the club, and the great variety of interefting and judicious questions, propofed as fubjects of their deliberation and difcuffion, in all which he had a principal fhare, will long continue to do honour to his memory.

This fociety, of which Wilkie may be confidered as the founder, was conducted, for many years, with great spirit and fuccefs. Its records, according to the information of Mr. Robertson, contain differtations on many practical fubjects in agriculture, of much merit. The name of the celebrated Dr. Cullen appears in the lift of the members.

While he refided at Ratho, he had much intercourse with the Lauderdale family, and was, at all times, a welcome vifitant at Hatton. His noble patron was fond of his conversation, and often engaged him in disputation; and, perhaps, he never met with an antagonist who afforded him greater scope for the exertion of all his powers. Through life, he retained the strongest attachment to the Earl of Lauderdale, and valued him more for his good understanding, his great knowledge of mem and manners, and his uncommon humanity, than for his high rank. His fentiments, with refpe& to the Earl, were well known to all his acquaintances; for there was nothing more common than his retailing his Lordship's maxims and opinions in every company and conversation.

In 1757, he published at Edinburgh The Epigoniad, a Poem, in Nine Books, 12mo, the result of fourteen years study and application, and claimed the honours of an epic poet. His claim, however, to this distinction was not generally allowed. His work was applauded by a few men of tafte and learning, but was coldly received by the public, and cenfured, with great severity, by the writers of periodical criticism, on account of a few mistakes in expreffion and profody, excufable in a Scottish poet, who had never been out of his own country. The title, it must be confessed, was somewhat unfortunately chofen; for as the story of the Epigoni was known only to a very few of the learned, the public were not able to conjecture what could be the subject of the poem, and were apt to neglect what it was impoffible to understand. The Preface contained some judicious and fpirited remarks on the beauties and defects of epic poetry, but afforded little information concerning the subject of the poem. There was no general plan prefixed to the whole, nor argument, as might be expected, at the head of each book. It was infcribed, in the manner of Camoens and Taffo, to Archibald Duke of Argyll, a nobleman, who, by patronizing the arts and sciences, rivalled the glory of his elder brother Duke John, whose political and military talents made him to be deservedly esteemed one of the first statesmen and heroes of his time.

Argyll, the ftate's whole thunder born to wield,

And fhake alike the fenate and the field.

POPE.

In 1759, he published a fecond edition of The Epigoniad, e. by William Wilkie, V. D. M. Carefully corrected and improved. To which is added, a Dream, in the manner of Spenser, 12mo. In this edition, all or moft of the Scoticifms, and other trivial miftakes in the first edition, were correct. ed. A paffage alfo in the Preface, containing a rafh cenfure of " the quaintnefs of Mr. Pope's expression, in his tranflation of the "Iliad” and “ Odyffey," as not at all fuitable either to the an tiquity or majestic gravity of his author," was very properly omitted. Mr. Hume gives the following account of its reception in London, in a letter to Dr. Smith, dated April 12. 1759: "The Epigoniad, I hope, will do, but it is fomewhat up-hill work. You will fee in the "Critical Review," a letter upon that poem, and I defire you to employ your conjectures in finding out the author." The letter in the "Critical Review," was written by Mr. Hume, to recommend The Epigoniad to the public," as one of the ornaments of our language." The fuccess was not answerable to his expectations. Too antique to please the unlettered reader, and too modern for the scholar, it was neglected by both, read by few, and foon forgotten by all.

. Soon after his coming to Ratho, he was feized with an unformed ague, from which he was never perfectly relieved during the rest of his life. For this complaint, he thought an extraordinary perfpiration was neceffary. He flept with an immoderate quantity of bed-clothes, and fweated fo much, that it was though: to have had an effect in relaxing his conftitution. The blankets under which he flept became a wonder to the country; ftories are told of twenty-four pair of blankets being above him: And this may have been the cafe when he was not in his own bed; but, in ge neral, his covering was much lighter.

