think of me, and need not be told how oft and how

affectionately I remember you.

"Ever and entirely yours,

"Tuesday Afternoon."

"MARK AKINSIDE."

"P.S. I wish you would leave off writing upon gilt paper, unless you can get sheets of it as large as this. I forgot to tell you, that Wetstein at Amsterdam shew'd me the unfinish'd Diodorus Siculus; it is printed exactly like the last Thucydides, but how accurately I cannot tell. Forget not my compliments at Charter-house Square, nor to Mr. Harrison, Mr. Dyson, and the rest of our friends. Mr. Gronovius, Mr. Schwartz, Mr. Rea

dy, and all yours here salute you.

"I have just been at Langeratu's to inquire about the Basilica, but, not finding him, must refer it to another opportunity."

On the 16th of May, 1744, Akenside took his degree of Doctor of Physic at Leyden, the subject of his Dissertatio Medica Inauguralis being " De ortu et incremento fœtus humani; 2 and, doubtless,

1 The correctness of this date is ascertained by an entry in the annals of the College of Physicians, London, which states that Akenside, on the 20th June, 1751, produced his Diploma from the University of Leyden, &c. See p. 62 of this Me moir.

"In this dissertation,

2 Printed at Leyden, in 1744, 4to. the author is said to have displayed his medical sagacity, by attacking some opinions of Leeuwenhoek and other writers, at

as soon as he had obtained his diploma, he hastened back to England. In the collection of odes, which he published in the following year, is an ode "On leaving Holland."

He was now desirous to commence the practice of his profession; and having heard that he had a prospect of succeeding at Northampton, and having made some necessary inquiries on the spot, in June, 1744, he soon after fixed himself there as a physician. It was not long, however, before he found that the chief medical business of the place was in the hands of Dr. Stonehouse, from whom it was not to be wrested by a stranger; and,

that time very generally received, but which have been since discarded by the best physicians and philosophers; and by proposing an hypothesis which is now considered as founded in truth."- Biog. Brit.

1 From the information of Mr. Dyson (October 25th, 1834), who thus describes the contents of one of the poet's letters to his father: "On the 14th June [1744], he writes from Northampton to report the result of his inquiries in relation to the expediency of his settling there, which was such as induced him to do so."

A correspondent (who signs himself Indagator) in the Gent. Mag. for October, 1793 (lxiii. 885), writes thus: "The fact, Mr. Urban, is, that this contest for the physical business at Northampton, though unsuccessful on the part of Akenside, had for some time been supported by him with extraordinary violence. I am warranted, by manuscripts in my possession, when I say, that not only a fair and open struggle of medical hostilities, but every art and every exertion, personal abuse and private insinuation, had been used to usurp Dr. Stonehouse's professional emoluments, and oust him from his esta blished settlement. Yet, on Akenside's removal from that

D

having maintained a fruitless contest with that gentleman, and perhaps disliking Northampton on account of its distance from the capital, he quitted it, after a stay of about eighteen months, and removed to Hampstead. "The writer of this

article," says Kippis, in a note on our author's "Life," "who then resided at Northampton for education, well remembers that Dr. Doddridge and Dr. Akenside carried on an amicable debate concerning the opinions of the ancient philosophers with regard to a future state of rewards and punishments; in which Dr. Akenside supported the firm belief of Cicero, in particular, in this great article of natural religion." According to

place to Hampstead, the recommendatory letter, a copy of which I send you, was generously written in his favour by his worthy rival, as an introduction for him to a gentleman of consequence in the neighbourhood of his new abode."

"DEAR SIR,- The gentleman who presents you with this is Dr. Akenside, a brother physician, whose merit, as a man of refined sense and elegance of taste, is too well known by his writings (The Pleasures of the Imagination, &c.) to need any other testimonial; and, I dare say, from what you already know of them, you will naturally conclude, without any praise of mine, that such a man must be proportionably distinguished in the neighbourhood of his own peculiar profession.

"I take this opportunity of introducing him to the honour of your acquaintance, and make no doubt you will receive him as a gentleman, whom, for his character and abilities, I much esteem, and whose near neighbourhood, in any place where there had been room for us both, I should have regarded as an addition to my happiness. I am," &c.

See, too, Gent. Mag. for January, 1794 (lxiv. 12). 1 Biog. Brit.

Johnson, who heartily disliked his political creed, and never loses an opportunity of stigmatising it, Akenside "deafened the place with clamours for liberty."1

2

During his stay at Northampton (in 1744), he produced his very powerful satire, "An Epistle to Curio," i. e. to Pulteney, who, having been long the strenuous supporter of the people's cause in opposition to the measures of the government, had suddenly deserted his party, and become an object of popular execration, for the sake of an empty title, the Earldom of Bath. This justly-admired piece he afterwards injudiciously altered into an ode.

The following letter, undoubtedly genuine, and never before printed in England, is given from a fac-simile of the original in an American edition of our author's works: 8.

"DEAR SIR,

66 Northampton, May 21st, 1745. When I look on the date of your letter, I am very glad that I have any excuse, however disagreeable, for not answering it long.

1 Life of Akenside.

2 Quarto, price 1s. See List of Books for November, 1744, in the Gent. Mag. On the title-page is this motto: "Neque tam ulciscendi causa dixi, quam ut et in præsens sceleratos cives timore ab impugnanda patria detinerem; et in posterum documentum statuerem, nequis talem amentiam vellet imitari."-Tull.

8 Printed at New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1808, 2 vols. 8vo.

ere this. About a month ago, when I was thinking every post to write to you, I was thrown from my horse, with a very great hazard of my life, and confined a good while afterwards from either writing or reading. But, thank Heaven, for these ten days I have been perfectly well. You are very good-natured about the verses. If they gave you any pleasure, I shall conclude my principal end in publishing them to be fairly answer'd. And that you look upon your reading them in manuscript, and this way of seeing them in print, as an instance of real friendship, gives me great satisfaction. As for public influence, if they have any, I hope it will be a good one. But my expectations of that kind are not near so sanguine as they once were. Indeed, human nature, in its genuine habit and constitution, is adapted to very powerful impressions from this sort of entertainment; but, in the present state of manners and opinions, it is almost solely on the retir'd and studious of nature that this effect can be looked for; for hardly any besides these have been able to preserve the genuine habit of the mind in any tolerable degree. I am, dear Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant, "M. AKINSIDE."

"To M. WILKES, jun.

St. John's-street, London."

Here, probably, he alludes to his "Odes on Several Subjects," which had been published more