibnitz, in all the 
 editions of Akenside, is incorrect and incomplete. 
 It stands thus in the last Paris edition : " D'ail- 
 leurs, comme il ny a nulle raison qui porte d croire 
 qu'il y a des etoiles par tout, ne se peut-il point 
 qu'il y ait un grand espace au dela de la region des 
 etoiles f Que ce soit le ciel empyree, ou non, tou- 
 jours cet espace immense, qui environne tout cette 
 region, pour r a etre rempli de bonheur et de gloire. 
 II pour r a etre concu comme Vocean, ou se rendent 
 les Jleuves de toutes les creatures Lien heureuses, 
 quand elles seront venues a leur perfection dans le 
 systeme des etoiles.^ Leibnitz dans la Theodicee. 
 Part I. Sect. 19. 
 
 Akenside seems, also, to have remembered two 
 lines in Lucretius: 
 
 " Omnis enim per se divom natura, necesse est, 
 Immortali eevo summa cum pace fruatur." 
 
 De Rerum Natura, II. 645. 
 
 Mr. Murphy, in a poetical epistle to Dr. John- 
 son, after enumerating several examples of " wealthy 
 genius, pining midst its store," joins Gray and 
 Akenside after the following manner : 
 
 iC E'en Gray, unwilling, strikes his living lyre, 
 And wishes, not content, for Pindar's fire: 
 
246* NOTES. 
 
 And that sweet bard, who to our fancy brings 
 * The gayest, happiest attitude of things,' 
 His raptured verse can throw, neglected, by, 
 And to Lucretius lift a reverend eye." 
 
 " Fields of radiance, whose unfading light 
 
 Has travell'd the profound six thousand years, 
 
 Nor yet arrives in sight of mortal things." B. I. 204. 
 
 " Est igitur natura loci, spatiumque profundi, 
 Quod neque clara suo percurrere lumina cursu 
 Perpetuo possint aevi labentia tractu; 
 Nee prorsum facere, ut restet minus ire, meando ; 
 Usque adeo passim patet ingens copia rebus, 
 Finibus exemptis, in cunctas undique parteis." 
 
 De Rerum Natura, Lib. 1. v. 1001. 
 
 " It was a notion of the great Huygens, ,,, says 
 Akenside, " that there may be stars at such a di- 
 stance from our solar system, as that their light 
 shall not have had time to reach us, even from the 
 creation of the world to this day." 
 
 Light which Plato figuratively calls the sha- 
 dow of the divinity is about eight minutes and a 
 half coming to our globe from the sun. From a 
 knowledge of this velocity, it is proved that the 
 rays of light, which we receive from Sirius, are six 
 years and four and a half months traversing the 
 space between us. But when we consider the 
 distance of some of the nebulae, it is calculated that 
 the light, we receive from them, cannot be less than 
 
NOTES. 247 
 
 two millions of y^ars upon its journey ! Those 
 nebulae must, therefore, have existed, at the least, 
 two millions of years before their light could first 
 reach the hemisphere of the earth ; while we, 
 presumptuous as we are ! have power to prove an 
 existence of little more than the momentary span 
 of four thousand nine hundred and five years. 
 
 When the eye traverses the universe, the Sun, 
 and all its accompaniments, sink into comparative 
 insignificance! When we pierce into the depth 
 of space, and find, that the whole of what is called 
 the Galaxy, with all the scattered stars, are to be 
 considered as forming only one vast nebula, to 
 which our solar system also belongs; when we 
 consider, that the distance of one of the stars 
 in Lyra is from the earth more than twenty 
 billions of miles ; and that its diameter cannot be 
 less than three-fourths of the size of the entire solar 
 system, circumscribed as it is to our vision by the 
 last satellite of Uranus *; that not less than two 
 
 * As the satellites of Uranus move in orbits, perpendicu- 
 lar to the plane of the Ecliptic, and in a retrograde direction, 
 contrary to the analogy of all other secondaries, as well as 
 primaries, they appear to justify a supposition, that they in- 
 dicate the approach, if not the actual beginning of another 
 province of the Solar Empire; of which they are the heralds 
 and connecting links. 
 
 Some inconvenience having arisen from the circumstance 
 
248 NOTES. 
 
 thousand five hundred nebulae Jiave been already 
 traced in the firmament; and that the rapidity 
 
 of the satellites of Saturn having been numbered, not in 
 the order of distance, but of discovery; and the names, 
 given to those of Jupiter by the illustrious Galileo, Simon 
 Marius, and Baptista Hodierna, having fallen into disuse; I 
 took the liberty, a short time since, of proposing another no- 
 menclature, more in consonance with that, already established 
 for the larger Planets. The use and propriety of this nomen- 
 clature having been conceded by several eminent persons, 
 perhaps the reader will excuse me for endeavouring to acquire 
 for it a still more extended consideration. 
 Satellites of Jupiter. 
 
 First in the order of distance . . . Hebe. 
 
 Second Astraea. 
 
 Third Flora. 
 
 Fourth Pomona. 
 
 Satellites of Saturn. 
 
 First in the order of distance . . . Cybele. 
 
 Second Thetis. 
 
 Third Doris. 
 
 Fourth Hygeia. 
 
 Fifth Echo. 
 
 Sixth Psyche. 
 
 Seventh Fortuna. 
 
 Satellites of Uranus (HerschelJ. 
 
 First in the order of distance . . . Urania. 
 
 Second Calliope. 
 
 Third Clio. 
 
 Fourth Melpomene. 
 
 Fifth Thalia. 
 
 Sixth . Erato. 
 
NOTES. 249 
 
 of motion, by which stars are upheld in their 
 relative positions, is so great, that the revolu- 
 tions of two (apparently forming one), in the 
 constellation of Ursa Major, round their centre of 
 gravity, may be traced from month to month; 
 when we contemplate, I say, the number, the mag- 
 nitude, the vastness of distance, the velocity and 
 regularity of motion ; system beyond system, and 
 nebula beyond nebula ; presenting to the imagina- 
 tion, at every step, new forms of life and new orders 
 of intelligence, the mind becomes impressed with a 
 sublimity of admiration, so full and so entire, that 
 it is with no surprise we afterwards come to the 
 conclusion, that those, who thus with the works of 
 the Deity u hold converse," must, as a natural re- 
 sult, more intimately, though perhaps more silently, 
 than any other men, 
 
 ' ' Act upon his plan, 
 
 And form to his the relish of their souls." 
 
 The finest and most sublime poetical conception, 
 that has yet entered into the mind of man, appears 
 to be that, which pictures innumerable suns, rising 
 out of chaos; and, in rising, throwing out their 
 planets ; those planets sending out their satellites ; 
 all moving with inconceivable rapidity, orb with- 
 
250 NOTES. 
 
 in orb, round some general centre; these suns, 
 planets, and satellites sinking periodically into one 
 general chaos ; and thence again issuing forth, im- 
 pelled by new impulses, to form regenerated worlds; 
 and so issuing, returning, and re-issuing, at stated 
 periods, to all eternity ! This picture is presented 
 in the following lines of Darwin, and I know of 
 nothing that can be pronounced to be its equal, 
 much less its superior. 
 
 " The Love Divine*, with brooding wings unfurl'd, 
 Call from the rude abyss the living world. 
 i Let there he light !' exclaim'd the Almighty Lord. 
 Astonish'd Chaos heard the potent word; 
 Through all his realms the kindling ether runs, 
 And the mass starts into a million suns : 
 
 * Love, the sire of Fate, 
 
 Elder than Chaos. 
 
 Hymn to the Naiads, l. 1. 
 The Love, designed in the text, is the one self-existent 
 and infinite Mind; whom, if the generality of ancient my- 
 thologists have not introduced, or truly described, in ac- 
 counting for the production of the world and its appearances ; 
 yet, to a modern poet, it can be no objection, that he hath 
 ventured to differ from them in this particular: though, in 
 other respects, he professeth to imitate their manner and 
 conform to their opinions. For, in these great points of na- 
 tural theology, they differ no less remarkably among them- 
 selves; and are perpetually confounding the philosophical 
 relations of things with the traditionary circumstances of 
 mythic history. Akenside. 
 
NOTES. 251 
 
 Earths round each sun with quick explosions burst, 
 And second planets issue from the first; 
 Bend, as they journey with projectile force, 
 In bright ellipses, their reluctant course; 
 Orbs wheel in orbs, round centres centres roll, 
 And form, self-balanced, one revolving whole*." 
 
 Dr. Olbers, and several other eminent astrono- 
 mers, have given into the idea, that a large planet 
 once existed between the orbits of Mars and Ju- 
 piter ; and that it separated into four parts, form- 
 ing what are now called the Asteroids. 
 
 Much astronomical learning has been called into 
 action on this subject. It is argued, that Bode's 
 
 * Who can read the following letter, recently published, 
 from Dr. Beattie to Garrick, without a smile? It reminds 
 us of " one John Milton" and of " one Matthew Prior." 
 
 "Aberdeen, March 16, 1772. 
 " I lately received a letter from one, who subscribes him- 
 self E. Darwin, Physician, in Litchfield; containing some 
 objections to an argument, advanced in my essay against 
 Mr. Hume's doctrine of extended ideas. His manner seems 
 rather captious ; however, I know not how it is, my heart 
 warms to the man, either because his hand-writing bears 
 some resemblance to yours, or because he has the honour 
 to live in the town where you and Johnson were born ; and 
 therefore I will write to him soon, and I hope to satisfy all 
 his doubts, which, indeed, seem to arise from his not per- 
 fectly understanding either my philosophy, or that which 
 he himself defends." 
 
252 NOTES. 
 
 law, and the law of Nature, are one ; and that they 
 both require the existence of such a planet. If so, 
 why does not this large body exist ? If it were * 
 wanted in times past, it is wanted in times present; 
 for all the apprehensions of Newton, in regard to 
 the solar system being susceptible of decay, have 
 long since been dissipated by La Grange's 
 discovery the most splendid in modern times ! 
 that all the irregularities and inequalities, which 
 flow from planetary action, are, in reality, so 
 harmoniously adjusted to the various parts of the 
 vast machine, as to be, in all cases, constant in 
 periodical return : while the labours of La Place 
 having established the knowledge, that the time of 
 a planet's revolution, as well as its mean distance 
 from the sun, are constant properties, it follows, as 
 a natural result, that all planetary existences are 
 beyond the reach of accident, and, therefore, for 
 ever unassailable by time. 
 