The fuppofed unhealthinefs of the man!e of Ratho gave him the firft inclination to change his fis tuation, and the profefforship of Natural Philofophy in the University of St. Andrew's becoming vacant in May 1759, by the death of Mr. David Young, he became a candidate for that office. Several candidates appeared, and Wilkie was not then acquainted with one member in the Univerfity As it happened to be the time of the meeting of the General Affembly, he was introduced to fuch of them as were then at Edinburgh, and found avenues of application to them all; but Dr. Wation was the only member who difcerned his merit, and effectually promoted his interest; for, when the day of election came (July 1759), the other profeffors had attached themselves, in equal numbers, to two other candidates; and when neither party could, by any influence, alter Dr, Warfon, one of the parties joined him, and gave the election in favour of Wilkie.

When he left Ratho, he was worth about 2001. from the fale of the flock upon his farm, and úvings from his flipend. With this money he purchased fome acres of land in the neighbourhood of St Andrew's. He enclosed and cultivated his little fields with fuch judgment and fuccefs, as excited the atton shment, commanded the imitation, and promoted the improvement of the country found him, and contributed, in a high degree, to his own emolument. He gradually extended his purchase, his improvements, and his profits, and is fuppofed to have acquired a property in land worth gece I., and has, in his fo rapid accumulation, left an equally eminent example of ability and economy.

As a teacher of natural philosophy, his usual merit did not forfake him. Natural philosophy, he faid himfe:f, was his forte Though, by an univerfal genius, he fhone in this department of fcirece, yet his friends generally imagined that languages, logic, metaphyfics, or moral philofophy, would have been more fuitable to his taste and inclinations.

In 1768, he published his Fables, 8vo. They are fixteen in number, and a frontispiece, defigned by Wale, is prefixed to each fable. Previous to the publication of his Fables, the University of t. Andrew's conferred upon him the degree of Doctor in Divinity.

From this time nothing of importance occurred in the life of Wilkie. He is faid to have broke of connection with Mr. Hume and Dr. Robertson, some time before his death.

After a lingering indifpofition, he died at 6t. Andrew's, October 10th 1772, in the 51st year of his age. His two fifters, to whom he left his property, are ftill living at St. Andrew's. He left his MSS to the care of Mr. Lift n, who has not published any of his literary remains.

No edition of his Epigeniad or Fables has been called for fince his death. They are now, reprinted from the edition 1759 and 1768, for the first time, received into collection of claffical English

poetry.

In 1768, when the prefent writer was at Lanark school, his admiration of Wilkie induced him to transcribe from a manufcri; t in the Earl of Hyndford's library at Carmichael-house, a poem, intituled, Whitton, a defcriptive poem, with notes, infcribed to the Duke of Argyll, by W. W." fuppofed to mean William Wilkie; but he has not ventured to give it to Wilkic upon fuppofi❤ tion.

Of his character, private habits, domeftic manners, and opinions, curiofity will require more ample information than is to be found in the following notices, which the diligence of Profeffor Dalzel has collected, and the zeal and veneration of Mr. Robertson, Mr. Lifton, Dr. Thomson, and Dr. Robertfon have fupplied.

*He was always," fays a paper, communicated by an ingenious but not literary friend of Wilkie, to Profeffor Dalzel, “fond of being in the company of old men and old women, from the 8th year of his age; and they always liked him, as he delighted in their converfation; and he rapt out fomething new, whatever was the subject. He had read the ancient philofophers and poets very early. Hefiod was a favourite poet of his, and he very often quoted him to persons who knew nothing about him. His converfation was most original and ingenious. It had a mixture of knowledge, acuteness and fingularity, which rendered it peculiarly delightful; and every person who spent an hour with him, carried away fomething which he was glad to repeat. He had a firm faith in the truth of the Chriftian religion. He employed a confiderable portion of his time in reading the

