Vain then, alas! fhe fought Britannia's ifle, Wherever I go, or whatever I do, Charm'd with her voice, and cheer'd us with her Stillfomething prefents the fair nymph to my view. fmile. If Gallic laws her gen'rous flight restrain, name, Till thou, my friend, my genius, fprung to fame Pleas'd, in thy lays we fee Guftavus live; SONG. ; As Granville's foft numbers tune Myra's juft praise, And Chloe fhines lovely in Prior's fweet lays; And, as she looks like Venus, I'd fing like Apollo: For fure, Oye winds, you may tell her my pain; If I traverse the garden, the garden till fhows voice: The nightingale too, with impertinent noise, Pours forth her fweet ftrains in my fyren's sweet [brings; Thus the grove and its mufic her image ! For like the fpring fhe looks fair, like the night ingale fings. If, forfaking the groves, I fly to the court, there. Do thou fair TRUTH defcend, And watchful guard him in an honeft end; To court no friend, nor own a foe but thine. But if his giddy eye fhould vainly quit Thy facred paths, to run the muse of wit; If his apoftate heart should e'er incline To offer incenfe at Corruption's fhrine, Urge, urge thy power; the black attempt confound, That guilt is doom'd to fink in infamy. ESSAY ON SATIRE, PART III EDINBURGH: PRINTED BY MUNDELL AND SON, ROYAL BANK CLOSE Anno 1794 THE LIFE OF BROWN. JOHN BROWN was born at Rothbury, in the county of Northumberland, November 5. 1715. He was defcended from the family of Brown of Coalfton in Haddingtonshire. His father, the Rev. John Brown, was a native of Dunfe in Berwickshire; and, at the time of his fon's birth, was curate to Dr. Thomlinson rector of Rothbury. He was collated by Dr. Nieolfon Bishop of Carlisle, to the vicarage of Wigton in Cumberland, in the latter end of 1715. His mother's maiden name was Potts. He received the firft part of his education at the grammar fchool of Wigton. From thence he was removed to the University of Cambridge, where he was entered of St. John's College, Decem ber 18. 1732, under the tuition of Dr. Tonstall. He took the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1735, with great reputation, being at the head of the wranglers, and returned to Wigton, where he was ordained by Dr. Fleming bishop of Carlisle. His first preferment was to a minor canonry and lecturership of the cathedral church of Carlife. He remained in obfcurity in that city till 1739, when he went to Cambridge, to take his degree of Mafter of Arts. In 1745, he distinguished himself by his zeal for government; and acted as a volunteer at the Liege of Carlisle, during which he behaved with great intrepidity. After the defeat of the rebels, when feveral of them were to be tried at the affizes held at Carlife in 1746, he preached Two Sermons on the mutual connection between religious truth and civil freedom, and between fuperftition, tyranny, irreligion, and atheism. His attachment to Whig principles procured him the friendship of Dr. Ofbaldefon, who contributed to his obtaining from the Dean and Chapter of Carlisle the living of Morland, in the county of Weftmoreland; and, on the death of Dr. Fleming, being advanced to that fee, appointed him one of his chaplains. He refigned his preferment in the cathedral of Carlisle in disgust. In the early part of his life, and probably during his refidence at Carlisle, he wrote his poem intituled Honour, infcribed to Lord Viscount Lonsdale. His next poetical performance, though not immediately published, was his Effay on Satire, in three parts, addreffed to Warburton, who immediately introduced him to his friend Ralph Allen, Efq. of Prior Parks, near Bath, to whofe generofity he was indebted, at a time when his circumstances had not raised him above pecuniary obligations. On the 22d of April 1750, he preached a fermon at the Abbey-Church at Bath, for the benefit of the General Hofpital, On the Pursuit of Falfe Pleasure, and the Mischiefs of Immederate Gaming, which was attended by the fuppreffion of the public gaming-tables in that city; an effect which did honour to the preacher's eloquence. In 1751, his Effay on Satire was given to the world in the fecond volume of Warburton's edition of Pope's Works, with which it still continues to be printed, as well as in the third volume of "Dodfley's Collection." The fame year, he published, what may be still regarded as his capital production, his Essays on the Characterifics of the Earl of Shafifbury. I. On