 Planetary distances are coincidences ; not princi- 
 ples. If the Asteroids formed, originally, one body, 
 would not all and each of them present striking and 
 permanent analogies? What, however, are the facts? 
 The action of Juno not only differs from that of 
 the rest, but from those of all the other known 
 planets in the solar system. For when at her 
 
NOTES. 253 
 
 greatest distance from the sun, she is at double the 
 distance she is when at the least; and the part of 
 her orbit, which is bisected by her perihelion, is 
 passed in half the time in which she traverses the 
 one more distant. Then, as to the atmospheres of 
 these planets : that of Vesta is scarcely observable ; 
 that of Juno is more so; that of Pallas is still 
 more extended ; but Ceres ! her atmospheric sub- 
 stance rises to a height even superior to those of the 
 other planets in the system all combined ! Where 
 then is the probability of these bodies having ever 
 formed one ? It is even possible, that Ceres and 
 Juno may constitute connecting links between 
 PLANETS and COMETS: a supposition not to be 
 lightly regarded ; for it is rendered strikingly proba- 
 ble by the circumstance, that the aphelion of Encke^ 
 comet lies at no greater distance from the sun, than 
 the space between the orbit of Jupiter and those 
 of the Asteroids themselves. They all breathe, as 
 it were, in the same hemisphere of the universe. 
 
 If the existence of a large planet be necessary, 
 Nature, by causing it to separate ; its parts to move 
 in different orbits ; and each part to present different 
 phenomena, has violated the most constant and most 
 comprehensive, as well as the most effective and 
 preservative of her laws. 
 
254 NOTES. 
 
 If four planets will answer the purpose of the 
 one, supposed to have burst, as, it appears, they 
 very effectively do, what difficulty can there he in 
 supposing, that they have existed from the creation 
 and adjustment of the system; as well as Jupiter 
 and Mars and all the other primary and secondary 
 planets ? Why, in fact, should we accuse Nature of 
 having done an act, which is not only unnecessary, 
 but which is in decided opposition to all the laws, by 
 which she can be recognised ? 
 
 Since the phenomena of gravitation cannot, in 
 any way, be accounted for, either by matter or 
 motion ; if philosophers guard themselves against 
 being shackled by the bonds of system, and from 
 being paralysed by the authority even of illustrious 
 names; if they keep themselves free to observe, with 
 unclouded eyes and unbiassed judgments, the varied 
 phenomena, presented to their view, and feelingly 
 awake to every light, that may hereafter emanate 
 from the experience of the ever-teeming laboratory 
 of the human mind, it is not impossible but that the 
 masterly, nay, the divine, discovery of La 
 Grange may be found to lead to the propriety of 
 reconsidering the views, that have hitherto been 
 entertained of gravitation. And it is not impossi- 
 ble, that such reconsideration may open the door to 
 
NOTES. %55 
 
 the knowledge of an Agent, hitherto unknown and 
 unthought of, acting with it, though of a nature 
 altogether different from it; and of a subtlety 
 and minute power of application, immeasurably 
 its superior. 
 
 " Witness the neglect 
 
 Of all familiar prospects," &c. 
 
 B. I. v. 234. 
 
 u Principio, cceli clarum purumque colorem, 
 Quemque in se cohibent palantia sidera passim, 
 Lunamque, et solis praeclara luce nitorem : 
 Omnia quae nunc si primum mortalibus essent, 
 Ex improviso si sint objecta repente; 
 Quid magis hiis rebus poterat mirabile dici, 
 Aut minus ante quod auderent fore credere gentes ? 
 Nihil, ut opinor ; ita haec species miranda fuisset : 
 Quam, tibi jam nemo, fessus satiate videndi, 
 Subspicere in cceli dignatur lucida templa." 
 
 Lucretius; De Rerum Natura, II. I. 1029. 
 
 A passage in Cowper serves to illustrate this in- 
 quiry: 
 
 " What prodigies can power divine perform 
 More grand, than it produces, year by year, 
 And all in sight of inattentive man ? 
 Familiar with th' effect, we slight the cause; 
 
256 NOTES. 
 
 And, in the constancy of nature's course, 
 The regular return of genial months, 
 And renovation of a faded world, 
 
 See nought to wonder at. 
 
 All we behold is miracle ; but, seen 
 So duly, all is miracle in vain." 
 
 Winter Walk at Noon. 
 
 "At every solemn pause the crowd recoil, 
 Gazing each other speechless and congeal'd 
 With shivering sighs ; till, eager for th' event, 
 Around the beldame, all erect, they hang, 
 Each trembling heart with grateful terrors queli'd*/ 
 
 B. I. 266. 
 
 The original of this is in Addison. 
 
 A modern poet has a transcendent passage : 
 
 u 'Tis pleasant by the cheerful hearth to hear 
 Of tempests and the dangers of the deep, 
 And pause at times, and feel that we are safe : 
 Then listen to the perilous tale again, 
 And, with an eager and suspended soul, 
 Woo terror to delight us." 
 
 Southey. 
 
 There are few passages, even in Shakspeare, 
 superior to this. 
 
 * In the MS. notes, there is a direction for the trans- 
 planting this passage to Book III. after verse 278. 
 
NOTES. 257 
 
 Sir Walter Scott, also, has a finely characteristic 
 passage in his poem of Rokeby. 
 
 u When Christmas logs blaze high and wide, 
 Such wonders speed the festal tide, 
 While curiosity and fear, 
 Pleasure and Pain, sit crouching near; 
 Till childhood's cheek no longer glows, 
 And village-maidens lose the rose. 
 The thrilling interest rises higher, 
 The circle closes nigh and nigher, 
 And shuddering glance is cast behind, 
 As louder moans the wintry wind *." 
 
 * Cant. II. St. 10. The astonishing success of this re- 
 markable man may be traced to causes, to a knowledge of 
 which the following passages from Rochefoucault, and his 
 commentator, form an ample key. " The height of ability," 
 says the former, " consists in a thorough knowledge of the 
 real value of things, and the genius of the age, we live in!' 
 " Most of the authors, immortalized by their contemporaries," 
 says the latter, "have been indebted to this knowledge; or 
 else to the luck of living in an age, with whose turn their 
 abilities coincided." 
 
 An author, of this splendid coincidence, seldom has to 
 wait. Fame haunts him wherever he may go. Those, on 
 the contrary, who look forward, with prophetic eyes, and 
 build on the future enlargement of the human mind, must 
 wait the time, for which they labour. 
 
258 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 " Brightest progeny of heaven/' &c. 
 
 B. I. v. 280. 
 
 The passage, beginning with this line, and finish- 
 ing with " Spring's elysian bloom," has been thus 
 translated by Warton. 
 
 Ex POEMATE DE VoLUPTATIBUS FaCULTATIS 
 
 Imaginatricis. 
 
 " O progenies pulcherrima caeli ! 
 
 Quo tibi succorum tractu, calaraique labore ; 
 Divinos ducam vultus, coelestiaque ora ? 
 Unde legam qui, Diva, tuis certare colores 
 Purpurei possint, discrimina daedala fuci? 
 Ergo age, Musa, vago cursu per maxima mundi 
 I spatia ; et quicquid formosi florida tellus, 
 Quicquid habent maria, et caeli spirabile lumen, 
 Delibes ; quicquid nitidum natura recondit 
 Dives opum variarum* ', in amabile, Musa, fideli 
 Confer opus studio. Seu liberioribus alis 
 Vin, comite Autumno, per fortunata volare 
 Hesperidum nemora, et dias Atlantidos oras, 
 Dum quacunque Pater fcecundo pollice lucum 
 Felicim contingit, opacis gratia ramis 
 Fit nova, et auricomo fulserunt vimina fceiu\: 
 Quacunque incessit per ditia rura, renident 
 Undique maturo subiti livore racemi%; 
 Apricosque recens mfecit purpura colles, 
 Quales occiduo nubes qua? sole coruscant. 
 
 * Virg. Georg. II. 467. f JEn. vi. 140. 
 
 X Hor. Carm. ii. v. 10. Georg. i. 233. 
 
NOTES. 259 
 
 Sive errare velis, rigua convalle*, per umbras 
 Daphnes dilectas, Peneus gurgite leni 
 Quajluitf, ostentatque reflexam e flumine Terape 
 Purpuream vitreo ; Tempe ! qua, numina sylvis 
 Nota olim, fauni nymphaeque, per aurea prisci 
 Saecula Saturni, secreto in margine ripse 
 Frondiferae, socio ducebant Pane choreas 
 Multiplices. Ac saltantum vestigia propter J. 
 Horasque, Zephyrosque almos, udo imbre, videres 
 Certatim ambrosios rores, et odoriferum thus, 
 Depluere, Elysioque rubent quicunque colores?" 
 
 Wilt thou fly, 
 
 With laughing Autumn to th' Atlantic isles?" 
 
 J. 287. 
 
 " By these islands, which were, also, called the 
 Fortunate" says Akenside in a note to the original 
 edition, " the ancients are now generally supposed 
 to have meant the Canaries. They were celebrated 
 by the poets for the mildness and fertility of the 
 climate ; for the gardens of the daughters of Hes- 
 perus, the brother of Atlas ; and the dragon, which 
 
 * Mons. Cath. v. 72. In obitum Frederici, v. 21. Virg. 
 Georg. ii. 485. 
 
 f Hymn, ad Pan. v. 4. ^n. ii. 781. 
 t Lucret. v. 736. 
 
 s2 
 
260 NOTES. 
 
 constantly watched their golden fruit, till it was slain 
 by the Tyrian Hercules." 
 
 " Fair Tempe ! haunt belov'd of sylvan powers, 
 Of nymphs and fauns/' &c. 
 
 I. v. 299. 
 
 This passage is much amplified in the second 
 poem ; not much, perhaps, to the poetical advantage. 
 
 From this fountain Warton seems to have caught 
 a little of his inspiration, while writing the Pleasures 
 of Melancholy. 
 
 <( The laughing scenes 
 
 Of purple spring ; where all the wanton train 
 
 Of smiles and graces seem to lead the dance 
 
 In sportive round ; while from their hands they shower 
 
 Ambrosial blooms and flowers; no longer charm. 
 
 Tempe ! no more I court thy balmy breeze : 
 
 Adieu, green vales ! ye broider'd meads, adieu !" 
 
 Pleasures of Melancholy , 21. 
 
 We are under great obligations to Akenside : for 
 had he not written on the Pleasures of the Imagina- 
 tion, we had, possibly, never had " the Pleasures of 
 Melancholy,'" " the Pleasures of Memory, 1 ' or u the 
 Pleasures of Hope." 
 
 With these better cares 
 
 Th' indulgent mother, conscious how infirm 
 
NOTES. 261 
 
 Her offspring tread the paths of good and ill, 
 
 By this illustrious image, in each kind 
 
 Still more illustrious," &c. &c. 
 
 /. 357. 
 
 Among the MS. notes, this passage stands thus : 
 
 " Now more illustrious, where the object holds 
 Its proper powers most perfect, she by this 
 Directs the headlong impulse of desire, 
 And sanctifies his choice. The glow of flowers, 
 Which gild the verdant pasture, the clear track 
 Of streams delicious to the thirsty soul, 
 The bloom of downy fruitage," &c. 
 
 Truth and good are one ; 
 
 That beauty dwells in them, and they in her 
 
 With like participation *." 
 
 Book I. I. 374. 
 
 The poet gives references, also, to several passages 
 in Shaftesbury. They are these; 
 
 u I am ready enough to yield," said I, " that there is 
 no real good beside the enjoyment of beauty." " And 
 
 * " Do you imagine," said Socrates to Aristippus, ft that 
 what is good is not beautiful 1 Have you not observed, that 
 these appearances always coincide? Virtue, for instance, in 
 the same respect as to which we call good, is ever acknow- 
 ledged to be beautiful also." Xenophon. Memorabil. Socrat. 
 Lib. III. c. 8. 
 