Scriptures, and he kept up the worship of God regularly in his family. While he was a parish minifter, he was acceptable to his people; and, in every situation of his life, he was kind to persons in distress, and very liberal in his private charity. His temper was hafty, but void of malice or four. nefs; and he was always cheerful. He was fond of agriculture, and remarkable for his knowledge of the different branches of it. The people in the neighbourhood of St. Andrew's acknowledge to this day, that they have derived many useful leffons from Dr. Wilkie's management of his farm." "In his public capacity as a preacher," fays Mr. Robertson, “he was rather original and ingenious than eloquent; and, though he never pursued the ordinary acts of popularity, never failed to fix the attention of his audience. The peculiarity, variety, and even eccentricity of his fentiments or reasoning, invariably procured him approbation. In his public character, he observed a thousand oddities and inattentions. He generally preached with his hat on his head, and often forgot to pronounce the blefling after public fervice. Once 1 faw him difpenfe the facrament without confe. crating the elements. On being told, he made a public apology, confecrated, and ferved the second table; after which, he went to the pulpit to fuperintend the service, forgetting to communicate himself, till informed of the omiffion by his elders. In his dress, he was uncommonly negligent and slovenly, and, in his whole manner of life, totally inattentive to all those little formalities on which the generality of mankind are apt to value themselves. He was immoderately addicted to the use of tobacco, particularly chewing, in which he went to fuch extreme excess, that it was thought, by all his acquaintance, highly prejudicial to his health, and perhaps a cause of his premature death. He was fond of medical aid, but always disputed, and often rejected the prescriptions of doctors: Hence was thought whimfical, both in his compliments, and in his management of them. He flept with an immoderate quantity of bed-clothes. One day he visited a farmer in the neighbourhood, a relation of his own; when prevailed on to stay all night, he begged he might have plenty of bed-clothes. His female friends in the family collected and put on his bed 24 pair of blankets. When asked, next morning, if he had plenty of bed-clothes, he answered, he had just enough, and had slept well. He abhorred nothing fo much as clean sheets, and whenever he met with fuch, he wrapt them up, threw them afide, and flept in the blankets. One evening, at Hatton, being asked by Lady Lauderdale to stay all night, he expreffed an attachment to his own bed, but said, if her ladyship would give him a pair of foul sheets, he would stay."

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"Hard circumstances," fays Dr. Robertson, " oppressed Wilkie for the greater part of his life, and produced that strong attention to money-matters, with which he has been reproached by those who could not explain it. It proceeded, in fact, from a singular love of independence, the paffion of a ftately mind. He fhuddered at the thought of coming under the power of any man, and could hardly think of walking the streets, left any perfon, to whom he was indebted, should meet him. When his father died, he had to borrow the money that was to bury him. He went to an uncle for Iol. and was refused. These events could but ill fit upon bis mind. After he came to better days, "I have often heard him say," says Mr. Liston, " I have shaken hands with poverty up to the very elbow, and I wish never to fee her face again." Hence a parfimony to the extreme. Yet, in wealth, would we brand him with the love of money for its own fake. Another paffion came in: He loved his relations; and it was his common maxim, that no man should ever break with his kindred. He was not long minifter of Ratho, till he apprehended his life would be short: He had two fifters that he feared would be left deftitute, immediately upon his death. Apprehensive on their account, he always lived plain, heaped up every penny, and at last died worth two or three thousand pounds; not so much acquired by savings, however, as by a rapid profit from his own favourite act of agriculture, in the perfect skill of which no man excelled him. At the fame time, after the short period that he became possessed of money, his friends could fee that he could part with it. It was his cuftom to pay the bill, even when travelling with several of his relations that could afford their fhare. After he fettled at St. Andrew's, his private charities were not lefs than 201. a year. Born for intense thought; for total absence of mind upon ordinary matters; plunged in poverty in early life, without a domestic about his person, and even without the means of any elegance whatever, he naturally became flovenly, dirty, and even naufeous. Ho

