out much cenfure from those whom he :

forfook, and was received by the new miniftry as a valuable reinforcement. When the earl of Oxford was told that Dr. Parnell waited among the croud in the outer room, he went, by the perfuafion of Swift, with his treasurer's staff in his hand, to enquire for him, and to bid him welcome; and, as may be inferred from Pope's dedication, admitted him as a favourite companion to his convivial hours, but, as it seems often to have happened in thofe times to the favourites of the great, without attention to his fortune, which indeed was in no, great need of improvement.

Parnell, who did not want ambition, or vanity, was defirous to make himfelf:

confpi

confpicuous, and to fhew how worthy he was of high preferment, as he thought himself qualified to become a popular preacher, he difplayed his elocution with great fuccefs in the pulpits of London; but the Queen's death putting an end to his expectations, abated his diligence and Pope reprefents him as falling from that time into intemperance of wine. That in his latter life he was too much a lover of the bottle is not denied; but I have heard it imputed to a caufe more likely to obtain forgive nefs from mankind, the untimely death of a darling fon; or, as others tell, the lofs of his wife, who died (1712) in the midft of his expectations.

He

He was now to derive every future addition to his preferments from his per. fonal intereft with his private friends, and he was not long unregarded. He was warmly recommended by Swift to archbishop King, who gave him a prebend in 1713; and in May 1716 prefented him to the vicarage of Finglas in the diocefe of Dublin, worth four hundred pounds a year. Such notice from fuch a man, inclines me to believe that the vice of which he has been accufed was not grofs, or not notorious.

But his profperity did not laft long. His end, whatever was its caufe, was now approaching. He enjoyed his pre

ferment

dant natures, that an attempt to bring them together is to couple the ferpent with the fowl. When Dyer, whofe mind was not unpoetical, has done his utmost, by interesting his reader in our native commodity, by interfperfing rural imagery, and incidental digreffions, by cloathing fmall images in great words, and by all the writer's arts of delufion, the meannefs naturally adhering, and the irreve rence habitually annexed to trade and manufacture, fink him under infuperable oppreffion; and the disgust which blank verfe, encumbering and encumbered, fuperadds to an unpleafing fubject, foon repels the reader, however willing to be pleased.

Let

Let me however honeftly report whatever may counterbalance this weight of cenfure. I have been told that Akenfide, who, upon a poetical question, has a right to be heard, faid, " That he would "regulate his opinion of the reigning "tafte 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."