08 NOTES. 
 
 I am ready/' replied Theocles, u to yield, that there is 
 no real enjoyment of beauty, beside what is good." 
 Charact. II. 422. 
 
 " Should not this be still the same case, and hold, 
 equally as to the mind? Is there nothing there, which 
 tends to disturbance and dissolution ? Is there no na- 
 tural tenour, tone, or order of the passions or affections ? 
 No beauty or deformity in this moral kind? Or, allowing 
 that there really is, must it not, of consequence, in the 
 same manner, imply health or sickliness, prosperity or 
 disaster? Will it not be found in this respect above 
 all, that what is beautiful is harmonious and proportion- 
 able; what is harmonious and proportionable is true ; 
 and that what is at once beautiful and true is, of conse- 
 quence, agreeable and good. Where, then, is this 
 beauty or harmony to be found ? How is this sym- 
 metry to be discovered and applied ? Is it any other 
 art than that of philosophy, or the study of inward 
 numbers and proportions, which can exhibit this in life? 
 If no other; who, then, can possibly have a taste of this 
 kind, without being beholden to philosophy? Who can 
 admire the outward beauties, and not recur instantly to 
 the inward, which are the most real and essential, the 
 most naturally affecting, and of the highest pleasure, as 
 well as profit and advantage." Vol. iii. 181, 3, 4, 5. 
 
 For Shaftesbury's opinions, generally, on this 
 subject, see Moral Beauty, II. 409. Beauty 
 of Sentiments, Character of Mind, I. 136, 207; 
 
NOTES. 263 
 
 III. 303. That Beauty is Truth, 1. 142; III. 180, 
 &c. Beauty of Virtue, I. 315. Scale of Beauty, 
 III. 218. How attractive and enchanting, III. 
 216, 218. Its extent, II. 211, 212, 213. 
 
 It is scarcely possible to read the passages, here 
 referred to, without recurring to Gray's poem, De 
 Principiis cogitandi. 
 
 Sapientia dia 
 
 Hinc roseum accendit lumen, vultuque sereno 
 Humanas aperit mentes, nova gaudia monstrans, 
 Deformesque fugat curas, vanosque timores ; 
 Scilicet et rerum crescit pulcherrima virtus." 
 
 Will the reader excuse me for introducing in this 
 place a passage from the Harmonies of Nature ? It 
 belongs expressly to the subject. 
 
 " Every object, which awakens pleasure in the mind, 
 is beautiful; since it produces the sensation of pleasure. 
 Whatever excites agreeable emotion, therefore, possesses 
 some intrinsic quality of beauty. Hence the term beauty 
 may be applied to every thing, which gives pleasure to 
 the mind ; from a woman to a problem ; from a planet 
 to a tree or a flower. Hence arises the intimate con- 
 nexion between beauty and virtue. 
 
 " In the spirit of this doctrine, Wieland, the cele- 
 brated German poet, has written a dialogue, conceived 
 in the manner, and executed with much of the sweet- 
 ness and delicacy of Plato. He imagines Socrates to 
 surprise Timoclea, a captivating Athenian virgin, at 
 
264 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 her toilette ; dressed for a solemn festival in honour of 
 Diana ; attired in all the beauty of Nature and all the 
 luxuriance of art. His surprising her in this manner 
 gives rise to a dialogue,, in which the subject of real and 
 apparent beauty is philosophically discussed. The 
 arguments are summed up by Timoclea, at the end of 
 the discourse, in which she declares herself a convert to 
 that fine moral doctrine, which teaches, that nothing is 
 beautiful, which is not good; and nothing good, but 
 what is, at the same time, intrinsically beautiful." 
 
 " Unless the imagination be excited, as Mr. Alison 
 observes*, the emotions of beauty and sublimity are 
 unfelt. Hence, whatever increases the powers of that 
 faculty, increases those emotions in like proportion; and 
 no objects or qualities being felt, either as beautiful or 
 sublime, but such as are productive of some simple 
 emotion, no composition of objects, or qualities, produce 
 emotions of taste, in which that unity is not preserved." 
 
 " Not let the gleam 
 
 Of youthful hope," &c. 
 
 B. I. 387. 
 
 Akenside, in his admiration of the Deity, was 
 
 an ardent and decided enemy to every species of 
 
 superstition. In the MS. notes, attached to his own 
 
 copy, stands the following alteration. 
 
 . ]S T or be the hopes 
 
 Which flatter youthful bosoms here appall'd, 
 * Ch. i. sect. 2, 3 ; ch. ii. sect. % 3. 
 
NOTES. 265 
 
 Nor let false terror urge you to renounce 
 
 This awful theme of undeceitful good, 
 
 And truth eternal. Though th' abhorred threats 
 
 Of sacred superstition, in the quest 
 
 Of that kind pair, constrain her kneeling slave, 
 
 To quench, and set at nought the lamp of God 
 
 Within his frame : through deserts, thorns, and mire, 
 
 Though forth she led him credulous and dark, 
 
 And awed with dubious motion; though at length 
 
 Benighted, terrified, afflicted, lost, 
 
 She leaves him to converse with cells, and graves, 
 
 And shapes of death ; to listen all alone, 
 
 And by the screaming owl's accursed song, 
 
 To watch the dreadful workings of his heart ; 
 
 Or talk with spectres on eternal woe, 
 
 Yet be not you dismay'd. A gentler star 
 
 Your lovely search enlightens." 
 
 This version is very different from those of the 
 first and second poems ; and much superior to both. 
 The passage in the first poem (Book I. 387) is sup- 
 posed to have been levelled at Dr. Young : and a 
 similar application has been made of a stanza in his 
 Preface to the Odes. 
 
 " Nor where the boding raven chaunts, 
 Nor near the owl's unhallow'd haunts, 
 
 Will she her cares employ; 
 But flies from ruins and from tombs, 
 From Superstition's horrid glooms, 
 
 To day-light and to joy." 
 
266 NOTES. 
 
 u And wake the strong divinity of soul, 
 That conquers chance and fate/' &c. /. 431. 
 
 In the MS. corrected poem, we are directed to 
 
 read : 
 
 "Which conquers change or fate; or whether tund 
 For triumph, on the summit to proclaim 
 Her toils; around her brow to twine the wreath 
 Of ever-lasting praise ; through future worlds 
 To follow her interminated way." 
 
 In the second poem : 
 
 "Which conquers chance or fate; or on the height 
 The goal assign d her 3 haply to proclaim 
 Her triumph; on her brow to place the crown 
 Of uncorrupted praise." 
 
 As the pearl 
 
 Shines in the concave of its azure bed, 
 And painted shells indent their speckled wreath." 
 
 J. 454. 
 " Concharumque genus parili ratione videmus 
 Pingere telluris gremium." 
 
 Lucretius, De Rer. Nat. II. 374. 
 
 Mrs. Barbauld, in her essay on the poem of 
 Akenside, makes an assertion, very extraordinary 
 for a lady of her talents and observation. " In the 
 Pleasures of Imagination only three similes are to be 
 found ; viz. that of Memnon's harp ; that of the 
 parhelion ; and that of the needles." There are, 
 
NOTES. 267 
 
 on the contrary, two in the first book, more than 
 she alludes to ; eight in the second ; and six in the 
 third. There are also ten more in the second poem*. 
 
 * B. 1. 1. 454. As the pearl, &c. 
 
 1. 582. As when the Persian, &c. 
 
 B. II. 1. 15. As the blunt arrow, &c. 
 
 1 141. Like a storm, &c. 
 
 1. 350. As flame ascends, &c. 
 
 1. 412. Flowed like the dewy lustre, &c. 
 
 1. 447. As watery murmurs, &c. 
 
 1. 524. As when a wolf, &c. 
 
 1. 604. As lightning fires, &c. 
 
 1. 663. Flew like the pictures, &c. 
 
 B. III. 1. 93. As the bloom of spring, &c. 
 
 1. 355. Like spring's unfolded blossoms, &c. 
 
 1. 427. As when a cloud, &c. 
 
 1. 470. Like a young conqueror, &c. 
 
 1. 517. So fables tell, &c. 
 
 1. 527. Free as the vital breeze, &c. 
 
 In the second poem, 
 
 B. 1. 1. 248. Like clustered isles, &c. 
 
 1. 424. Like a gem, &c. 
 
 1. 678. As travellers by night, &c. 
 
 B. II. 1. 40. Like a welcome rill, &c. 
 
 1. 65. As in a polished mirror, &c. 
 
 1. 447. Like fond pilgrims, &c. 
 
 1. 578. As the young lion, &c. 
 
 B. III. 1. 441. Like a fair hand-maid, &c. 
 
 B. IV. 1. 10. Like waste of sands, &c. 
 
 1. 130. As earth itself, &c. 
 
268 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 " But more lovely still 
 
 Is nature's charm, where to the full consent 
 Of complicated members, to the bloom 
 Of colour, and the vital change of growth, 
 Life's holy flame and piercing sense are given, 
 And active motion speak the tempered soul." 
 
 B. I. I. 464. 
 
 Tuv ovrwv tolvvv rot jj,ev, &c. 
 
 Max. Tyrius, Dissert, xvii. 
 
 " Ma piu natura ci diletta, e piace 
 Se al bel contrasto de' tessuti membri, 
 E al lumeggiar d' armonici colori, 
 E alio sviluppo de' crescenti germi 
 Sacra fiamma di vita, un agil senso 
 Vien che s'aggiunga, ed un non pigro moto 
 Faccia di ben temprata anima fede." 
 
 Mazza, Lib. I. 596. 
 
 " Mind, Mind, alone, (bear witness, earth and heaven !) 
 
 The living fountains in itself contains, 
 
 Of beauteous and sublime." 
 
 B. I. v. 481. 
 
 See Characteristics, i. 130; iii. 205 ; i. 137; ii. 
 440; iii. 168, 205; ii. 83. Ed. 1737, AUnside. 
 
 The alteration in the second poem is very im- 
 portant. 
 
 " He, God most high (bear witness, earth and heaven !) 
 
 The living fountains in himself contains, 
 
 Of beauteous and sublime." 
 
 B. I. v. 563. 
 
NOTES. 
 
 269 
 
 The succeeding passage, beginning with 
 
 " Thee, O Father ! this extent 
 Of matter," &c. ; 
 Dr. Warton compares with a fine one in Pope's 
 Essay on Man : 
 
 " All are but parts of one stupendous whole, 
 
 Whose body Nature is, and God the soul ; 
 
 That, changed through all, and yet in all the same ; 
 
 Great in the earth, as in th' ethereal frame ; 
 
 "Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze, 
 
 Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees ; 
 
 Lives through all life, extends through all extent, 
 
 Spreads undivided, operates unspent ; 
 
 Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part, 
 
 As full, as perfect, in a hair, as heart ; 
 
 As full, as perfect, in vile man, that mourns, 
 
 As the rapt seraph, that adores and burns. 
 
