xii

"Of the domestic manners, and petty habits of the author of the Night Thoughts," Mr. Croft writes Dr. Johnson, September 1780.: "I hoped to have given you an account from the best authority; but who fhall dare to fay, to-morrow I will be wife or virtuous; or, to-morrow I will do a particular thing? Upon inquiring for his housekeeper, I learned that she was buried two days before I reached the town of her abode."

It appears from the epiftolary correfpondence of Mr. Jones, his curate, and executor, printed in the Gentlenian's Magazine, Vol. lii. p. 283. that the laft, years of his life were embittered by the unhappy economy of his family. The letters are well authenticated, and not incurious. If they difcover the foibles of a great man, they illuftrate a part of his personal history; and Mr. Croft has well remarked that we ought to say De`mortuis nil nisi verum-De vivis nil nifi bonum.

"The old gentleman here,” says Mr. Jones, in a letter to his friend in London, dated Welwyn, July 25. 1762., "feems to me to be in a pretty odd way of late, moping, dejected, self willed, and as if furrounded with fome perplexing circumftances. There is much myftery in almost all his temporal affairs, as well as in many other of his fpeculative opinions. There is thought to be an irremoveable obftruction to his happiness within his walls, as well as another without them; but the former is the more powerful, and likely to continue fo. He has this day been trying anew to engage me to stay with him. No lucrative views can tempt me to facrifice my liberty or my health to fuch meafures as are proposed here.”

"You remember," he writes his friend, St. Neots, Hunts, August 28. 1762., "what I fuggefted to you about my resolution of leaving Welwyn, of which I had given very early notice to the worthy Doctor, that he might have fufficient time to provide. After repeated trizis, and repeated disappointments, though feven or eight offered, he thought proper to apply to me anew; and though lucrative motives could not, earnest importunities did prevail with me at last to cheer up his dejected heart, by promifing to continue with him for fome time longer at least. By the way, I privately intimated to you, the Doctor is, in various respects, a very unhappy man. know fo much of him as I do in these refpects, and have often obferved with concern. If he would Few be advised by fome who wifh him well, he might be happy, though his ftate of health is lately much altered for the worse."

"The mismanagement too well known," he writes his friend, Welwyn, January 1. 1763., “unhappily continues, and, still more unhappily, feems to be increasing, to the grief of friends, and, 【 need not fay, to the ridicule of others, who are not a few. Penurioufnefs and obftinacy are two bad things; and a disregard to the general judgment and friendly wishes of the wifer part of mankind, another. There feems to be no hope, fo long as the afcendency is fo great."

"My ancient gentleman here," he writes his friend, Welwyn, September 4. 1764., "is ftill full of troubles, which moves my concern, though it moves only the fecret laughter of many, and some untoward furmifes in disfavour of him and his houfehold. The lofs of a very large sum of money, 200 l., is talked of, whereof this vill and neighbourhood are full. Some difbelieve, others fay it is no wonder, where about eighteen, or more fervants, are fometimes taken and dismissed in the course of a year. The gentleman hintself, is allowed by all to be far more harmless and easy in his family than fome one elfe, who hath too much the lead in it." 5,

Of his last illness, the following account is given by Mr. Jones, in a letter to his friend, dated Welwyn, April 2. 1765.: "As foon as I got home, I inquired after Dr. Young, and found that he had gone through very great pains fince I left him; and the pains return pretty frequently. Dr. Cotton of St. Albans, and Dr. Yates of Hertford, meet at his houfe every day, on confultation. I find that opiates are frequently adminiftered to him, I suppose to render him lefs fenfible of his pain. His intellects, I am told, are still clear; though what effect the frequent ufe of opiates may by degrees have upon him, I know not. I am pretty much of his fon's fentiments as to this, viz. that thofe ingredients, if for some time longer continued, may have an ill effect upon the brain. Having mentioned this young gentleman, I would acquaint you next, that he came hither this morning, having been fent for, as I am told, by the direction of Mrs. Hallows. Indeed, the intimated to me as much herself. And, if this be fo, I mult fay it is one of the moft prudent acts the ever did, or could have done, in fuch a cafe as this, as it may prove a means ns of preventing much confusion. I

