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ADVERTISEMENT.

IN the following Poems, the plan of Fable is somewhat enlarged, and the province so far extended, that the original NARRATIVE and MORAL may be accompanied with imagery, description, and sentiment. The scenery is formed in a department of Nature adapted to the genius and disposition of POETRY; where she finds new objects, interests, and connexions, to exercise her fancy and her powers. If the execution, therefore, be unsuccessful, it is not the fault of the Plan, but of the Poet.

LIFE

OF

DR. LANGHORNE.

Or all classes of literature, it is generally admitted, that none is more pleasing to writers, or more interesting to readers of taste, than biographical accounts of characters who have been eminent for their learning or their talents. Indeed, this sort of knowledge has ever been sought after with avidity, for it is to the biography of departed eminence, when composed with characteristic truth, that posterity must refer for examples of every quality and action that is praiseworthy, great, and glorious. But, of all others, the lives of poets have ever proved particularly entertaining; because, as Horace justly observes, they are born, but not made. "Poeta nascitur, non fit ;" and because, in all ages, they have from the greatest to those of the most meagre pretensions, generally experienced the utmost extremes of good and evil, the most extraordinary vicissitudes and shades of calamity.

Gibbon has observed, that "the nobility of the Spencers has been illustrated and enriched by the trophies of a Marlborough, but that the Fairy Queen is the most precious jewel in their coronet;" by which he evidently means, that titles receive additional lustre, when those to whom they descend, or are given, possess poetical qualifications. It therefore follows, that these qualifications, when united with piety and genius, are holden by the world in such deservedly high estimation, that no earthly recompense can reflect on them additional grandeur.

But the labours of the necrologist, though excessive, are, weighed in the scale of impartiality and justice, generally

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deficient. They are often executed from mercenary motives, by men, who write to share the fame of the deceased;" by near relatives, from whom an exposure of the faults of their object cannot be expected, and whose pictures are all lucid and brilliant, without those touches of shade which afford a proper contrast to a mass of splendour. On the other hand, if the life of a man of eminence be written by a stranger, who is emulous to acquire for his own productions that portion of applause to which all who write aspire, we are led to expect that his biography will be tinctured with a degree of envious asperity:-we have seen, that the immortal Pope could not refrain from envying, and even persecuting, those who aspired to the favour of the Muses; and we have no reason to assert, notwithstanding our boasted progress in illumination and theophilanthropy, that the present is more liberal than preceding ages. The most material imperfection, however, in lives of deceased characters, composed by persons unconnected with their families, is a want of proper and authentic materials, from which alone an imperishable wreath should be formed, for the tombs of those whose characters and abilities entitle them to our attentive consideration. Such was the case with respect to Dr. JOHN LANGHORNE; for, though many attempts have been made to write his biography, they have all, in a great degree, failed, by omitting very interesting incidents in his mortal career. Indeed, the materials of the writers were so scanty and unconnected, that the public have, till very lately, been unacquainted even with his ancestors, his birth, and his education.

But, at length, these deficiencies have been supplied in a brief, though interesting, account, written by his son, the Rev. J. T. LANGHORNE, Vicar of Harmondsworth and Drayton, Middlesex; and we now learn, that our author's father was the Rev. JOSEPH LANGHORNE, who held a living in Lincolnshire, but who died at an early age, leaving a widow and four children, of which the doctor was the youngest.

* Vide a very interesting and uncommonly cheap volume, entitled a "Diction ary of Celebrated Women, by Matilda Betham," articles THOMAS,

He was born at Kirkby-Stephen, Westmorland, in March, 1735, and was only four years old at the death of his father, when his mother, being in circumstances far from affluent, gave him the first rudiments of education, which he afterwards completed at Appleby. His progress in classical learning is a striking instance, to the many on record, of what is to be effected by perseverance and a desire for study; he having been able, at the early age of thirteen, to read and construe the Greek Testament.

At the age of eighteen, having acquired a perfect knowledge of ancient literature, and his circumstances being inadequate to his expectations, he engaged himself as a private tutor in a family near Ripon, where he wrote "Studley Park, an Elegy written amongst the Ruins of Pontefract Castle, and an Ode to the River Eden," all of which being considered by their author as nothing more than juvenile efforts, were despised by him, though they really possess a considerable portion of merit. Studley Park was written in praise of a beautiful spot, and perhaps with a hope of finding a patron in its possessor, in which, however, having failed, he did not retain the poem in his collection; but it is now before the public, and by no means diminishes the reputation he has gained.

He afterwards became an assistant at the free-school in Wakefield, where he soon acquired deacon's orders, and gained much popularity as a preacher. In 1759, he was engaged as a preceptor to the sons of R. Cracroft, Esq. of Hackthorn, Lincolnshire, and here he soon gave a proof of the liberality of his heart, by publishing a volume of poems for the benefit of a reduced gentleman in distress. In the preface to this volume he feelingly observes, "If any one, into whose hands this work shall fall, should be dissatisfied with his purchase, let him remember that it is published for the relief of a gentleman in distress; and that he has not thrown away five shillings in the purchase of a worthless book, but contributed so much to the assistance of indigent merit. I had rather have my readers feel that pleasure which arises from the sense of having done one

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