thewed tobacco to excefs, and at last made himself believe, that it was good for his health. It feems, on all hands agreed, that no mortal was equal to him in conversation and argument. His own explanation of it was, that he took the right fide, while his antagonists took the wrong, to dilplay their ingenuity and learning. I have heard the late Dr. Wallace, author of the "Differtation on the Numbers of Mankind," say, nobody could venture to cope with him. His knowledge, in almost all things, was deep, folid, and unanswerable. His reafoning was plain to a child. In fhrewdnels, he had no rival. Both his manner and thoughts were mafculine, in a degree peculiar to himself. Dr. Smith fays, it was an observation of the late Lord Elibank, that wherever Wilkie's name happened to be mentioned in a company, learned or unlearned, it was not foon dropped: Every body had much to say. In fhort, he was a great and an odd man. His character, I will venture to fay, will never be successfully written, but by a great hand; and even, when written, the theory of the man is above common comprehenfion."

"With regard to Wilkie's faith in Chriftianity," fays Dr. Thomson, "I know, that he said prayers in his family every evening, after he had laid aside the character of a divine, and grace at table, with his eyes shut, and his hands folded together, in a posture of fupplication, and with every mark of the greatest fervour. He would sometimes prolong his graces, at the College-table, beyond the bounds that the keen appetites of the hungry ftudents would have prescribed to it. Even in thefe short prayers there was often fome thought not more devout than pleasing and ingenious. For example: " O Lord! thou art the author of all our wants, and thou suppliest them, from the inexhaufted flores of thy bounty." He appeared to be a firm believer in God. The exiftence of a deity he confidered as the fimpleft, and, therefore, the most rational method of folving the phenomena of the universe. This was agreeable to the Newtonian Syftem, which supposes a vacuum and liberty of action; and that a voluntary fiat of God launched forth the heavenly orbs with that degrree of impulic or momentum precifely, which correfponded with centripetal force, and which would not carry them beyond their orbits. The moral doctrines of Chriftianity, the divine character of Jefus Chrift, he held in the most profound veneration. That facred perfon he undoubtedly considered as an angel fent from God, to enlighten and to blefs the world. Whether he believed in the neceffity of an atonement (a doctrine which, as Dr. Smith obferves in his "Theory of Moral Sentiments," is so confiftent with the natural fentiments of mankind), and the other peculiar doctrines of the Chriftian religion, I cannot, with certainty, affirm. He fometimes lamented, that he doubted. But whether this doubt settled into scepticism, or that reason, and an imagination, sensible in the highest degree, to the ravishing prospects held out in the gospel, triumphed over doubt, and confirmed his wavering mind in the Chriftian faith, I know not. He would often exclaim to his moft intimate friends: "O! if I could firmly believe all the doctrines of Christianity, how vain and inLipid every enjoyment and every pursuit in this world would appear!"

"It was remarkable,” says Profeffor Dalzel," that Wilkie, with all his learning, could neither read nor fpell. I myself was witness to his ignorance of the art of reading. When I was very young man, refiding at Hatton, Wilkie came from St. Andrew's, on a visit to Lord Lauderdale. He ftaid a few days, and all the perfonal knowledge I had of Wilkie was acquired during that time. "The Judgment of Paris," a poem by Dr. Beattie, was brought to Hatton one of those days, as a new publication. Wilkie asked me to retire with him, that we might read and criticise the poem together. At first, when he began to read, I imagined he did not understand the verses at all, as he furely committed the faddeft havoc, in point of quantity and pronunciation, that can well be imagined, and even mifcalled several of the words: And yet his criticisms were so just, and so happily expreffed, that I was charmed with the elegance of his tafte, and the propriety of his obfervations."