have had fome little difcourfe with the fon. He feems much affected, and, I believe, really is fo. He earnestly withes his father may be pleased to ask after him. For, you must know, he has not yet done this, nor is, in my opinion, likely to do it. And it has been said farther, upon a very late application made to him on the behalf of his fon, he defired that no more might be faid to him about it. Mrs. H. has fitted up a fuitable apartment in the house for Mr. Young, where, I suppose, he will continue till fome farther event. I heartily with the ancient man's heart may grow tender towards his fon; though, knowing him fo well, I can scarce hope to hear such defirable news. He took to his bed yesterday, about eleven in the forenoon, and has not been up fince.' I called foon after my coming home, but did not fee him he was then in a dofe."

2

Of his death, which happened April 5. 1765, in the eighty-fourth year of his age, the following account is given by Mr. Jones, in a letter to his friend, dated Welwyn, April 13. 1765.: "I have now the pleasure to acquaint you, that the late Dr. Young, though he had for many years kept his fon at a diftance, yet has now, at laft, left him all his poffeffions, after the payment of certain legacies. So that the young gentleman, who bears a fair character, and behaves well, as far as I can hear or fee, will, I hope, foon enjoy, and make a prudent use of a very handfome fortune. The fa ther, on his death-bed, and fince my return from London, was applied to, in the tenderest manner, by one of his phyficians, and by another perfon, to admit the fon into his prefence, to make subuiffion, entreat forgiveness, and obtain his bleffing. As to an interview with his fon, he intimated, he chofe to decline it, as his spirits were then low, and his nerves weak: with regard to the next particular, he said, “ I heartily forgive him ;" and, upon mention of the laft, he gently lifted up his hand, and gently letting it fall, pronounced these words-" God bless him!" After about a fortnight's illness, and bearing exceffive pains, he expired a little before eleven of the clock, in the night of Good Friday laft, the 5th inftant, and was decently buried yesterday, about fix in the afternoon, in the chancel of this church, close by the remains of his lady, under the communion-table. The clergy, who are the trustees for his charity-school, and one or two more, attending the funeral, the laft office at interment being performed by me.

"I know it will give you pleasure to be farther informed, that he was pleased to make respectful mention of me in his will, expreffing his fatisfaction in my care of his parish, bequeathing to me a handsome legacy, and appointing me one of his executors, next after his sister's fon [Mr. Harris], a clergyman of Hampshire, who this morning set out for London, in order to prove the will in Doc. tor's Commons. So that, much according to my wishes, I fhall have little or nothing to do, in refpe of executorship."

In his will, dated February 1760., he defires of his executors, in a particular manner, that all his manufcript-books, and writings whatever, might be burned, except his book of accounts. In a codicil, dated September 1764., he made it his dying entreaty to his housekeeper, to whom he left Iccel," that all his manuscripts might be destroyed as foon as he was dead, which would greatly oblige her deceased friend." The legacy was not more than might be due to one whom he had never degraded by paying her wages. She did not, however, ftrictly comply with his last injunctions, in deftroying his manufcripts. He left alfo a legacy to his "friend Henry Stephens, a hatter at the Temple-Gate," who went before him.

The fame humility which had marked a hatter and a housekeeper for his friends, had before befowed the fame title on his footman, in an Epitaph in Welwyn Church yard, upon James Barker,

dated 1749

The author of that Epitaph is not without a stone to mark the place of his duft. Though he inkribed no monument to the memory of his lamented wife, yet the piety of his fon has erected a monument, in Welwyn church, to the memory of his parents, with the following infcription; which " contains," says Mr. Croft, " none of that praise, which no marble can make the bad or the foolish merit; which, without the direction of a stone or a turf, will find its way, fooner or later, to the deferving :"

M. S.
Optimi parentes,

EDWARD YOUNG, LL.D.

