The sheep that enliven the plain, Dear Daphne, that village obferve, sa ila to Add ******{*}***** A There how happy the few who refide 4 esse from Mr. Popee the Dates befs They live Simplicity walks with the clown;: Mark yon cot, rear'd for plain humble fwains, Where bleffings, the few, greatly pleafe, "Tis the lot of the peafant, who gains With his evenings contentment and ease. There Temperance healthful and gay, Smiles at labour, tho' coarse be his meat; With a fong he falutes the new day, And his bread and his reft are both fweet. There, obfcur'd, modest Worth steals There Prudence too, neatly array'd, Let the Hero ftake life for a name ; Let Ambition court guilt, pomp, and glare.i Let the gay waste their days in love's flame; Can they ever with virtue compare? That virtue which feeks yon retreats! That devotion those scenes muft infpire! O let me enjoy their foft sweets ! Thofe pleasures which fages admire! biosi ed ads or whe They illumine the mind with their ray, And point to the first forming caufe;+ From each infect, and every fpray, Reflection an inference draws.d Hail Nature or rather to thee, Jehovah, our praifes be paid 1213 -Whore wifdom in nature we fee, Whofe goodness in all is difplay'd.! LIBERTAS. and of Hamilton.zid to bas London, Oft. obry —mady between wol day and night. The briter drunk. MADAM,TO Toy ei oì has noì ì Whitworth (who, as her Mepitaph on Twitenhain high-way affures us, had attained to as much perfection and purity as any fince the a poftles) is now deposited, according to her own order, between a fig tree and a vine, there to be found out at the last refurrection, I am just come from seeing your Grace in much the like fituation, between a honeyfuckle and a rose bush 3 where you laft. I fuppofe the painter, by these are to continue as long as canvas can emblems intended to intimate, on the one hand, your Grace's Tweet difpofition to your friends; and on the other, to fhew you are near enough related to the thistle of Scotland, to deserve the fame motto with regard to your enemies: Nemo me impune laceffit. The two foregoing periods, methinks, are fo myftical, learned, and perplexed, that if you have any statefinen or divines about you, they can't chufe but be pleafed with them. One divine you cannot be without, as a good christian; and a itatesman you have lately had; for I hear my Lord Selkirk has been with you. But (that I may not be unintelligible quite to the bottom of this page) I mult tell your Grace in English, that I have made a painter bestow the forefaid ornaments round about you (for upon you there needs none), and am, upon the whole, pleafed with my picture beyond expreffion. et etmesig al 951 : ŻEs13 ૨] 33, I may now fay of your picture; It is the thing in the world the likeft you, except yourself as a cautious perfon once faid of an elephant ;"It was the bigeft in the world, except itself. You fee, nadam, it is not impoffible for you to be compared to an elephant; and 3. and you must give me leave to few you one may carry on the fimile. An elephant never bends his knees; and I am told your Grace fays no prayers. An elephant has a most remarkable command of his fnout, and so has your Grace, when you imitate my Lady Orkney An elephant is a great lover of men, and fo is your Grace, for all I know; though from your partiality to myself, I should rather think you love little children. I beg you not to be discouraged in this point; remember the text, which I'll preach upon the first day. I am a parfon, Suffer little children to come unta me-And, Defpife not one of thefe little ones. No, madam defpife great beafts, fuch as Gay, who now goes by the dreadful name of, The beast of Blois, where Mr. Pulteney and he are fettled, and where he fhews tricks gratis, to all the beasts of his own country, (for strangers do not yet understand the voice of the beaft.) I have heard from him but once, Lord CHURCHILL. Warwick twice, Mrs. Lepell thrice: if Memoirs of the Rev. Mr. CHARLES I beg Mr. Blundell may know, Dr. Logg has received ordination, and enters on his functions this winter at Mrs. Blount's. They have chofen this innocent man for their confeffor; and I believe moft Roman catholic ladies, that have any fins, will follow their example. This good pricft will be of the order of Melchifedeck, a priest for ever, and ferve a family from generation to generation. He'll stand in a corner as quietly as a clock, and being wound up once a week, ftrike up a loud alarum on a Sunday morning. Nay, if the chriftian religion fhould be abolished (as indeed there is great reafon to expect it, from the wisdom of the legislature), he might at worst make an excellent bonfire; which is all that (upon a change of religion) can be desired from an heretick. I do not hope your Grace should be convert ed; but however, I wish you would call at Mrs. B's out of curiofity to meet people one likes, is thought by I T has been often remarked, that the life of an hero could never be written. with candour till envy or adulation slept with him in the grave; and that those. actions only become the object of history, which it was not in the power of fucceeding misconduct to tarnish.. Our fatyrist, was the fon of the Rev. Mr. Charles Churchill, curate and lec. turer of St. John's in Weftuinfter; he was alfo educated in Westminster-school, and received fome applaufe for his abili ties from his tutors in that famous seminary. His capacity however was greater than his application, fo that he received the character of a boy who could do good if he would. As the flighteft accounts of perfons fo noted are agreeable, it may not be amifs to observe, that having one day got an exercife to