 To him no high, no low, no great, no small ; 
 
 He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all." 
 
 Does this capacious scene, 
 
 With half that kindling majesty, dilate 
 
 Thy strong conception, as when Brutus rose, 
 
 Refulgent from the stroke of Caesar's fate, 
 
 Amid the crowd of patriots, and his arm 
 
 Aloft extending, like eternal Jove, 
 
 When guilt brings down the thunder, call'd aloud 
 
 On Tully's name, and shook his crimson steel, 
 
 And bad the father of his country hail \" 7. 490. 
 
 Dugald Stewart thinks *, that the amplifica- 
 
 * Philosophy of the active and moral Powers of Man, 
 vol. i. p. 283. 
 
270 NOTES. 
 
 tion of this scene weakens the effect of the simple 
 narrative of Cicero. Ccesare interf'ecto statim 
 cruentum alti extollens M. Brutus pugionem, Cice- 
 ronem nominatim exclamavit, aique ei recuperatam 
 Ubertatem est gratulatus. Phil. II. 12. 
 
 Akenside, with other more exalted sentiments, 
 seems to have adopted, from the Greek and Roman 
 theorists, the very questionable doctrine, that the 
 act of assassinating a tyrant may be associated 
 
 " With generous counsels and heroic deeds." 
 
 "Brutus perished untimely" says the truly learned 
 and accomplished Mr. Harris in his Essay con- 
 cerning Happiness, " and Ccesar did no more. It 
 was thus, as T remember, not long since, you were 
 expressing yourself, and yet suppose their fortunes 
 to have been exactly parallel) which would you have 
 preferred? Would you have been Ccesar or Brutus? 
 1 Brutus,' replied I, ' beyond all controversy.' He 
 asked me, why ; where was the difference, when 
 their fortunes, as we now supposed them, were 
 considered the same?' 4 There seems,' said I, ' ab- 
 stract from their fortunes, something, I know not 
 what, intrinsically preferable in the life and cha- 
 racter of Brutus.' ' If that,' said he, * be true, then 
 must we derive it, not from the success of his en- 
 
NOTES. 271 
 
 deavours ; but from their truth and rectitude. He 
 had the comfort to be conscious, that his cause was 
 a just one. It was impossible that the other should 
 have any such feeling.' * I believe/ said I, ' that 
 you have explained it *.' " 
 
 In Mr. Harris' Philosophical Arrangements is 
 another passage in the same spirit. " The domina- 
 tion of Caesar acted upon the imagination of Brutus : 
 that imagination acted upon his love for the re- 
 public : that love for the republic acted upon his 
 corporal organs. His hand, in consequence, plunged 
 a dagger into Caesar ; and, for a time, the republic, 
 which he loved, was restored -J-." 
 
 For a time, the republic, which he loved, was 
 restored. 
 
 Harmodius and Aristogiton assassinated Hip- 
 parchus ; Hippias escaped. Harmodius was seized 
 by the guards and massacred. Aristogiton was put 
 to the torture ; and, in revenge to the guards, for 
 having murdered Harmodius, he accused some of 
 them of being privy to his plot. They were inno- 
 cent ; but being the intimate friends of Hippias, the 
 tyrant ordered them to immediate execution. 
 
 Who has not heard of Harmodius and Aristo- 
 
 * Works, vol. ii. p. 106, 4to. ed. 1801. 
 f Works, vol. ii. p. 152. 
 
272 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 giton ? Who has not breathed with quickness, 
 when young, at the bare mention of their names ? 
 Were not their statues erected in the market-place 
 at Athens ? and was not that an honour never con- 
 ferred in that city before ? Is there not a ballad 
 still preserved, commemorative of the deed? and do 
 not all boys, in classical schools, get it by heart? 
 
 Yet who were Harmodius and Aristogiton? and 
 what was their deed? They were friends; and 
 more than companions of Leona, the courtezan. 
 They assassinated a public enemy ; but they assassi- 
 nated him not in revenge for an injury to their 
 country but in the spirit of revenge for a private 
 insult, offered to one of themselves. 
 
 Brutus plunged a dagger into Ccesar; and, for 
 a time, the republic was restored. Not for one mo- 
 ment ! And to that assassination may be attri- 
 buted a long series of disasters, terminating in an 
 usurpation, which closed with the destruction of the 
 republic in the first instance, and that of the empire 
 in the second. 
 
 The assassination was " not only a crime, but a 
 fault *T Antony predicted the result. 
 
 * The reader will, doubtless, remember the Duke of 
 Otranto's heartless criticism on the murder of the Duke 
 d'Enghein. 
 
NOTES. )IT6 
 
 " A curse shall light upon the line of men : 
 Domestic fury, and fierce civil strife, 
 Shall cumber all the parts of Italy : 
 Blood and destruction shall be so in use, 
 And dreadful objects so familiar, 
 That mothers shall but smile, when they behold 
 Their infants quarter'd by the hands of war." 
 
 The conspirators made ample provision for the 
 success of their plot against Caesar ; but little or none 
 for restoring the republic to its primitive principles. 
 Their conduct, in fact, was the personification of 
 imbecility. 
 
 The motives of Brutus have been strangely 
 overlooked. Caesar had seduced Cato's sister; 
 kept her in obloquy publicly as his mistress; 
 and bought her a jewel at a price equivalent to fifty 
 thousand pounds * ! Who should this mistress be ? 
 The mother of Brutus. If Brutus could live, as 
 he did, for years in friendship under the same roof 
 with the man, who had seduced his mother, he could 
 never have stabbed the seducer for a public benefit. 
 Public motives can only be entertained by good 
 men. 
 
 Dante seems to have regarded Brutus with par- 
 ticular indignation. He even represents him, with 
 
 * Suetonius. In vit. Cas. c. 50. 
 
274 NOTES. 
 
 his friend Cassius, as standing in the inferior regions 
 
 on each side of Judas Iscariot. 
 
 * Quell' anima lassu ch' ha maggior pena, 
 Disse'l maestro, e Giuda Scariotto, 
 Che '1 capo ha dentro, e fuor le gambe mena. 
 De gli altri duo, ch' rianno 1 capo di sotto, 
 Quei che pende dal nero ceffo, e Bruto : 
 Vedi, come si storce, e non fa motto : 
 E T altro e Cassio, che par si membruto." 
 
 Bell' Inferno, Cant. 34. 60. 
 
 Brawlers for liberty ! What are they but the 
 greatest enemies, public liberty has? They are 
 double enemies ; for they render her name not only 
 suspected but dreaded. 
 
 " License they mean, when they cry Liberty." 
 
 Milton, by this one sentence, explicitly shows, 
 how well he had watched the spirit of his times, 
 and penetrated the intricacy of human affairs. All 
 men love liberty for themselves ; but few are they, 
 who love liberty for others, as well as for them- 
 selves : 
 
 " Those, who love her, must first be wise and good." 
 
 The love of true liberty # , in fact, is always a cha- 
 racteristic in the formation of a noble mind. 
 
 # True Liberty is ike freedom of nature, chastised 
 and regulated by just laws, operating, with ductility and 
 ease, through every portion of the body politic. 
 
NOTES. 275 
 
 Every statesman should read Plato's^r,^ Alcibi- 
 ades; since it was written with the design of incul- 
 cating the truth, that neither shipping, nor harbours, 
 nor fortifications, are of any avail to the happiness 
 of a state ; nor extent of empire, nor multiplicity of 
 population ; if Virtue does not form the basis of 
 manners and policy. 
 
 In reference to a tyranny, it is almost a truism 
 to remark, that the best method of getting rid of 
 it, whether that tyranny is wielded by a despot, 
 an oligarchy, or a democracy, is for the more re- 
 spectable portion of the people to be perpetually on 
 the watch, firm in resolve, quick in action, united 
 in object, and faithful to themselves. But to assas- 
 sinate a tyrant is committing a bad action with the 
 sure result of substituting one tyrant, or one species 
 of tyranny, for another; probably far worse than 
 the one which has been exercised and conquered. 
 
 " As the candid blush 
 
 Of him, who strives with Fortune to be just," &c. 
 
 /. v. 505. 
 
 These, and several succeeding, as well as pre- 
 ceding, lines, are left out in the second poem ; and 
 yet, perhaps, nothing is superior in didactic poetry. 
 
 t2 
 
276 NOTES. 
 
 The poet would, it is probable, not have neglected 
 to preserve them, had he been allowed to finish his 
 undertaking ; though the part of the second poem, 
 where they ought to have appeared, seems to be 
 finished ; amplified but not improved. 
 
 " The graceful tear, that flows from other's woes." 
 
 /. v. 506 
 
 Darwin has a transcendent passage : 
 
 " Nor gilded pearl, that crested Fortune wears, 
 Nor gem, that twinkling hangs in beauty's ears ; 
 Not the bright stars, that night's blue arch adorn, 
 Nor radiant sun, that gilds the rising morn, 
 Shine with such lustre, as the tear, thatjlows 
 Down Virtues manly cheeks for other s woes'* 
 
 Trace the forms 
 
 Of atoms, moving with incessant change 
 
 Their elemental round," &c. 
 
 /. 515. 
 
 "At, quoniam supra docui, nihil posse creari 
 De nihilo, neque, quod genitum est, ad nihil revocari ; 
 Esse immortali primordia corpore debent, 
 
 . Dissolvi quo quseque supremo tempore possint, 
 Materies ut subpeditet rebus reparandis. * 
 Sunt igitur solida primordia simplicitate, 
 Nee ratione queunt alia, servata per revom, 
 Ex inflnito jam tempore res reparare." 
 
 De Rerum Natura, lib. I. v. 544. 
 
NOTES. 277 
 
 While among 
 
 The herd of servile minds, her strenuous form, 
 
 Indignant, flashes en the patriot's eye, 
 
 And through the rolls of memor appeal 
 
 To ancient honour." 
 
 B. I. v. 658. 
 
 Had Akenside ever been, as he once hoped, a 
 member of the House of Commons, he would, doubt- 
 less, have occasionally startled the members by 
 sudden appeals to " ancient honour." In the MS. 
 notes we read : 
 
 " Different far 
 
 She darts, indignant, on the patriot's eye 
 Among the servile herd ; her nervous hand 
 Points as she turns the record, and appeals 
 To ancient honour *. M 
 
 * If he would try effectually to acquire the real science 
 or taste of life, he would discover, that a right mind, or ge- 
 nerous affection, had more beauty and charm than all other 
 symmetries in the world j and, that a grain of honesty and 
 native worth was of more value than all the adventitious 
 ornaments, estates, or preferments ; for the sake of which 
 some of the better sort so often turn knaves: forsaking 
 their principles and quitting their honour and freedom, for a 
 mean, timorous, shifting, state of gaudy servitude. Cha- 
 racteristics, vol. iii. 168. 
 
278 NOTES. 
 
 BOOK THE SECOND. 
 
 When shall the laurel and the vocal strain 
 Resume their honours ? When shall we behold 
 The tuneful tongue, the Promethean band 
 Aspire to ancient praise ?" 
 
