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Either Warton, then, dedicated his book to a patron who difapproved its doctrine; or Young, in his old age, bartered for a dedication an opinion entertained of his friend through all that part of life when he could beft form opinions.

From this account of Young, two or three fhort paffages, which ftand almost together in Night Four, fhould not be excluded. They afford a picture, by his own hand; from the ftudy of which my readers may choose to form their own opinion of the features of his mind, and the complexion of his life.

Ah me! the dire effect

Of loitering here, of death defrauded long; . "Of old fo gracious (and let that fuffice),

My very mafier knows me not.

I've been fo long remember'd, I'm forgot.

When in his courtier's ears I pour my plaint,
They drink it as the Nectar of the Great ;
And fqueeze my hand, and beg me come to-

morrow.

Twice-told the period spent on ftubborn Troy, Court-favour, yet untaken, I'befiege.

If this fong lives, Posterity fhall know,
One, though in Britain born, with courtiers bred,
Who thought ev'n gold might.come a day too
late;

Nor on his fubtle death-bed plann'd his scheme
For future vacancies in church or state.

By thefe extraordinary Poems, written after he was fixty, of which I have

been

been led to fay fo much, I hope, by the wifh of doing juftice to the living and the dead, it was the defire of Young to 'be principally known. He entitled the four volumes which he publifhed himfelf, The Works of the Author of the Night Thoughts. While it is remembered that from thefe he excluded many of his writings, let it not be forgotten that the rejected pieces contained nothing prejudicial to the caufe of virtue, or of religion. Were every thing that Young ever wrote to be published, he would only appear perhaps in a lefs refpectable light as a poet, and more defpicable as a dedicator: he would not pafs for a worse chriftian, or for a worse man. His dedications, after all, he had no right to

fup

fupprefs. They all, I believe, speak, not a little to the credit of his gratitude, of favours received; and I know not whether the author, who has once folemnly printed an acknowledgement of a favour, fhould not always print it.

Is it to the credit or to the difcredit of Young, as a poet, that of his Night Thoughts the French are particularly fond?

Of the Epitaph on Lord Aubrey Beauclerk, dated 1740, all I know is, that I find it in this Body of English Poetry, and that I am forry to find it there.

Notwithstanding the farewell which he feemed to have taken in the Night Thoughts of every thing which bore the leaft refemblance to ambition, he dipped again

F

again in politics. In 1745 he wrote Re flections on the publick Situation of the Kingdom, addreffed to the Duke of Newcastle-impatient, as it appears, to be

hold

A pope-bred Princeling crawl afhore, And whistle cut-throats, with thofe fwords that fcrap'd

Their barren rocks for wretched fufte

nance,

To cut his paffage to the British throne. This political poem might be called a Night Thought. Indeed it was originally printed as the conclufion of the Night Thoughts, though he did not gather it

with his other works.

Prefixed to the fecond edition of Howe's Devout Mcditations is a Letter from Young, dated January 19,

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