Hujus ecclefiæ rec.

In the edition of Young's works, published during his life, in 4 vols, 12mo, feveral pieces, which he judged to be of a temporary nature, or of inferior merit, were omitted. After his death, a fifth volume was published, with the design of completing his works. But feveral pieces, and fome of confiderable length, were omitted. These were collected in an additional volume, making the fixth, in 1778. The contents are- -Epifle to Lord Lansdowne, 1712; Imperium Pelagi, a Naval Lyric, 1730; The Foreign Addrefs, 1734; Reflections on the Public Situation of the Kingdom, 1745; Mifcellanies [in verfe], viz. on Michael Angelo's famous piece of the Crucifixion; To Mr. Addifon, on the Tragedy of Cato; A Letter to Mr. Tickell, on the Dealb of Mr. Addifon, 1719; Epitaph on Lord Aubrey Beauclere, killed at Carthagena, 1740; Mifcellanies in Profe, viz. Epitaph on Mr. James Barker, 1749; Oratio de Bibliotheca Codringtoniana, habita in Sacello Coll. Omn. Amn. 1716; A Discourse on Lyric Poetry; A Sermon preached before the King at Kensington, June 1758; Preface to “ Mrs. Rowe's Friendship on Death;" Dedications to the Laft Day, to Vanquisked Love, to the Paraphrafe on Job, to Buftris, and the Revenge. The Merchant, an Ode on the British Trade and Navigation, is mentioned alfo in the contents as a fepa rate poem, though it feems only a fecond title to the Lyric, or, perhaps, only a part of it; and that more was intended, feems probable from its being ftyled Ode the Firft. The Epitaph on Lord Aubrey Beauclers, is improperly dated 1740. Lord Aubrey was killed at Carthagena, March 24. 1740-1. The epitaph, therefore, could not be written, at fooneft, till the year after. The fecond line of the fecond couplet is, on the monument, expreffed thus-O'er dauntless loyal, &c. The volume concludes with "fome thoughts on reading Mr. Young's Laft Day," in a letter to Mrs. Rowe, by Dr. Bowden, a worthy physician and ingenious poet of Frome, the friend of Mrs. Rowe, Lord Orrery, &c. His Poetical Works have been frequently reprinted in 4 vols 12m0, and in 3 vols 8vo, 1792. Of the Night Thoughts, the editions are too numerous to be specified. The edition in 8vo 1794, is ornamented with engravings, and illuftrated with notes by Mr. de Coetlogon. A French translation of the Night Thoughts, by M. le Tourneur, was published in 2 vols 8vo, 1769. "Obfervations on the Night Thoughts," by Mr. Fratt, appeared in 8vo, 1776.

Of the private habits, and domeftic manners of Young, whofe great genius, abilities, and piety, placed him in the foremost rank of literature for almoft half a century, curiofity will require more ample information than is to be found in the few scattered notices which the diligence of his biographers has collected, or the zeal and veneration of his friends have supplied.

Singularity is faid to have predominated in his moft juvenile practices. The late Dr. Ridley remembered a report current at Oxford, that, when he was compofing, he would shut up his windows, and fit by a lamp, even at mid-day; and that skulls, bones, and inftruments of death, were among the ornaments of his ftudy. Thus encouraging the habitual gloom that hung over his imagination, it foon became peopled with the phantoms of discontent. He indulged an early luxury in defcribing the miseries of a world, that did not immediately forward his defigns and gratify his expectations. It has been faid, that if he had been a bishop, he would never have written the Nigh Thoughts. But he was far advanced in the pathethic strains of complaint, at a time when hope is warm in the bosom of other men; and had he attained the mitre, a difappointment in the primacy might have produced the fame effects on a mind which feems to have been endued with much fen. fibility, and to have been depreffed with temporary obstructions of his profpects, which every man fruggling through life naturally expects to meet with; and, if he cannot furmount them, does not think himself juftified in retiring to the cloister, or the hermitage. It cannot be fuppofed, that his disposition brightened up when he had suffered from real disappointments, and the weight of years fat heavier upon him. His difcourfe, even to the laft, it is faid, was rather expreffive of a reftlefs than a fettled mind. In the character of Young, much of that melancholy caft of mind may be ob ferved which is ever attendant upon genius, but at the fame time fo tempered by the fober tints of fcience and philofophy, that it feldom breaks in upon the province of judgment and right ratioci