 B.IL 1. 
 
 E quando il lauro, e le vocali corde 
 II prisco onor ripiglieranno ? E quando 
 
 L'armonica vedrem* aurea favella, 
 E la Promotea man dietro l'antica 
 
 Lode agognar ?" 
 
 Mazza. 
 
 * Oft as the gloomy north, with iron-swarms, 
 Tempestuous pouring from her frozen caves 
 Blasted the Italian shore ; and swept the works 
 Of Liberty and Wisdom, down the gulf 
 Of all devouring night." 
 
 II. 9. 
 
 This is an error of long date : but the fact is, 
 the Goths were not such barbarians to Italy, as 
 were the Italians themselves : all liberty and wis- 
 dom had long been lost, or they had never in- 
 vaded the country ; and even Rome itself scarcely 
 suffered more from the sack of the Vandals (not so 
 
NOTES. 219 
 
 much from that of the Goths), than from the im- 
 perial troops in the time of Charles V. 
 
 How doubly fair, 
 
 When first with fresh-born vigour he inhales 
 The balmy breeze, and feels the blessed sun 
 Warm at his bosom from the springs of life 
 Chasing oppressive damps and languid pain." 
 
 B. II. v. 92. 
 
 These lines remind us of a beautiful stanza in 
 Gray's poem on the Pleasures arising from Vicissi- 
 tude. 
 
 " See the wretch, that long has tost 
 
 On the thorny bed of pain, 
 
 At length repair his vigour lost, 
 
 And breathe and walk again ;" &c. &c. 
 
 Gray told Mr. Mathias, that M. Gresset's "Epitre 
 a me saeur, sur ma Convalescence" gave him the first 
 idea of this ode. 
 
 -" Nor ever, yet, 
 
 The melting rainbow's vernal tinctured hues," &c. 
 
 B. II. 103. 
 
 Akenside seems to have remembered a passage 
 in Rapin : 
 
 " Tunc et caelesti quse dicitur Iris ab arcu, 
 Splendebit, flores variata coloribus illis, 
 
80 NOTES. 
 
 Quos pluvia accipiunt adverso nubila sole, 
 Iridis at species varias, variosque colores 
 Distinguet, variis pro tempestatibus annus." 
 
 Hort. I. 
 
 '* Whether in wonders of the rolling deep, 
 Or the rich fruits of all-sustaining earth, 
 Orjine adjusted springs of life and sense, 
 Ye scan the counsels of their author's hand." 
 
 B. II. 132. 
 
 Locke seems to have thought it possible, that a 
 child might think in utero ; and Darwin goes no 
 small way to confirm the conjecture *. 
 
 Descartes went farther ; for he carried his 
 imaginative powers so far as to suppose, that the 
 soul, when it enters the body, is informed with the 
 whole series of metaphysical notions ; that it pos- 
 sesses all abstract ideas ; that it even knows God ; 
 and has the power of comprehending infinite space! 
 
 All this Descartes seems to have thought not 
 only possible, but probable ; but he thought, at 
 the same time, that these sublime truths the soul 
 forgets at the moment, in which it beholds as Ma- 
 dame de Stael would, probably, say on such an 
 occasion " Aurore d'une vie nouvette." 
 
 Let us hazard a conjecture. 
 
 * Temple of Nature, Cant. III. 1. 141. in notis. 
 
NOTES. 281 
 
 The pistils of some flowers produce seeds, with- 
 out receiving any pollen from the stamens ; and 
 birds produce eggs without any communication cum, 
 maritis. But those seeds, if planted, will never 
 vegetate; nor will those eggs produce the germ 
 of a living chicken. Most fishes, and some 
 reptiles, have no communication cum maritis what- 
 ever. They shed, and mariti fertilize afterwards. 
 
 From these phenomena it would appear, that the 
 materials, forming the body of the future plant, 
 bird, fish, and reptile, are secreted infeminis; and 
 the living spirit in masculis. How the bodily 
 machine acquires existence in the one, and how the 
 principle of life is secreted in the other, are both 
 secrets alike. 
 
 May not this be applied to the human subject? 
 
 The pater having communicated the living prin- 
 ciple to the inactive and unconscious mass (existent 
 in matrice), the latter becomes a mansion for the 
 former to reside in. 
 
 Through the windows of this mansion (viz. the 
 senses), the living principle receives impressions 
 from the external universe, which engender what 
 are called ideas; and the capacity of receiving 
 those ideas is what may be called mind. 
 
282 NOTES. 
 
 tc Passion's fierce illapse 
 Rouses the mind's whole fabric ; with supplies 
 Of daily impulse keeps the elastic powers 
 Intensely pois'd, and polishes anew, 
 By that collision, all the fine machine ;" &c. 
 
 B. II. v. 158. 
 
 This passage is thus rendered by the Italian 
 translator, who illustrates the subject with a passage 
 from Pope*. 
 
 " Questa col fiero 
 
 Urto per tutta l'anima s'interna ; 
 E col soccorso de' frequenti impulsi 
 Agevola, distende, e ognor mantiene 
 L' elastiche potenze equilibrate ; 
 E in questa poi collision, piu tersa 
 Tutta la fina macchina diviene." 
 
 Libro Secondo, 199. 
 
 In respect to the foundation of the mysterious 
 kind of pleasuref, which is sometimes experienced 
 in the exercise of the passions, generally regarded as 
 
 * ** But strength of mind is exercise ; not rest. 
 The rising tempest puts in act the soul ; 
 Parts it may ravage, but preserves the whole." 
 
 PorE. Sag. sopra I'Uomo, Ep. ii. v. 104. 
 t B. II. 157, 693. 
 
NOTES. 283 
 
 painful, Akenside dismisses the solution of Lucre- 
 tius # , and adopts that of Du Bos } ; viz. that it 
 arises from the general delight, which the mind 
 tastes in its own activity ; and its abhorrence of a 
 state of indolence, joined with the self-applause, 
 which always attends the emotion, when natural 
 and just. 
 
 This solution, however, is not more strictly 
 accordant with true science, than that of Lucretius : 
 it is even less so : for it is, assuredly, more natural to 
 ascribe the sensation, alluded to, to a feeling of 
 conscious safety, than to one of conscious activity. 
 
 It seems, however, as if it would be more con- 
 
 * u Suave, mari magno turbantibus a?quora ventis, 
 E terra magnum alterius spectare laborem : 
 Non, quia vexari quemquam est jocunda voluptas, 
 Sed, quibus ipse malis careas, quia cernere suave est." 
 
 Lucret. De Rer. Natur. ii. I. 
 
 Beattie has an admirable passage: 
 
 " And oft the craggy cliff he loved to climb, 
 When all in mist the world below was lost. 
 What dreadful pleasure % ! There to stand sublime, 
 Like ship-wreck'd mariner on desert coast." 
 
 Minstrel, i. st. 21. 
 f Reflexions critiques sur la Poesie et sur la Peinture. 
 
 + How far superior to the jocunda voluptas of Lucretius! 
 
284 NOTES. 
 
 sonant with truth, were we to reduce its solution to 
 that one simple canon, which teaches that misfortune 
 is attractive, and thence elicits sympathy much after 
 the manner, that magnets affine and planets 
 gravitate. 
 
 " 'Twas in the windings of an ancient wood," &c. 
 
 B. II. 187. 
 
 See Leibnitz, Essais de Theodicee, sur la Bonte de 
 Dieu, la Libert e de THomme, et TOrigine du Mai, 
 i. 21. 209. Moral, Physique, Metaphysique, 118, 
 119,209,241. 
 
 The purport of Akenside's allegory is to solve 
 the difficulty, in respect to the origin of evil : it 
 must, however, be confessed, that there is an 
 obscurity throughout ; yet if he fail, we are to 
 consider, that he fails in a point, in which it was 
 impossible to succeed. The subject is invincible ! 
 
 " Is thy short span 
 
 Capacious of this universal frame ? 
 
 Thy wisdom all-sufficient* ? Thou alas ! 
 
 Dost thou aspire to judge between the Lord 
 
 Of Nature and his works?" 
 
 B. II. I. 245. 
 
 The last two lines remind us of two well-known 
 
 verses in the book of Job. 
 
 * Commanding. MS. 
 
NOTES. 285 
 
 u 'Twas a horrid pile 
 
 Of hills, with many a shaggy forest mix'd, 
 
 With many a sable cliff and glittering stream 
 
 Aloft recumbent." 
 
 B. II. I. 274. 
 
 In the MS. notations we are desired to read 
 
 w 'Twas a horrid, pile 
 
 Of cliffs, with many a shaggy forest mix'd, 
 With many a sable heath, and glittering stream 
 Aloft incumbent." 
 
 " Remurmuring rush'd the congregated floods 
 
 With hoarser inundation." 
 
 B. II. 282, 3. 
 
 " More ponderous rush'd the congregated floods, 
 
 And louder still resounded." 
 
 MS. Notation. 
 
 In respect to this and to other MS. corrections, 
 Mr. Pinkerton says: M *As I know that Akenside's 
 work on the Pleasures of Imagination is deservedly 
 one of your most favourite poems, I send you in- 
 closed what, I have no doubt, you will set a due 
 value upon : no less than a copy of all the correc- 
 tions he made with his own hand on that poem. 
 They were inserted in the margin of his printed 
 copy, which afterwards passed into the hands of a 
 
 * Heron's Letters. 
 
286 NOTES. 
 
 gentleman, from a friend of whom, and of my own, 
 a very ingenious young Templar, I received them. 
 At what time they were written I cannot pretend 
 to say ; much less to reveal the author's reasons for 
 not giving an edition according to them. You 
 will observe, that a few of them have been adopted 
 by the author in his proposed alteration of the 
 poem ; as appears from the two books, and part of 
 the third, of that alteration, published by Mr. 
 Dyson in his edition of Akenside's poems, 1772, 
 4to,, but far the greater part is unpublished*; 
 and that the most valuable, as being evidently 
 written ere the author had taken up the strange 
 idea, that poetry was only perfect oratory. So that 
 I will venture to say, that an edition of the Plea- 
 sures of Imagination, adopting most of these cor- 
 rections, would be the most perfect, ever yet known-)-." 
 
 With full accord 
 
 Answering the mighty model, he had chosen, 
 
 The best and fairest of unnumbered worlds, 
 
 That lay from everlasting in the store 
 
 Of his divine conceptions." 
 
 B. II. I. 333. 
 
 * And these only it has been thought proper to insert, 
 t An edition, combining these and other advantages, will, 
 probably, be published at no very distant period. 
 
NOTES. 287 
 
 " This opinion,' 1 says Akenside, " is so old, that 
 Timaeus Locrus calls the Supreme Being da/iig'jybg 
 rZi BaXriovog, the artificer of that which is best ; and 
 represents him as resolving in the beginning to pro- 
 duce the most excellent work, and as copying the 
 world most exactly from his own intelligible and 
 essential idea ; so that it yet remains, as it was at 
 first, perfect in beauty, and will never stand in need 
 of any correction or improvement. See the vision 
 at the end of the Theodicee of Leibnitz" 
 
 Surely this is begging the question in a very 
 strange and contracted manner. Who can suppose 
 this world, in which evil must be acknowledged to 
 exist *, to be the lest that the Deity was capable of 
 forming? This is a subject beyond our compre- 
 hension ; but men differ greatly upon it. 
 