make, and from idleness or inattention, having failed to bring it at the time appointed, his maiter thought proper to chaftife him with fome feverity, and even reproach his ftupidity: what the fear of ftripes could not not effect the fear of fhame foon pro›duced, and he brought his exercise the next day finished in fuch a manner, that he received the public thanks of all the mafters. Still, however, it is to be fuppofed that his progress in the learned languages was but flow, nor is it to be wondered at, if we confider how difficult it was forda ftrong imagination, fuch as he was poffeffed of, to conform and walk tamely forward inthe trammels of a school ? education : minds like his are ever start-ing afide after new purfuits, defirous of fembracing a multiplicity of amufing objects, eager to come at the end without the painful investigation of the means: and, if we may borrow a term from the mercantile world, a genius like his, difdaining the painful affiduity of earning knowledge by retail, aimed at being an wholesale dealer in the treasures of literature. This much was necessary to premife, in order to palliate his being refused admittance into the univerfity of Oxford, to which he was fent by his father for want of proper skill in the learned languages. He has often mentioned his repulse upon that occasion; but whether his juftification of himfelt is to be admitted, we will not undertake to determine. Certain it is, that both he and his companions have often afferted, that he could have anfwered the college extamination had he thought proper; but he fo much defpifed the trifling questions that were put to him, that instead of making the proper replies, he only Jaunched our in fatyrical reflections upon the abilities of the gentleman whole office it was to judge of his. - Be this as it will, Mr. Churchill was rejected from Oxford, and probably this might have given occafion to the frequent invectives we find in his works against that most refpectable university. Upon his returning from Oxford, he again applied to his ftudies at Westmin fter-school; and there, at the age of fe. venteen, contracted an intimacy with the lady to whom he was married, and who fill furvives him. This was one of thote imprudent matches which ge nerally begin in paffion and end in difguft. However, the beginning of this young couple's regards for each other were mutual and fincere, and fo continued for feveral years after. At the ufual age for going into orders, Mr. Churchill was ordained by the late bifhop of London, notwithstanding he had taken no degree, nor studied in either of our univerfities; and the fift place he had in the church, was a small curacy of thirty pounds a year in Wales. To this remote part of the kingdom he brought his wife; they took a little hou'e, and he went through the duties of his ftation with chearfulness and af- · fiduity. Happy had it been for him in this life, perhaps more happy in that to which he has been called, if he had ftill continued here in piety, fimplicity. and peace. His parithioners all loved and esteemed him; his fermons, tho' rather railed above the level of his audience, were however commended and followed. In order to eke out his fcanty finances, he entered into a branch of trade which he thought might end in riches, but which involved him in debts that preffed him for fome years after : this was no other than keeping a cyder cellar, and dealing in this liquor thro' that part of the country. A poet is but ill qualified for merchandise, where fmall gains are to be patiently expected, and carefully accumulated. neither patience for the one, nor œconomy for the other; and a sört of rural bankruptcy was the confequence of his attempt. He had Upon leaving Wales, he came up to London, and his father foon after dying, he ftept into the church in which he had officiated. In order to improve his fcanty finances, which in this fituation did not produce full an hundred pounds yearly, he undertook to teach young ladies to read and write English, and was employed for this purpote in the boarding fchool of Mrs. Dennis, where he behaved with that decency and piety which became his profeffion: nor fhould we here omit paying proper de ference to a mode of female education, 1 1 which fees new amongths and while info many are of opinionsthat it is his other schools our young mifles are taught beft, and indeed, I am inclined to conthe arts of perfonal allurements only, cur in the fame fentiment In ito we this fenfible governess pays the ftricteft find a very clofe and minute difcuffion attention to the minds of her young pu- of the particular merit of each perform- * pils, and endeavours to fit them for the er; their defects pointed out with canmeftick duties of life, with as much dour, and their merits praised without aas they are elsewhere formed to levity and fplendorobao I to ༣ While Mr. Churchill was in this fi he tuation, his method of living bearing no proportion to his income, feveral debts were contracted in the city, which was s not i in a capacity of paying; and a goal, the continual terror of indigent genius, feemed now ready to clofe upon his miferies. From this wretched ftate of uneafinefs he was relieved by the benevolence of Mr. Lloyd, father to the poet of that name, who paid his debts, or at least fatisfied his creditors. In the mean time, while Mr. Lloyd the father was thus relieving Churchill by his bounty, Mr. Lloyd the fon began to excite him by his example. The Ator, a poetical epistle, written by this gentleman, and addressed to Mr. Bonnel Thornton, was read and relished by all the judges of poetical merit, and gave the author a distinguished place