So far Dr. Johnson. Mr. Croft says, " Of these 66 poems the two or three first have been perused "more eagerly and more frequently than the rest. "When he got as far as the fourth or fifth, his origi"nal motive for taking up the pen was answered: "his grief was naturally either diminished or ex"hausted. We still find the same pious poet; but we "hear less of Philander and Narcissa, and less of the "mourner whom he loved to pity."

Notwithstanding one might be tempted, from some passages in the Night Thoughts, to suppose he had taken his leave of terrestrial things, in the alarming year 1745, he could not refrain from returning again to politics, but wrote Poetical Reflections on the State of the Kingdom, originally appended to the Night Thoughts, but never re-printed with them.

In 1753, his tragedy of The Brothers, written thirty years before, now first appeared upon the stage. It had been in rehearsal when Young took orders, and was withdrawn on that occasion. The Rector of Welwyn devoted 10001. to "The Society for the propagation of the Gospel," and estimating the pro

bable produce of this play at such a sum, he perhaps thought the occasion might sanctify the means; and not thinking so unfavourably of the stage as other good men have done, he committed the monstrous absurdity of giving a play for the propagation of the gospel! The author was, (as is often the case with authors) deceived in his calculation. The Brothers was never a favourite with the public: but that the society might not suffer, the doctor made up the deficiency from his own pocket.

His next was a prose performance, entitled, "The "Centaur not fabulous; in Six Letters to a Friend 66 on the Life in Vogue." The third of these letters describes the death-bed of " the gay, young, noble, in"genious, accomplished, and most wretched Alta"mont," whom report supposed to be Lord Euston. But whether Altamont or Lorenzo were real or fictitious characters, it is certain the author could be at no loss for models for them among the gay nobility, with whom he was acquainted.

In 1759, appeared his lively "Conjectures on Ori"ginal Composition;" which, according to Mr.

Croft, appear CC more like the production of untamed "unbridled youth, than of jaded fourscore." This letter contains the pleasing account of the death of Addison, and his dying address to Lord Warwick.— "See how a Christian can die!"

In 1762, but little before his death, Young published his last, and one of his least esteemed poems, "Resignation," which was written on the following occasion :-Observing that Mrs. Boscawen, in the midst of her grief for the loss of the admiral, derived consolation from a perusal of the Night Thoughts, her friend, Mrs. Montague, proposed a visit to the author, by whom they were favourably received; and were pleased to confess that his "unbounded genius ap"peared to greater advantage in the companion than 66 even in the author; that the Christian was in him 66 a character still more inspired, more enraptured, "more sublime than the poet, and that, in his ordi"nary conversation,

"Letting down the golden chain from high, "He drew his audience upward to the sky."

On this occasion, at the request of these ladies, the author produced his Resignation, above mentioned, and which has been so unmercifully treated by the critics; but it has, in some measure, been rescued from their hands by Dr. Johnson, who says, "It was "falsely represented as a proof of decayed faculties. "There is Young in every stanza, such as he often was in his highest vigour."

We now approach the closing scene of our author's life, of which, unhappily, we have few particulars. For three or four years before his death, he appears to have been incapaciated, by the infirmities of age, for public duty; yet he perfectly enjoyed his intellects to the last, and even his vivacity; for in his last illness, a friend mentioning the recent decease of a person who had long been in a decline, and observing, "that he was quite worn to a shell before he died;" "Very likely,” replied the doctor; "but what is become of the kernel ?"—He is said to have regretted to another friend, that his Night Thoughts, of all his works most calculated to do good, were written so

much above the understanding of common readers, as to contract their sphere of usefulness: This, however, ought not, perhaps, to be regretted, since there is a great sufficiency of good books for common readers, and the style of that work will always introduce it where plainer compositions would not be read.

He died at the Parsonage House, at Welwyn, April 12, 1765, and was buried, according to his desire, by the side of his lady, under the altar-piece of that church; which is said to be ornamented in a singular manner with an elegant piece of needle-work by Lady Young, and some appropriate inscriptions, painted by the direction of the doctor.

His best monument is to be found in his works; but a less durable one, in marble, was erected by his only son and heir, with a very modest and sensible inscription. This son, Mr. Frederick Young, had the first part of his education at Winchester school, and, becoming a scholar upon the foundation, was sent, in consequence thereof, to New College, in Oxford; but there being no vacancy (though the society waited for one no less than two years) he was admitted in