 Some years since I travelled, for several days, 
 with a Venetian gentleman, who had lost all his 
 patrimony during the occupation of Venice by the 
 French. We got out of the coach near the village 
 of Llandisilio, and passing through the church- 
 
 * Who can refuse to believe that Evil exists, while the 
 bodies, even of good men, are liable to the pangs of 
 " Intestine stone and ulcer, colic-pangs, 
 Demoniac frenzy, moping melancholy, 
 And moon-struck madness, pining atrophy, 
 Marasmus, and wide- wasting pestilence?" 
 
288 NOTES. 
 
 yard, we sat down upon one of the grave-stones; 
 and the conversation having taken a serious turn 
 " This is indeed a beautiful valley !" said he, 
 " and the country we have passed through is, I 
 think, almost equal to any thing I have seen in 
 the Venetian states. But what avails all this 
 beauty ? Where man places his foot, the box of Pan- 
 dora bursts open. Indeed, to me it appears as if 
 the Being, who created the globe, left it before he 
 had brought his plan to maturity, and passed on to 
 call forth new creations, more conformable to the 
 impresses, existing in his own mind. We are the 
 dregs of the universe !" 
 
 This was the momentary error of despondency : 
 but none are more ignorantly presumptuous than 
 those, who would set limits to the capabilities of 
 " the wi fathomable deep." 
 
 Not only Binary and Ternary systems have 
 been traced in the heavens, but Quadruple, Quin- 
 tuple, and Multiple ones; all connected in systems 
 of reciprocal attraction. Even their periods of 
 revolution have, in some instances, been detected. 
 One, for instance, in the Serpent, occupying 375 
 years ; a second in the Virgin, 708 years ; a third 
 in Leo, 1200 years; and a fourth in Bootes occu- 
 pying 1681 years ! 
 
notes; 289 
 
 To doubt that these, and all other Suss, Comets, 
 Planets and Satellites, are peopled with intel- 
 ligent Beings, is to have a very limited conception 
 of the uses, extension, splendour, and magnificence 
 of the universe, indeed ; as well as of the sublimity 
 of operation, characteristic of the Sovereign 
 Power. 
 
 The Electric Fluid is a substance ; every par- 
 ticle of Light is a substance ; the Essence of At- 
 traction is a substance. All these fluids are 
 passing and repassing, in myriads of directions, in 
 every fractional moment of time. There is, in fact, 
 no interval. There is a communication, then, every 
 instant, one stellar body with another. 
 
 The Soul of Man is not of earthly substance, 
 but speaking figuratively* of etherial substance. 
 * * * All fluids are Vehicles. * * * * 
 May not the soul of man, at the period in which 
 it separates from the body, be conveyed on one, 
 or all of these Vehicles combined ? # * # Whi- 
 ther ? * * * 
 
 " Wait the great teacher, Death, and God adore." 
 
 " Looking up, I view'd 
 
 A vast, gigantic, spectre, striding on, 
 
 * We can only speak figuratively, on a subject of this kind. 
 
 u 
 
290 NOTES. 
 
 Through murmuring thunder, and a waste of clouds, 
 
 With dreadful action ! Black as night, his brow 
 
 Relentless frowns involv'd : his savage limbs, 
 
 With sharp impatience, violent he writh'd, 
 
 As through convulsive anguish ; and his hand, 
 
 Arm'd with a scorpion lash, full oft he rais'd, 
 
 In madness, to his bosom ; while his eyes 
 
 Rain'd bitter tears, and bellowing loud, he shook 
 
 The void with horror. Silent, by his side, 
 
 The virgin came; no discomposure stirr'd 
 
 Her features : from the glooms, which hung around, 
 
 No stain of darkness, mingled with the beam 
 
 Of her divine effulgence/' 
 
 B. II. v. 506520. 
 
 This whole passage is an instance of the true 
 
 sublime ; and the picture may be associated with 
 
 that of Death and Sin in Milton's Paradise Lost. 
 
 Ask the faithful youth 
 
 Why the cold urn of her he fondly loved, 
 
 So often fills his arms," &c. B. II. 683. 
 
 * Chiedi al fido Garzon, perch e si spesso 
 Abbracci e stringa di colei, che tan to 
 Ebbe de' suoi sospir, la gelid' urna ; 
 O perche sciolga solitario il piede 
 A lei recando nelle tacite ore 
 Delle lagrime sue mesto tribute 
 Ah! ti dira, quanti ha tesori il mondo, 
 Questa non mi farian' ora si sacra 
 Unqua obbliar, in cui lungi alle cure 
 Del livor, del tumulto, una gradita 
 
NOTES. 291 
 
 That Akenside was alive to all the soft impulses 
 of nature, we have already shown. The loss of 
 Parthenia he seems never to have forgotten ; and 
 the grief, he had anticipated in the days of his 
 youth, he was fated to experience in the season of 
 manhood. 
 
 " When the pious band 
 
 Of youths, who fought for freedom and their sires 
 Lay side by side in gore." 
 
 B. II. 726. 
 
 Rimembranza mi tragge, e'l core efflitto 
 
 Coi dolci sguardi di virtu lusinga, 
 
 E in estasi converte il pianto mio. 
 
 Mazza. 
 
 In reference to this passage it has been observed, that 
 t when the mind has been liberally and elegantly cultivated; 
 where much sensibility and strength of passion are present, 
 and the misfortunes occurring turn upon the loss of some 
 tender and beloved connexion ; in this case, what may be 
 called the luxury of grief is more fully and exquisitely dis- 
 played. That mild and gentle sorrow, which, in the bosom 
 of the good and of the feeling, succeeds the strong energies 
 of grief, is of a nature so soothing and grateful, so friendly 
 to the soft emotions of the soul, that those, whose friendship 
 or whose love, the hand of fate has severed, delight in the 
 indulgence of reflections, which lead to past endearment, 
 which, dwelling on the virtues, the perfections of the dead, 
 breathe the pure spirit of melancholy enthusiasm." Drake. 
 
 u2 
 
292 NOTES. 
 
 " The reader will here naturally recollect the fate 
 of the second battalion of Thebes, which at the 
 battle of Cheronea, was utterly destroyed ; every 
 man being found dead by the side of his friend. 
 This affecting circumstance is recorded by Plutarch, 
 in his life of Pelopidas. r> Akenside. 
 
 " When honoured urns 
 
 Of patriots and of chiefs, the awful bust 
 And storied arch, to glut the coward rage 
 Of regal envy, strew the public way 
 With hallowed ruins." 
 
 B. II. 734. 
 
 To this passage may be traced Gray's line: 
 
 w Can storied urn, or animated bust?" 
 
 and to the following, perhaps, Johnson's still more 
 celebrated one of 
 
 " And panting time toil'd after him in vain." 
 
 " To eyes, to ears, 
 
 To every organ of the copious mind 
 He offereth all his treasures. Him the hours ; 
 The seasons him obey; and changeful time 
 Sees him, at will, keep measure with his flight, 
 At will outstrip it" 
 
 B. IV. v. 109. 
 
NOTES. 293 
 
 BOOK THE THIRD. 
 
 The spacious west, 
 
 And all the teeming regions of the south, 
 
 Hold not a quarry to the curious flight 
 
 Of knowledge, half so tempting and so fair 
 
 As Man to Man." 
 
 B. III. v. 7. 
 
 Pope says 
 
 iC The proper study of mankind is man." 
 
 Akenside was fully aware of this axiom, and 
 wrote his poem to confirm the truth of it : and yet 
 it is very remarkable, that he omitted it in his second 
 poem. It is not impossible, however, that he might 
 have intended to insert it in some other portion 
 of the part, he meditated. It is thus rendered by 
 Mazza : 
 
 " II diffuso occidente, e le feraci 
 Australi region certo non hanno 
 Minieri si mirahile, e che tanto 
 Aletti del Saper l'avido volo, 
 Quanto l'Uomo dell' Uom merta i riflessi*." 
 
 * From the manner in which this passage, and indeed the 
 whole poem, has been translated, how can a French reader 
 
294 NOTES- 
 
 Ci Where the powers 
 
 Of Fancy neither lessen nor enlarge 
 The images of things/' &c. 
 
 B. III. I. 18. 
 
 Diogenes Laertius, lib. vii. ; Meditations of M. 
 Aurelius ; and the Discourses of Epictetus ; Arrian, 
 lib. i. c. 12., and lib. ii. c. 22. See also Charac- 
 teristics, vol. i. from p. 813 to 321. Akenside. 
 
 " Some elate 
 
 With martial splendour/' &c. 
 
 B. III. v. 98. 
 
 This picture reminds us of certain parts of 
 Othello's apology ; and serves to show the wide 
 difference between the impudence and modesty of 
 valour. Akenside's description is, in fact, a rever- 
 sion of that, sketched by Shakspeare. 
 
 " He stalks, resounding in magnific phrase 
 
 The vanity of riches, the contempt 
 
 Of pomp and power." 
 
 B. HI. v. 136. 
 
 have even the smallest conception of that exquisite harmony 
 of rhythmus, which distinguishes the original 1 
 
 " Les vastes contrces de I' Occident, les fecondes regions du 
 m'idi n'offrent rien de si digne de recherches, rien qui merite 
 autant I'examen de la Science, que I'homme ne merite I'ctude 
 de I'homme." 
 
NOTES. 295 
 
 This picture is from Lucian ; though I cannot 
 refer to the page or subject. Seneca, who was rich, 
 and yet a contemner of wealth, may be supposed to 
 have sat for the original portrait of him, 
 
 " Whose eye regards not his illustrious pomp 
 And ample store ; but as indulgent streams 
 To cheer the barren soil, and spread the fruits 
 Of joy." 
 
 v. 147. 
 
 " Mark the sable woods/' &c. 
 
 B. III. L 286. 
 
 In respect to lawgivers, Akenside seems to have 
 given a decided preference to Minos, Solon, and 
 Ntjma. He does not once mention Lycuugus. 
 Nearly the whole of the third book of the second 
 poem is devoted to the history of Solon ; and a 
 fine scene from naturejs rendered much more affect- 
 ing to the mental eye by the poet's having asso- 
 ciated with it two of the most celebrated legislators 
 of antiquity. 
 
 " Mark the sable woods, 
 
 That shade sublime yon mountain's nodding brow; 
 With what religious awe the solemn scene 
 Commands your steps! as if the reverend form 
 
296 NOTES. 
 
 Of Minos or of Numa should forsake 
 
 Th' Elysian seats, and, down th' embowering shade, 
 
 Move to your pausing eye." 
 
 I am indebted to Mr. Alison's work on the Nature 
 of the Emotions of Sublimity and Beauty * for the 
 first appreciation of this circumstance -f. 
 
