short time, both understand and speak it. The earl made no reply to this observation; but Rowe, probably expecting to be employed in some important mission, retired from society for some weeks, at the end of which he again appeared before Lord Oxford with a knowledge of Spanish added to his former attainments. Upon his communicating his proficiency to the treasurer, says Pope, who relates the anecdote, his lordship inquired, "Are you sure you understand it perfectly?" and being answered in the affirmative, he added, "How happy are you, Mr. Rowe, that you can have the pleasure of reading and understanding The History of Don Quixote in the original!" On the accession of George the First, however, he succeeded Nahum Tate as poet laureat, and likewise became one of the land surveyors of the customs in the port of London, clerk of the closet to the Prince of Wales, and secretary of presentations under the lord chancellor, Parker. He held these situations until his death, which occurred on the 6th of December, 1718. He was buried in the Poet's Corner, in Westminster Abbey, where a superb monument was erected to his memory by his widow. He had been twice married to women of good family, and left a son by his first and a daughter by his second wife.

In his person, he is described as having been a handsome, genteel man, with a mind as amiable as his person; though Addison declares him to have been heartless and insincere. He was highly esteemed by Pope, who, speaking of Rowe, in a letter to a friend, says, "there is a vivacity and gaiety of disposition almost peculiar to him, which makes it impossible to part from him without that uneasiness which generally succeeds all our pleasure." His vanity is strongly illustrated in the following incident:-Dr. Garth, who used frequently to go to the wits' coffee house,

the Cocoa Tree, in St. James's Street, was sitting there, one morning, conversing with two persons of rank, when Rowe, the poet, who was seldom very attentive to his dress and appearance, but still insufferably vain of being noticed by persons of consequence, entered. Placing himself in a box nearly opposite to that in which the doctor sat, he looked constantly round with a view of catching his eye; but not succeeding, he desired the waiter to ask him for his snuff-box, which he knew to be a valuable one, set with diamonds, and the present of some foreign prince. After taking a pinch he returned the box, but asked for it again so repeatedly, that Garth, who knew him well, perceived the drift, and taking from his pocket a pencil, marked on the lid the two Greek characters, phi, rho. (Fie, Rowe!) The poet was so mortified that he quitted the room immediately.

His powers of elocution would seem to have been considerable, for it was affirmed, by Mrs. Oldfield, that the best school she had ever known, was hearing Rowe read her part in his tragedies. As a tragic poet, he seldom attempts to analyze the passions, and draws his characters with little discrimination; but his scenes, if not stirring, are always pleasing, and seldom offend with their unreasonableness, if they do not strike with their novelty. The only character in which he strongly moves or affects his audience is in Jane Shore, who, says Johnson, is always seen and heard with pity. As an original poet, Rowe does not take a very high rank, but his translation of Lucan's Pharsalia, published after his death, is considered, by the authority just mentioned, as one of the greatest productions of English poetry. He also gave translations of the first book of Quillet's Callipædia, and of the golden verses of Pythagoras. An edition of his works appeared, in three volumes, duodecimo, ín 1719.

of the legal profession. In 1698, he married the daughter of Sir Francis Child, an alderman of London; after which event, he devoted his principal attention to the cultivation of literary connections and to freedom of inquiry. In 1700, he published a tract, entitled, Several of the London Cases considered; and three years after the death of Locke, who seems to have conceived a warm friendship for him, appeared his Essay concerning the Use of Reason in Propositions, the Evidence whereof depends upon Human Testimony. This work contains many valuable and just observations; but the reader will easily perceive in it the seeds of that prejudice against revelation, which is more fully developed in the author's subsequent writings. In the same year, (1707,) he took part in the controversy between Mr. Dodwell and Mr. (afterwards Doctor) Samuel Clarke, concerning the natural immortality of the soul; against which he argued in five pamphlets, published anonymously, as had also been his preceding works. In 1709, he produced a pamphlet, entitled, Priestcraft in Perfection, or a Detection of the Fraud of Inserting and Continuing that ClauseThe Church hath Power to Decree Rights and Ceremonies, and Authority in Controversies of Faith, in the Twentieth Article of the Church of England. Collins contended that this clause formed no part of the Articles as established by the act in the thirteenth of Elizabeth; upon which a controversy ensued that gave further employment to his pen, which he wielded with a dexterity at least equal to that of his adversaries, whom he did not finally answer until 1724.