nation. The melancholy of Young was fo repreffed by the chaftening hand of reafon and educa tion, as never to infringe upon the duties of life. The spirit, the energy of his foul, his rational and fublime piety, powerfully with-held the acceffion of a state of mind fo inimical to the rights of society.

It is generally known that Young, after his first fleep, fpent the greatest part of the night in meditation, and in the compofition of his works; and that he had only to tranfcribe them when he rose, which was at an early hour. Every night he read prayers to his family, and every morning when there was no public service.

While his health permitted him to walk abroad, he preferred a folitary ramble in his churchyard, to exercise with a companion on a more cheerful spot He was moderate in his meals, and rarely drank wine, except when he was ill; being (as he faid) unwilling to wafte the fuccours of fickness on the stability of health.

After a flight refreshment, he retired to bed at eight in the evening, although he might have guefts in his house, who wished to prolong his flay among them to a later hour. He lived at a moderate expence, rather inclining to parfimony than profufion, and yet continued anxious for increase of preferment, after it could have added nothing to his enjoyments; for he expended annually little

more than half of his income.

" He appeared," says the writer in the "Gentleman's Magazine," above quoted, Vol. LII, p. 72. "neither as a man of forrow," nor yet as "a fellow of infinite jeft." The dignity of a great and a good man appeared in all his actions and in all his words. He converfed on religious fubjects with the cheerfulness of virtue. His piety was undebased by gloom or enthusiasm; he was regular in the performance of all its duties, both in public and in private. I have been told that, before his time, divine fervice was performed only on Sunday morning, but he likewise read prayers in the afternoon, and on Wednesdays, Fridays, and all holidays."

"In his domestic character, he was as amiable as he was venerable in the Chriftian. His politenefs was fuch as I never faw equalled; it was invariable; to his fuperiors in rank, to his equals, and to his inferiors, it differed only in the degrees of elegance. I never heard him speak with roughpefs to his meanest servant; yet he well knew how to keep up his dignity, and, with all the majesty of superior worth, to reprefs the bold and the forward. In converfation upon lively subjects, he had a brilliancy of wit which was peculiar to himself. I know not how to describe it, but by faying, that it was both heightened and foftened by the great and the amiable qualities of his foul. I have feen him ill, and in pain, yet the ferenity of his mind remained unruffled: I never heard a peevish expreffion fall from his lips; nor was he, at fuch times, less kindly and politely attentive to those around him, than when in the company of strangers, who came only to vifit him for the first time."

"Dr. Young," fays Dr. Warton, who knew him well," was one of the most amiable and benevolent of men; most exemplary in his life, and fincere in his religion: nobody ever faid more brilliant things in converfation. The late Lord Melcombe informed me, that when he and Voltaire were on a visit to his Lordship at Eastbury, the English poet was far fuperior to the French, in the variety and novelty of his bon-mots and repartees: and Lord Melcombe was himself a good judge of wit and humour, of which he had a large portion."

Tscharner, a noble foreigner, in a letter to Count Haller, fays, he has lately spent four days with Young at Welwyn, where he tastes all the ease and pleasure man can defire. "Every thing about him shows the man; each individual being placed by rule. All is neat without art. He is very pleasant in conversation, and extremely polite."