 * Pages 19, 20, 21. 
 
 f " There is also a passage in the same poet's Ode to Sus- 
 picion," he goes on to observe, " in which a scene, which is, 
 in general, only beautiful, is rendered strikingly sublime, 
 from the imagery with which it is connected. 
 
 * 'Tis thus to work her baneful power, 
 Suspicion waits the sullen hour 
 
 Of fretfulness and strife j 
 When care the inflrmer bosom wrings, 
 Or Eurus waves his murky wings 
 
 To damp the seats of life. 
 
 But come ! forsake the scene unblest, 
 Which first beheld your faithful breast 
 
 To groundless fears a prey ; 
 Come where, with my prevailing lyre, 
 The skies, the streams, the groves, conspire 
 To charm your doubts away. 
 
 Throned in the sun's descending car, 
 What power, unseen, diffuseth far 
 
 This tenderness of mind ? 
 What Genius smiles in yonder flood ? 
 What God, in whispers from the wood, 
 
 Bids every thought be kind ?' ' 
 
NOTES. 297 
 
 " 'Twas thus, if ancient Fame the truth unfold, 
 Two faithful needles, from th' informing touch 
 Of the same parent stone, together drew 
 Its mystic virtue; and at first conspired, 
 With fatal impulse, quivering to the pole. 
 Then, though disjoin'd by kingdoms, though the main 
 Roll'd its broad surge betwixt, and different stars 
 Beheld their wakeful motions, yet preserved 
 The former friendship, and remember'd still 
 Th' alliance of their birth : whate'er the line 
 Which one possess'd, nor pause, nor quiet knew 
 The sure associate, ere with trembling speed 
 He found its path, and fix'd unerring there." 
 
 B. III. 325337. 
 
 As Akenside directs us to the poem, recited by 
 Cardinal Bembo, in the character of Lucretius, in 
 Strada's Prolusions, the reader will not be dis- 
 pleased to find it here. 
 
 " Magnesi genus est lapidis mirabile, cui si 
 
 Corpora ferri plura, stylosve admoveris; inde 
 
 Non modo vim, motumque trahent, quo semper ad ursam, 
 
 Qua lucet vicina polo se vertere tentent: 
 
 Verum etiam mira inter se ratione modoque 
 
 Quotquot cum lapidem tetigere styli, simul omnes 
 
 Conspirare situm motumque videbis in unum, 
 
 Ut si forte ex his aliquis Roma moveatur, 
 
 Alter ad hunc motum, quamvis sit dissitus longe 
 
 Arcano se naturai fgedere vertat. 
 
 Ergo age, si quid scire voles, qui distat, amicum, 
 Ad quern nulla accedere possit epistola; sume 
 Planum orbem patulumque, notas elementaque prima 
 
298 NOTES. 
 
 Ordine, quo discunt pueri describe per oras 
 Extremas orbis; medioque repone jacentem, 
 Qui tetigit magneta, stylum; ut versatilis inde 
 Literulam quamcunque velis, contingere possit. 
 Hujus ad exemplum, simili fabrica veris orbem 
 Margine descriptum, munitumque indice ferri, 
 Ferri quod motum magnete accepit ab illo. 
 Hunc orbem discessurus sibi portet amicus, 
 Conveniatque prius, quo tempore, queisve diebus 
 Exploret, stylus an trepidet, quidve indice signet. 
 
 His ita compositis, si clam cupis alloqui amicum, 
 Quern procul a tete terrai distinet ora ; 
 Orbi adjunge raanura, ferrum versatile tracta. 
 Hie disposta vides elementa in margine toto: 
 Quies opus est ad verba notis, hue dirige ferrum ; 
 Literulasque, modo hanc, modo et silam cuspide tange, 
 Dum ferrum per eas iterumque iterumque rotando, 
 Componas sigillatim sensa omnia mentis. 
 Mira fides longe qui distat cernit amicus 
 Nullius impulsu trepidare volubile ferrum, 
 Nunc hue, nunc illuc discurrere : conscius haeret, 
 Observatque styli ductum, sequiturque legendo 
 Hinc atque hinc elementa, quibus in verba coactis 
 Quid sit opus sentit, ferroque interprete discit. 
 Quin etiam cum stare stylum videt, ipse vicissim 
 Si qua respondenda putet simili ratione 
 Literulis varie tactis, rescribit amico. 
 
 O utinam haec ratio scribendi prodeat usu: 
 Cautior, et citior properaret epistola, nullas 
 Latronum verita insidias, fluviosque morantes. 
 Ipse suis Princeps manibus sibi conficeret rem ; 
 Nos soboles scribarum emersi ex aequore nigro, 
 
 CONSECHAREMUS CALAMUM MAGNETIS AD ORAS." 
 
 Stkada. Prol. Lib. II. Fro/. VI. 
 
NOTES. 299 
 
 u By degrees the mind 
 
 Feels her young nerves dilate : the plastic powers 
 
 Labour for action : blind emotions heave 
 
 His bosom, and with holiest fren zy* caught, 
 
 From earth to heaven, he rolls his daring eye, 
 
 From heaven to earth." 
 
 B. III. I. 380. 
 
 Thus Shakspeare: 
 
 " The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, 
 
 Glances from earth to heaven, from heaven to earth, 
 And as imagination," &c. 
 
 As when a cloud 
 
 Of gathering hail with limpid crusts of ice 
 Enclosed, and obvious to the beaming sun, 
 Collects his large effulgence, straight, the heavens 
 With equal flames present on either hand 
 The radiant visage; Persia stands at gaze 
 Appall'd; and on the brink of Ganges doubts 
 The snowy vested seer, in Mithra's name, 
 To which the fragrance of the south shall burn, 
 To which his warbled orisons ascend." 
 
 B. HI. v. 427. 
 
 This very sublime simile stands a chance of not 
 being exactly understood by some readers ; but 
 
 * In the MS. corrected poem we are directed to read: 
 
 i( with holiest frenzy caught 
 
 From earth to heaven, he darts his searching eye 
 From heaven to earth." 
 
300 NOTES. 
 
 when they are reminded, that Akenside alludes to 
 the two suns, one real, the other fictitious, so often 
 beheld in very hot, as well as in very cold, tem- 
 peratures, the sublimity will be so striking, that a 
 critic, perhaps, might be justified in placing it in a 
 rank, second only to Milton's simile of Satan to the 
 Sun during the time of an eclipse. 
 
 " a visionary Paradise disclosed, 
 
 Amid the dubious wild," &c. 
 
 B. III. v. 511. 
 
 This whole passage seems to have been founded 
 on the following description in the Spectator, No. 
 413. " We are every where entertained with pleasing 
 shows and apparitions, we discover imaginary glo- 
 ries in the heavens and in the earth, and see some 
 of this visionary "beauty poured out upon the whole 
 creation. But what a rough unsightly sketch of 
 nature should we be entertained with, did all her 
 colouring disappear, and the several distinctions of 
 light and shade vanish ! In short, our souls are, 
 at present, delightfully lost and bewildered in a 
 pleasing delusion ; and we zvalk about like the en- 
 chanted hero in a romance, who sees beaidiful cas- 
 tles, zcoods and meadows, at the same time hears the 
 xvarbling of birds and purling of streams; but upon 
 
NOT IS. 301 
 
 the finishing of some secret spell, the fantastic scene 
 breaks up, and the disconsolate knight finds himself' 
 on a barren heath, or in a solitary forest? 
 
 " What then is Taste ?" 
 
 B. III. v. 515. 
 
 Akenside here traces the causes to which may be 
 referred the pleasure, which is received from all, 
 that strikes us in the material world with the sensa- 
 tion of beauty. These are traced to the conclu- 
 sion, that " the beauty and sublimity of the qualities 
 of matter arise from their being the signs or expres- 
 sions of such qualities, as are fitted by the constitu- 
 tion of our nature, to produce emotion? The pas- 
 sage is thus rendered by the Italian translator. 
 
 " Dunque il Gusto ch' e mai, se non l'interne 
 Potenze agili e forti, e a sentir pronte 
 Ogn' impulso leggiero ? un retto senso 
 II Decente a discernere, e' 1 Sublime, 
 E in ogni spezie a ripulsar ben presto 
 Deformi obbietti, inordinati e rozzi ? 
 Questo prestar non pon gemme, o tesori, 
 Di porpora splendor, industria ; e solo 
 Dio solo, allor che l'efficace destra 
 La secreta dell' alme indole impronta, 
 Egli pud sol TOmnipossente Padre 
 Prudente, giusto, libero, siccome 
 L'aura di vita e la luce del Cielo, 
 Le bellezze svelar della Natura." 
 
302 NOTES. 
 
 See Bettinelli's DelV Entimasmo delle belV 
 Arti. This work is very little known in this coun- 
 try ; and yet it ia worthy of being so. The author 
 seems to have been acquainted with Milton, Ossian, 
 and other British writers; but I do not remem- 
 ber his having once alluded to Akenside ; a cir- 
 cumstance, rather extraordinary, when we consider 
 the nature of his work. 
 
 Ask the Swain, 
 
 Who journeys homeward from a summer clay's 
 Long labour," &c. 
 
 B. III. v. 59.6. 
 
 Beattie has a fine passage, in some degree asso- 
 ciating with this : 
 
 e< From silent mountains, straight with startling sound, 
 Torrents are hurl'd; green hills emerge; and lo, 
 The trees with foliage, cliffs with flowers are crown'd ; 
 
 Pure rills through vales of verdure warbling go, 
 And wonder, love, and joy, the Peasant's heart o'erflow.' 
 
 u Amid the mighty uproar, while below 
 
 The nations tremble, Shakspeare looks abroad, 
 
 From some high cliff superior, and enjoys 
 
 The elemental war." 
 
 B. III. v. 555. 
 
 1 Horace regards it as the last effort of philoso- 
 
NOTES. 303 
 
 phic fortitude to behold, without terror and amaze- 
 ment, this immense and glorious fabric of the uni- 
 verse : - 
 
 * Hunc solem, et Stellas, et decedentia certis 
 Tempora momentis, sunt qui formidine nulla 
 Imbuti spectant.' 
 
 " Lucretius is a poet not to be suspected of giving 
 way to superstitious terrors ; yet when he supposes 
 the whole mechanism of Nature laid open by the 
 master of his philosophy, his transport on this mag- 
 nificent view, which he has represented in the colours 
 of such bold and lively poetry, is overcast with a 
 shade of secret dread and horror : 
 
 c His tibi me rebus qusedam divina voluptas 
 Percipit, atque horror, quod sic natura tua vi 
 Tarn manifesta patet ex omni parte retecta.'" 
 
 Brown. 
 
 " Oh, blest of Heav'n ! whom not the languid songs 
 Of Luxury, the Siren !" &c. 
 