a mong the writers of his age. Mr. Churchill foon undertook to write the Refciad, a work tho' upon a more confined plan, yet was more adapted to excite publick curiofity. It firft came out without the name of the author; but the juftness of its remark, and particularly the feverity of the fatire, foon excited public curiofity. Tho' he never difowned his having written this piece, and even openly gloried in it; yet the public, unwilling to give fo much merit to one alone, afcribed it to a combination of wits: nor were Meffrs. Lloyd, Thornton, or Coleman left unnamed upon this occafion. This misplaced praile foon induced Mr. Churchill to throw off the mask, and the fecond edition appearedwith his name at length; and now the fame, which before was diffufed upon many objects, became centered to a point. As the Rofiad was the firft of this poet's performances, VOL. III. dulation. This poem, however, feems to be one of thofe few works which are injured by fucceeding editions when he became popular, his judgment began to grow drunk with applaude and we find, in the latter editions, men blamed whofe merit is inconteftible, and others praised, that were at that time in no degree of esteem with the judicious, and whom at prefent even the mobs are béginning to forfake. avni bijut His next performance was his Apolba gy to the Critical Reviewers. This work is not without its peculiar merit; and as it was written against a set of critics, whom the world was willing enough to blame, the public read it with their ufual indulgence. In this performance he fhewed a peculiar happiness of throwing his thoughts, if we may fo exprefs it, into poetical paragraphs; fo that the fentence fwells to the break or conclufion, as we find in profe. His fame being greatly extended by thefe productions, his improvement in morals did not feem by any means to correfpond; but while his writings mufed the town, his actions in fore meature difgufted it. He now quitted his wife, with whom he had cohabitel for many years, and refigning his gown, and all clerical functions, commenced a complete man of the town, got drunk, frequented ftews, and giddy with falle praise, thought his talents a sufficient atonement for all his follies. Some people have been unkind enough to say, that Mrs. Churchill gave the firft_just caufe for feparation, but nothing can be more falfe than this rumour:;: and we can allure the public, that her conduct in private life, and among her acquaintances, was ever irreproachable.or In fome mealure to palliate the abfurdities of his conduct, he now undertook a poem called Night, written upBbbb tigmi arede un without effort, are read without pleasure. His Gotham, Independence, The Times, feem merely to have been written by a man who defired to avail himself of the avidity of the public curiofity in his fayour, and are rather aimed at the pockets than the hearts of his sreaders.fit hall I trace t this thoughtless man on a general fubject indeed, but upon falfe principles namely, that whatever our follies are, we should never undertake to conceal them. This, and Mr. Churchall's other poems, being fhewn to Mr. Johnson, and his opinion being asked concerning them, he allowed them but little merit; which being told to the auHow thor, he refolved to requite this private through the latter part of bis condućt ; opinion with a public one. In his in which, leaving all the milder forms next poem therefore of the Ghost, he of life, he became entirely guided by has drawn this gentleman under the cha- his native turbulence of temper, and perracter of Pompofo; and those who dif- mitted his mind to harrass his body thro' liked Mr. Johnfon, allowed it to have all the various modes of debauchery. merit. But our poet is now dead, and His feducing a young lady, and after juftice may be heard without the impu- living with her in fhamelefs adultery; tation of envy; though we entertain no his beating a man, formerly his friend, Imall opinion of Mr. Churchill's abili- without any previous provocation, are ties, yet they are neither of a fize nor well known. Yet let us not be severe in correctness to compare with those of the judging: happy were it for him, per-, author of the Rambler; a work which haps, if ours were the only tribunal at has, in fome places, enlarged the circle which he was to plead for those irreguof moral enquiry, and fixed more pre. larities, which his mental powers rencife land marks to guide philofophy in dered but more culpable, to wach her inveftigation of truth. Mr. Johnfon's only reply to Mr. Churchill's abufe was, that he thought him a fhallow fellow in the beginning, and that he could fay nothing worse of him still. The poems of Night,and of the Ghoft, had not the rapid fale the author expected; but his Prophecy of Famine foon made ample amends for the late paroxyfm in his fame. Night was written upon a general subject, and for that reafon no way alluring; the Gheft was written in eight fyllable verfe, in which kind of measure he was not very fuccefsful; but the Prophecy of Famine had all thofe circumstances of time, place, and party to recommend it, that the author could defire; or, let us ufe the words of Mr. Wilkes, who faid, before its publication, that he was fure it must take, as it was at once perfonal, poetical, aud political. It had accordingly a rapid and extenfive fales and it was often af ferted by his admirers, that Mr. Churchill was a better poet than Mr. Pope. This Exaggerated adulation, as it had before corrupted his morals, now began to impair his mind, feveral fucceeding pieces were published, which being written From the UNIVERSAL MUSEUM. Memoirs of the late Ingenious Mr. Wil- |