Ridicule, confidered as the Teft of Truth. II. On the Motives to Virtue, and the Neceffity of Religious Principle. III. On Revealed Religion and Chriffianity. The work was dedicated to Mr. Allen, and received by the public with a high degree of applause. In the last Essay, he is faid to have received confiderable affistance from his father. The fifth edi tion was printed in 1764. Mr. Charles Bulkeley, a Diffenting Minifter, pablished two pamphlets in vindication of Shaftesbury, in 1751 and 1752, written with ability and spirit. He had a principal hand in the compofition of an Essay on Musical Expreffion," by Mr Charice Avifon, which came out in that year, and was well received. To the fecond edition, which appeared in 1753, was added an ingenious and learned letter to the author concerning the mufic of the ancients, by the late Dr. Jortin though published without his name. In 1754 he printed a fermon On the Use and Abuse of Externals in Religion in which, while he allows and contends for the great expediency of ceremonals in worship, he does not seem attached to any particular mode as defigned to distinguish particular fects, but vindicates the outward forms of devotion only fo far as they are calculated to promote the purposes of religion, and the general union of all the profeffions of Christianity. About this time, he was promoted by the Earl of Hardwicke to the living of Great Horkesley in Effex, upon the folicitation of his fon the Hon. Charles Yorke, to whom he had been recommended by Warburton. In 1755, his Barbaroffa, a tragedy, was acted at the theatre in Drury Lane. The defign feems borrowed from "Merope." Zaphira's distress and her refolutions greatly resemble Merope's; and the character of Barbaroffa feems to be drawn after Polipbontes, with fome few ftrokes of Bajszet, and the bluftering monarch in the "Mourning Bride" It met with great fuccefs in the reprefen tation; and, being a play of bustle and business, still keeps poffeffion of the stage. Garrick furnified the prologue and epilogue. The fame year he took the degree of Doctor of Divinity at Cambridge. In 1756, his Atbelfian, a tragedy. was acted at the theatre in Drury-Lane, and was well received 1 by the public, but did not become fo popular a play as Barbarossa; and though much the more ori ginal and better executed piece of the two, has been fcarcely heard or thought of fince its first run. It is founded on the British history, and has great merit. The struggles and conflicts of various paffion, which Athelfian is made to undergo, before his paternal and domestic affections get the better of a refentment which had led him into an act of treafon against his prince and country, are finely supported, and perhaps fcarcely excelled in any of our modern tragedies. He did not give his name to the world either with Barbarossa or Athelftan. In 1757, he published his famous flimate of the Manners and Principles of the Times, which had a very rapid fale, feven editions of it having been printed in little more than a year. It came out when the minds of the people were extremely depreffed by fome unprofperous events, and when, confequently, they were more ready to liften to the melancholy, and perhaps too just representation of the manners and principles of the nation. The chief defign of the Eftimate was to show that 3 vain, luxurious, and selfish effeminacy, in the higher ranks of life, marked the character of the age; and to point out the effects and fources of this effeminacy. In the profecution of his defign, he certainly displayed much fagacity and ingenuity of obfervation. His characters are strongly marked; and the flyle elegant, pointed, and lively; though it must likewise be acknowledged, that his remarks are fometimes too minute, and that he writes with too great an air of self-importance. The work, which at firft met with far more applause than cenfure, was in a fhort time run down by pa pular clamour: but not answered. Several antagonists rose up against him, fome of whom were of very little confequence. Ralph, in his "Cafe of Authors," was a formidable adversary. One of the best answers to the Eflimate was "The Characteristics of the Prefent State of Great Britain," written by Dr. Wallace of Edinburgh. In the fummer after the Eflimate was published, as he was one night fitting alone in Vauxhall Gardens, the following Impromptu, with which he was much pleased, was fent him by an unknowr hand: |