In 1710, he published A Vindication of the Divine Attributes, in some Remarks on the Archbishop of Dublin's Sermon, which was entitled, Divine Predestination and Foreknowledge consistent with the Freedom of Man's Will. In 1711, he went to Holland, where he became acquainted with Le Clerc; in 1713, he repeated his visit, and in that year_published his Discourse on Free Thinking; the professed object of which was to expose the tyranny exercised by the abettors of pries:craft, whether under paganism, popery, or any other corrupt form of

religion. Had he confined himself to this, the work would have been, perhaps, as ingenuous as it is abie; but a covert attack was discoverable in it upon revealed religion, in defence of which several able writers entered the lists against him, among whom were Whiston, Swift, Hoadley, and Bentley.

In 1715, our author retired into Essex, where he acted as a justice of the peace, and deputy-lieutenant of the county, as he had before done in Middlesex and Westminster. In the same year, he published A Philosophical Inquiry concerning Human Liberty, which was translated into French, and published at Amsterdam, in a collection, by Des Maizeaux. It contains one of the best illustrations that have appeared of the doctrine of philosophical necessity; but the author declined replying to some remarks made upon it by Dr. Clarke, considering himself to be precluded from fair discussion, on equal terms, by insinuations contained in the Remarks on the dangerous nature of his opinions, and on the impropriety of their being insisted upon. In 1718, Mr. Collins was chosen treasurer of the county of Essex; and, in 1724, having been some time a widower, he married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Wrottesley. In the same year, appeared his Discourse on the Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Religion, in two parts; the design of which was to show that the prophecies cited in the New Testament from the Old, formed no proof of Christianity according to the rules of reason. In this work great art and address are manifest; but the author, having proceeded on inadmissible assumptions, and displayed more sophistry than argument, soon found in array against him a host of learned and ingenious writers. Among the most distinguished of his opponents were Drs. Clarke, Sherlock, and Sykes, Chandler, Bishop of Lichfield, and Mr. Whiston, who declared Collins "guilty of gross immorality, impious fraud, and lay. craft." In 1727, he was attacked by the same opponents on the publication of his Scheme of Literal Prophecy considered; a work having in view the same object as the former. One of his answerers, on this occasion, was Dr. John Rogers, who roused his indigna

tion by urging the propriety of his becoming a confessor for his cause, and induced Collins to advocate anew the freedom of inquiry, in A Letter to Dr. Rogers, the last of our author's productions, all of which, it should be observed, were published anonymously. He died of a violent fit of the stone, on the 13th of December, 1729, and was interred in Oxford Chapel.

The moral character of Mr. Collins has been disputed by none, and even his most bitter adversaries give him credit for temperance, humanity, and benevolence. As a magistrate, he was active, upright, and impartial, and highly estimable in all the relations of social and domestic life. As an excuse for his opposition to revealed religion, it was said of him, by a writer in the Bibliotheque Raisonnée, that the corruption among Christians, and the persecuting spirit of the clergy, had given him a prejudice against the Christian religion, and at last induced

him to think that, upon its present footing, it was pernicious to mankind. There is, however, no ground for supposing him to have been an Atheist; his dying declaration being, "that as he had always endeavoured, to the best of his abilities, to serve God, his king, and his country, so he was persuaded he was going to that place which God hath prepared for them that love Him;" and presently afterwards he added, "the catholic religion is to love God and man." Whatever may have been his abilities as a writer, he was detected in so many instances of false quotations, and other unfair modes of controversy, that he must ever be recorded as one of the most flagrant instances of literary disingenuousness.

It is told of Collins, that the first Lord Barrington asking him why, with his notions of religion, he was so particular in sending his servants to church, he replied, "I do it to prevent my being robbed and murdered by them.".

EDWARD YOUNG, the son of a clergyman, was born at the rectory-house of his father, Upham, near Winchester, in June, 1681, though some fix his birth in 1679. He received the first part of his education at the school at Winchester, where he remained until his nineteenth year, and in 1703, he was entered an independent member of New College, Oxford. He subsequently removed to Corpus College; and, in 1708, he was nominated by Archbishop Tennison to a fellowship of All-Souls, where he graduated B. C. L. in 1714, and, in 1719, D. C. L. Both as a poet and a scholar he had already distinguished himself at the university; but the morality of his conduct during the early part of his residence at college, more than one writer denies.

His

zeal, however, in the cause of religion, appears, upon the authority of Tindal, with whom he used to spend much of his time, to have been early roused. "The other boys," says this Deist, or Atheist, "I can always answer, because I always know whence they have their

arguments, which I have read an hundred times; but that fellow, Young, is continually pestering me with something of his own."