 B. III. I. 568. 
 
 Shaftesbury's ideas on luxury are stated in vols, 
 i. 310. 315. 319, &c; ii. 147, &c. ; in. 199. 304. 
 His ideas in regard to pleasure may be traced in 
 i. 308; ii. 226; iii. 200. 229. He proves, that 
 pleasure has no rule of good, i. 309. 339 : that the 
 pleasures of mind are far superior to those of the 
 
30 1 NOTES. 
 
 body, ii. 99, 100: and that even men of pleasure 
 are compelled to acknowledge the influence and 
 delights, which impregnate a virtuous bosom, i. 140. 
 Ed. 1737. 
 
 (< 
 
 Not a breeze 
 
 Flies o'er the meadow," &c. 
 
 777. 593. 
 
 Marcus Antoninus, lib. iii. 2. Akenside. 
 
 " What though not all 
 
 Of mortal offspring," &c. 
 
 The advantages of a cultivated imagination are 
 here set forth in a very masterly manner. 
 
 " What though not all 
 
 Of mortal offspring can attain the heights 
 Of envied life ; though only few possess 
 Patrician treasures or imperial state; 
 Yet Nature's care, to all her children just, 
 With richer treasures and an ampler state, 
 Endows at large whatever happy man 
 Will deign to use them. 
 
 His the city's pomp, 
 The rural honours his. Whate'er adorns 
 The princely dome, the column and the arch, 
 The breathing marbles and the sculptur'd gold, 
 Beyond the proud possessor's narrow claim, 
 His tuneful breast enjoys. 
 
305 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 For him the spring 
 Distils her dews, and from the silken gem 
 Its lucid leaves unfolds : for him the hand 
 Of autumn tinges every fertile branch 
 With blooming gold and blushes like the morn. 
 Each passing hour sheds tribute from her wings 
 And still new beauties meet his lonely walk, 
 And loves unfelt attract him. Not a breeze 
 Flies o'er the meadow, not a cloud imbibes 
 The setting sun's effulgence, not a strain 
 From all the tenants of the warbling shade 
 Ascends, but whence his bosom can partake 
 Fresh pleasure unreproved *." 
 
 * Professor Stuart has a beautiful observation in his Phi- 
 losophical Essays. (P. 509. 4to.) " When a man has suc- 
 ceeded, at length, in cultivating his imagination, things, the 
 most familiar and unnoticed, disclose charms invisible before. 
 The same objects and events, which were lately beheld with 
 indifference, occupy now all the powers and capacities of the 
 soul; the contrast between the present and the past serving 
 only to enhance and to endear so unlocked for an acquisition. 
 What Gray has so finely said of the pleasures of vicissitude, 
 conveys but a faint image of what is experienced by the man, 
 who after having lost, in vulgar occupation and vulgar amuse- 
 ment, his earliest and most precious years, is thus introduced, 
 at last, to a new heaven and a new earth. 
 
 The meanest floweret of the vale, 
 The simplest note that swells the gale, 
 The common sun, the air, the skies, 
 To him are opening paradise." 
 
306 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 " With God himself hold converse." 
 
 B. III. 629. 
 
 There is an elegant paper in the Tatler (or Spec- 
 tator), by Bishop Berkeley ; the moral of which 
 is, that he cared little to be the real possessor of an 
 estate, as long as he was allowed the use and plea- 
 sure of walking over it, as often as he pleased. 
 Akenside alludes to this in a line quoted above. 
 
 " Beyond the proud possessor's narrow claim." 
 
 Akenside was doomed to the dust and poison of 
 a large city, during the greatest portion of his life. 
 His proper sphere was the garden and the valley, 
 the mountain, the ocean, and the firmament, where 
 with a hallowed mind he might have 
 
 " With God himself 
 
 Held converse, grew familiar, day by day, 
 With his conceptions, acted on his plan, 
 And form'd to his the relish of his soul*. 
 
 L'Uomo in tal guisa, 
 
 Cui dilettano l'opre di Natura, 
 
 Con Dio conversa, e all' alte idee di Lui 
 
 Di giorno in giorno familiar si rende ; 
 
 Ed operando sul modello istesso 
 
 I suoi disegna su i piacer di Dio." 
 
 Mazza. 
 
NOTES. 
 
 307 
 
 Johnson, in criticising this poem, cites a passage 
 from Mr. Walker. " Akenside's picture of man is 
 grand and beautiful, but unfinished. The immor- 
 tality of the soul, which is the natural consequence 
 of the appetites and powers she is invested with, 
 is scarcely once hinted throughout the poem." In 
 apology for which supposed omission, Johnson con- 
 cedes, that he has omitted what was not properly 
 in his plan. 
 
 This is a very striking instance to prove, I think, 
 that Mr. Walker could have known as little of this 
 poem as Johnson himself ; neither of them having, 
 it is more than probable, read it with the confined 
 attention, necessary to embrace the whole of its 
 subjects. 
 
 Akenside^s poem would have been very defective 
 indeed, had the author (by omission) stript man of 
 the high destiny for which his virtues will endow 
 him at the period of death. But he has not done 
 so ; the following passages all implying, and that 
 most expressly, this all-commanding consumma- 
 tion : 
 
 " While the voice 
 
 Of truth and virtue up the steep ascent 
 Of Nature calls him to his high reward, 
 Th' applauding smile of heaven/' &c. 
 
 B. I. 163. 
 
 x2 
 
308 NOTES, 
 
 The high-born soul 
 
 Disdains to rest her heav'n-aspiring wing 
 Beneath its native quarry." 
 
 B. I. 183. 
 
 For from the birth 
 
 Of mortal man, the Sovereign Maker said, 
 That not in humble, or in brief delight," 
 
 * * * * 
 
 " But from these, 
 
 Turning, disdainful, to an equal good, 
 Through all th' ascent of things enlarge his view, 
 Till every bound, at length, should disappear, 
 And infinite Perfection close the scene." 
 
 B. 1. I. 212. Second Poem. 
 
 u To trace her hallow'd light through future worlds, 
 And bless Heav'n's image in the heart of man." 
 
 B. I. 436. 
 
 " The generous glebe, 
 
 Are only pledges of a state sincere, 
 Th' integrity and order of their frame, 
 When all is well within, and every end 
 Accomplish'd." 
 
 B. I. 364. 
 
 Led by that hope sublime, whose cloudless eye, 
 Through the fair toils and ornaments of earth, 
 Discerns the nobler life, reserved for heaven." 
 
 Second Poem, I. 489. 
 
NOTES. 309 
 
 Beyond the adamantine gates 
 
 Of death expatiates ; as his birthright claims 
 Inheritance in all the works of God ; 
 Prepares for endless time his plan of life, 
 And counts the universe itself its home." 
 
 B.II.l. 147. 
 
 " Nor is the care of Heaven withheld, 
 
 From granting to the task proportion'd aid, 
 That, in their stations, all may persevere 
 To climb th' ascent of being, and approach 
 For ever nearer to the life divine *." 
 
 B. II. I. 359. 
 
 And here we may triumphantly cite a passage, 
 forming a comprehensive and decisive antidote to 
 the puerile and pestilential arguments of atheism ; 
 than which nothing, perhaps, in human language 
 can be quoted more harmonious in point of taste ; 
 more strictly accordant with true ethics ; or more 
 beautiful or sublime in poetry and philosophy. 
 
 " Lo ! she appeals to Nature ; to the winds 
 And rolling waves, the sun's unwearied course, 
 
 * Shaftesbury, also, clearly admits a future state ; witness 
 those passages in his Characteristics, where he argues not 
 only on its probability, but its absolute necessity and proof: 
 vol. ii. 275. See also, i. 18, 97, 98102 j ii. 236, 7 ; iii. 303 ; 
 as well as his opinions in respect to rewards and punish- 
 ments, ii. 65, 273 ; i. 97 ; ii. 69 j i. 100. 
 
3]Q NOTES. 
 
 The elements and seasons. All declare 
 For what the Eternal Maker has ordain'd 
 The powers of Man. We feel within ourselves 
 His energy divine ; He tells the heart, 
 He meant, He made us, to behold and love 
 What He beholds and loves, the gen'ral orb 
 Of life and being; to be great like Him, 
 Beneficent and active. 
 
 Thus the men, 
 Whom Nature's works can charm, with God himself 
 Hold converse, grow familiar, day by day, 
 With his conceptions, act upon his plan, 
 And form to His the relish of their souls." 
 
 B. III. v. 620. 
 
 The Deity, and a future life, are the highest 
 subjects, that can engage the exercise of the human 
 imagination. 
 
 Aristotle associates the mind of man with a 
 tablet, on which there is no picture ; Hooker com- 
 pares it to a book, wherein nothing is yet written ; 
 but in which all things may be written ; and to these 
 similitudes may be traced Locke's celebrated illus- 
 tration, in regard to " white paper.'''' 
 
 Man, then, is born, not in sin and impurity; but 
 in purity and innocence; susceptible of all good 
 thoughts, and comprehensively capacious of all vir- 
 tuous deeds. 
 
 The true object of education is not to enable 
 us to play, more cunningly than others, " the 
 
NOTES. 311 
 
 subtle game 1 ' of life; but to give us judgment to 
 perceive the true objects of existence; wisdom to 
 preserve a rectitude of path ; and pure mental asso- 
 ciations, wherewith to charm us to our journey's end. 
 
 Shall the hours of our youth, then, always be 
 wasted? Shall the fountains of our imagination 
 always be poisoned ? and shall the science of society 
 always be as dark as the Sibyl, and as difficult as 
 the Calculus ? 
 
 Are these the hopes for which we live? Are 
 these the fruits for which we toil ? Are these the 
 ends for which we suffer ? 
 
 The Genius of Education still rests, as it were, 
 with one foot in his cradle. He stands, contemplating 
 the sublime volume of human happiness; but till he 
 presents the leaf, imparting to governments the duty 
 of teaching men the apparently contrasted arts of 
 enlarging their minds, contracting their wants, re- 
 gulating their wishes *, and referring all to one stu- 
 
 * The practice of the past and of the present has been, and 
 still is, in decided opposition to this; and ever will be so, 
 until Political Economists shall have discovered the true 
 object for which governments are established; viz. not for the 
 purpose of making nations rich, vain, powerful and imperious; 
 but content with little, and practically desirous of promoting 
 the comfort of all that breathe. 
 
 As no one comes into the world through the medium of his 
 
312 NOTES. 
 
 pendous cause; instead of ease after mild labour, 
 and thoughts, on which the mind, contented, may 
 repose; for the rich and great, little better will 
 there be than abundance and languor, proud hopes, 
 ambitious aspirations, heartless deeds, and sleepless 
 nights : for the poor, intensity of labour and inten- 
 sity of want; impurity and disease; sorrow and 
 ignominy ; hopeless honesty, and cruel wounds. 
 
 own choice, every one, that does come, has a natural right, 
 until that right is forfeited by the infringement of good laws, 
 not only to food and clothing, but to a life, valuable to 
 himself 
 
 When these cannot be commanded by honest endeavours 
 (of body or of mind), the state of society is cruelly, if not 
 criminally, defective; and it becomes the imperative duty 
 of all to aid an existing government in putting forth its full 
 extent of lawful influence and power, to the end, that the 
 Legitimate Right mav command the Legitimate Result. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED BY THOMAS DAVISOV, WHITEPRIAfiS.