"That domestic grief," fays Mr. Croft," is, in the firft inftance, to be thanked for thefe or naments to our language [The Night Thoughts], it is impoffible to deny. Nor would it be common hardiness to contend, that worldly difcontent had no hand in these joint productions of poetry and piety. Yet I am by no means fure that, at any rate, we should not have had fomething of the fame colour from Young's pencil, notwithstanding the liveliness of his fatires. In fo long a life, causes for discontent, and occafions for grief, muft have occurred. It is not clear to me that his mufe was not fitting upon the watch for the first which happened. Night Thoughts were not une common to her, even when firft the vifited the poet; and, at a time when he himself was remarkable,

neither for gravity nor gloominefs. In his Laft Day, almost his earlicft poem, he calls her the melansboly maid;

whom difmal scenes delight

Frequent at tonibs, and in the realms of night.

"When Young was writing a tragedy, Grafton is faid by Spence to have fent him a human skull with a candle in it as a lamp; and the poet is reported to have used it.

"Still, is it altogether fair to dress up the poet for the man, and to bring the gloominefs of the Night Thoughts to prove the gloominess of Young; and, to fhow that his genius, like the genius of Swift, was, in fome measure, the fullen inspiration of discontent?

"From them who answer in the affirmative, it should not be concealed, that, though Invifibilia non decipiunt appeared upon a deception in Young's grounds, and ambulantes in borto audierunt vocem Dei, in a building in his garden, his parish was indebted to the good humour of the author of the Night Thoughts, for an assembly and a bowling-green.

"Of Young, an anecdote which wanders among readers, it is not true, that he was Fielding's Parfon Adams. The original of that famous painting was William Young, who was a clergyman, {author of the Latin and English Dictionary.] Yet, the facility with which this report has gained belief in the world, argues, were it not fufficiently known, that the author of the Night Thoughts, bore some resemblance to Adams. It is known, that, during some part of his life, Young was abroad; and, that he once wandered into the camp, with a claffic in his hand, which he was reading intensely, and had fome difficulty to prove that he was only an absent poet, and not a spy.

"The attention which Young beftowed upon the perufal of books, is not unworthy imitation. When any paffage pleased him, he appears to have folded down the leaf. On thofe paffages be bestowed a second reading. But the labours of man are too frequently vain. Before he returned to much of what he once approved, he died. Many of his books which I have feen, are, by those notes of approbation, so fwelled beyond their real bulk, that they would hardly fhut.”

His extemporaneous wit and colloquial talents, have been much extolled; but, from the few fpe. cimens of his unpremeditated acuteness, and successful pleasantry which are preserved, it would seem, that his powers of delighting were, in great measure, confined to his pen. The following anecdotes are diftinguished by their novelty and importance.

Young, walking in his garden at Welwyn, in company with two ladies (one of whom was Lady Elifabeth Lee), a fervant came to tell him a gentleman wifhed to speak with him, "Tell him," fays Young, "I am too happily engaged to change my fituation." The ladies infifted upon it that he fhould go, as his vifitor was a man of rank, his patron, his friend; and, as perfuafion had no effect, one took him by the right arm, and the other by the left, and led him to the garden-gate, when, finding refiftance was vain, he bowed, laid his hand upon his heart, and in that expreflive manner for which he was fo remarkable, fpoke the following lines:

Thus Adam look'd, when from the garden driven,

And thus difputed orders fent from heaven :

Like him I go, and yet to go am loth;

Like him I go, for angels drove us both.

Hard was his fate, but mine ftill more unkind,

His Eve went with him, but mine stays behind.

Young, in the early part of his life, was fond of mufic, and touched the German flute with much tafte. Being once on the Thames with fome ladies, he played them several tunes, and then put the flute in his pocket. Some officers rowing by just as he ceased playing, one of them rudely asked why he left off, "For the fame reason that I began;” replied Young, "to please myself." One of them immediately told him, that if he did not continue playing, he would directly throw him into the river. His female friends began to be much alarmed; and Young, on their account, played till they reached Vauxhall, where both parties spent the evening. Young had marked his man, and took an opportunity, in one of the dark walks, to tell the officer, that he expected him to meet him at such a place in the morning, to give him a gentleman's fatisfaction; and, that he chose swords for the weapons. The officer was furprised on their meeting, to fee Young advance towards him with a large horfe piftol, with which he told him he would instantly shoot him through the head if he did not dance a mînuet.