One of Young's earliest poetical efforts was a recommendatory copy of verses prefixed to Addison's Cato, if we except a part of his poem on The Last Day, which appeared in The Tatler, and was probably finished as early as 1710. It was published in 1713, with a fulsome dedication to Queen Anne, and was shortly afterwards followed by his Force of Religion, or Vanquished Love; founded on the execution of Lady Jane Grey, and her husband, Lord Guildford. On the accession of King George the First, he flattered the monarch in an ode upon the queen's death; and, in 1717, he accompanied to Ireland the profligate Duke of Wharton, whose father had been a friend and patron to Young. In 1719, his tragedy of Busiris was acted at Drury Lane, and was followed, in 1721, by The Revenge, with a dedication to Wharton, which he afterwards, says Herbert Croft, his bio

grapher in Johnson's Lives of the Poets, took all the pains in his power to conceal from the world. Wharton appears, however, to have been a substantial benefactor of our author; for he not only did his utmost to advance him in the world by recommendation, but furnished him with the means of pursuing even a more ambitious course than Young aspired to. At the duke's request and expense he stood a contested election for Cirencester; but being unsuccessful, his patron granted him an annuity, and he henceforth determined on studying for the church.

He continued, however, his devotion to the muses; and, in 1728, published the last of six satires, for which, under the title of The Universal Passion, Wharton gave him £3,000. About the same time he entered into holy orders, and was appointed chaplain to George the Second; and, in 1730, he was presented by his college to the rectory of Welwyn, in Hertfordshire. In 1732, he married Lady Elizabeth Lee, widow of Colonel Lee, and daughter of the Earl of Lichfield; she died in 1740, leaving him one son and a step-daughter, whose death, in conjunction with that of her husband, Lord Temple, he laments in his Night Thoughts, under the names of Philander and Narcissa. It was in consequence of the melancholy reflections occasioned by these family losses, that Young composed his Night Thoughts; respecting which we will only, in this place, remark, that the character of Lorenzo does not appear to have had allusion to his son. This is most satisfactorily proved, by the authority just cited, notwithstanding the assertions of most of the biographers of our author to the contrary. The Night Thoughts occupied him from 1741 to 1746, and in the interval he produced other pieces, both in poetry and prose. In 1753, his tragedy of The Brothers, written in 1728, appeared upon the stage for the benefit of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel; and not realizing the profits anticipated, he made up the sum he intended, which was £1,000, from his own pocket. In 1754, he completed his Centaur not Fabulous, in six Letters to a Friend on the Life in Vogue, a publication in prose; as was also his Conjectures on Original Composition, which appeared in 1759. In 1761, he

was appointed clerk of the closet to the princess dowager, the only preferment he ever received after his taking orders; though, it seems, he was allowed by George the Second a pension of £200 a-year. A poem, entitled Resignation, was the last of his works, of the chief of which he published an edition in four octavo volumes, a short time previous to his death, which took place on the 12th of April, 1765. He left, with the exception of £1,000 to his housekeeper, and a smaller legacy, the whole of his fortune to his only son, Frederick; and, in his will, ordered all his manuscripts to be burnt.

Young lived and died a disappointed man; for, notwithstanding his elevated sentiments and professed love of retirement, he had not given up hopes of advancement in the church until a very short period before his death. As a Christian and divine, however, his conduct was exemplary, if we except his harsh treatment of his son, whom, in consequence of his expulsion from college for misconduct, he refused ever afterwards to see. Even on his deathbed, he is reported to have declined seeing him, but sent him his forgiveness. This unparental conduct has been attributed to the influence of his housekeeper, who, during the latter period of his life, has been said to have exercised a most tyrannical sway over him. He was pleasant in conversation and extremely polite, and possessed sensibilities highly creditable to him, if the following anecdote may be relied on:-Whilst preaching in his turn, one Sunday, at St. James's, he found his efforts to gain the attention of the congregation so ineffectual, that he leaned back in the pulpit and burst into a flood of tears. The turn of his mind was naturally solemn; he spent many hours in a day walking among the tombs in his own church-yard; and whilst engaged in writing one of his tragedies, the Duke of Wharton sent him a human skull with a candle fixed in it, as the most congenial and appropriate present he could make him. Notwithstanding, how ever, a certain gloominess of temper, he was fond of innocent sports and amusements, and instituted an assembly and a bowling-green in his parish, Among other instances of his wit are the following:-Voltaire happening to ridicule