Sweet soother of my mis'ry, say, From thee the boon which Nature meant Perchance, unconscious of thy fate, Then how relentless he, And fit for every foul offence, Who could bereave such innocence Of life's best blessing, Liberty! Who lur'd thee, guileful, to his treacherous snare, To live a tuneful slave, and dissipate his care! But why for thee this fond complaint? Art thou not free?-Yes: calm Content With hooked bill and griping claw, Shall ne'er thy destiny contrive; And every tabby foe shall mew in vain, While pensively demure she hears thy melting strain. Nor shall the fiend, fell Famine, dare Thy wiry tenement assail; These, these shall be my constant care, A garland rich thy dwelling shall entwine, thine! From drear Oblivion's gloomy cave The powerful Muse shall wrest thy name, And bid thee live beyond the grave This meed she knows thy merits claim; She knows thy liberal heart Is ever ready to dispense And melody's soft aid impart; Is ready still to prompt the magic lay, Which hushes all our griefs, and charms our pains away. Erewhile when, brooding o'er my soul, Frown'd the black demons of despair, Did not thy voice that pow'r control, And when the weeping wretch I find, JOHN LANGHORNE. BORN 1735.-DIED 1779. JOHN LANGHORNE was the son of a beneficed clergyman in Lincolnshire. He was born at Kirkby Steven, in Westmoreland. His father dying when he was only four years old, the charge of giving him his earliest instruction devolved upon his mother, and she fulfilled the task with so much tenderness and care, as to leave an indelible impression of gratitude upon his memory. He recorded the virtues of this parent on her tomb, as well as in an affectionate monody. Having finished his classical education at the school of Appleby, in his eighteenth year, he engaged himself as private tutor in a family near Rippon. His next employment was that of assistant to the free school of Wakefield. While in that situation he took deacon's orders; and, though he was still very young, gave indications of popular attrac tion as a preacher. He soon afterwards went as preceptor into the family of Mr. Cracroft, of Hackthorn, where he remained for a couple of years, and during that time entered his name at Clare-hall, Cambridge, though he never resided at his college, and consequently never obtained any degree. He had at Hackthorn a numerous charge of pupils, and as he has not been accused of neglecting them, his time must have been pretty well occupied in tuition ; but he found leisure enough to write and publish a great many pieces of verse, and to devote so much of his attention to a fair daughter of the family, Miss Anne Cracroft, as to obtain the young lady's partiality, and ultimately her hand. He had given her some instructions in the Italian, and probably trusting that she was sufficiently a convert to the sentiment of that language, which pronounces that "all time "is lost which is not spent in love," he proposed immediate marriage to her. She had the prudence, however, though secretly attached to him, to give him a firm refusal for the present; and our poet, struck with despondency at the disappointment, felt it necessary to quit the scene, and accepted of a curacy in the parish of Dagenham. The cares of love, it appeared, had no bad effect on his diligence as an author. He allayed his despair by an apposite ode to Hope; and continued to pour out numerous productions in verse and prose, with that florid facility which always distinguished his pen. Among these, his "Letters of Theodosius and Constantia❞ made him, perhaps, best known as a prose writer. His "Letters on Religious Retirement" were dedicated to Bishop Warburton, who returned him a most encouraging letter on his just sentiments in matters of religion; and, what was coming nearer to the author's purpose, took an interest in his worldly concerns. He was much less fortunate in addressing a poem, entitled "The Viceroy," to the Earl of Halifax, who was then lord-lieutenant of Ireland. This heartless piece of adulation was written with the view of obtaining his lordship's patronage; but the viceroy was either too busy, or too insensible to praise, to take any notice of Langhorne. In his poetry of this period, we find his "Visions of Faney;" his first part of the "Enlargement of the Mind;" and his pastoral " Valour and Genius," written in answer to Churchill's "Prophecy of Famine." In consequence of the gratitude of the Scotch for this last poem, he was presented with the diploma of doctor in divinity by the university of Edinburgh. His profession and religious writings gave an appearance of propriety to this compliment, which otherwise would not have been discoverable, from any striking connexion of ideas, between a doctorship of divinity and an eclogue on Valour and Genius. He came to reside permanently in London in 1764, having obtained the curacy and lectureship of St. John's, Clerkenwell. Being soon afterwards called to be assistant preacher at Lincoln's-inn Chapel, he had there to preach before an audience, which comprehended a much greater number of learned and |