As a poet, his compofitions are not lefs distinguished by imagination and judgment, than his manners were remarkable for eccentricity and originality. In both, we are pleased to find that feeling difpofition which characterises the good man, and the ingenious, fublime and moral poet. His Epigoniad, if he had written nothing elfe, is fufficient to entitle him to an honourable tank among the poets of our nation, with whom he is now affociated. It is a legitimate epic poem, of

the fare fpecies of compofition with the " Iliad" and the " Æneid,” which is universally allowed to be, of all poetical works, the moft dignified, and, at the fame time, the most difficult in execution. "To contrive a story," says Dr. Blair, in his excellent "Lectures," "which shall please and interest all readers, by being at once entertaining, important, and inftructive, to fill it with fuitable incidents, to enliven it with a variety of characters and of defcriptions, and, throughout a long work, to maintain that propriety of fentiment, and that elevation of style, which the epic character requires, is unquestionably the highest effort of poetical genius."

What talents are neceffary to fo arduous an attempt! What vigour of imagination, extent of knowledge, folidity of understanding, and powers of language! In order to judge whether Wilkie has fucceeded in this exalted fpecies of writing, or not, an appeal should be made, not so much to the abstracted rules of criticism, as to the taste and feeling of the sympathetic and judicious reader : For it is fentiment only that can judge of fentiment. When the heart of the reader remains cold and unaffected, the most elaborate performance is defended, in vain, by all the art of the most expert rhetorician; and, on the contrary, where nature is difplayed in juft colours, and the imagination astonished by scenes of terror, or expanded by fuch as are fublime, a fatisfaction is enjoyed, which is but little marred by a deviation from unity of time, place, or action.

In forming an estimate of the epic poem of Wilkie, we are to confider what degree of importance there is in his moral, and what of artifice in his fable; what kind of manners and characters he has exhibited, and if his characters are properly supported by their fentiments and actions. Are his digreffions natural? Are his views fublime? Is his imagery beautiful, and his diction varied with his varying subject?

It would extend this narrative to an undue length, to examine the Epigoniad, with respect to each of these heads, particularly. We fhall, therefore, content ourselves with briefly running over the moral, and giving a fhort analysis of the fable, occafionally obferving on other particulars, as we go along, and collecting a few fpecimens of those great beauties in which it abounds.

As the end or moral of the "Paradise Loft" is to fhow the bitter fruits that spring from difobedience to the laws of God; and as the end or moral of the "Iliad" is to display the fatal effects of furious and deep refentment and difcord, so the moral of the Epigoniad teaches the dire disasters that flow from the paffion of love. This leffon is inculcated by a story interwoven with primeval manners, and with Grecian mythology. The first of these circumstances is rather an advantage than a difadvantage, as we are acquainted with the manners defcribed, not only from the writings of Homer, but alfo from thofe of Mofes, and as they diffuse over the poem an air of ve nerable fimplicity: The fecond could not, be avoided, it being an article in the Grecian creed, that the gods often interpofe vifibly and bodily in human affairs: nor is the incredibility of mythology so great a difadvantage in poetry, as may be imagined: For, first, as there is a degree of belief that attends the vivid perception of every object, the beautiful and confiftent tales that are told by the poets, of the gods and other fuperior beings, gain a temporary credit; and this is fufficient for the purpofe of the poet. Secondly, The heathen mythology operates on our minds, with the more facility that it has been impreffed on our minds in our youth. We are acquainted with the different characters of the gods and goddeffes; we know, beforehand, what part they are likely to act on particular occafions, and are pleafed when we find the poet fupporting, with pro priety, the character of each. A like obfervation may be extended to the heroes and other famous perfonages of antiquity. We are acquainted, as it were, with their perfons; we are interested in their fortunes, and, therefore, we are infinitely more affected by fcenes in which they appear as actors, than we would be by fcenes in which a poet fhould introduce perfons and fictions with which we are wholly unacquainted. Boileau, the greateft critic of the French nation, was of this opinion;

"La fable offre a l' efprit mille agréments divers,
Là tous les noms heureux femblent néz pour les vers.
Ulyffe, Agamemnon, Orefte, Idomeneé,

Helene, Menelas, Paris, Hector, Encé.",