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dorned with an elegant piece of needle-work by the late Lady Betty Young t

Before the Doctor died; he ordered all his manufcripts to be burnt. Thofe that knew how much he expreffed in a small compafs, and that he never wrote on trivial fubjects, will lament both the excefs of his modefty (if I may fo term. it) and the irreparable lofs to pofterity; elpecially when it is confidered, that he was the intimate acquaintance of Addison, and was himself one of the writers of the Spectator.

In his lifetime he published two or three fermons, one of which was preached before the House of Commons.) THE -He left an only fon and heir, Mr. Frederic Young, who had the first part of his education at Winchester school, and became a fcholar upon the Foundation; was fent, in confequence thereof, to New College in Oxford; but there being no vacancy, (tho' the Society waited for one no lefs than two years), he was admitted in the mean time in Baliol College, where he behaved fo imprudently as to be forbidden the College. This mifconduct difobliged his father fo much, that he never would fuffer him to come into his fight afterwards; However, by his will he bequeathed to him, after a few legacies, his whole fortune, which was confiderable.

As a Christian and divine, he might be faid to be an example of primeval piety; He gave a remarkable inftance of this one Sunday, when preaching in his turn at St. James's; for, though he ftrove to gain the attention of his audience, when he found he could not prevail, his pity for their folly got the better of all decorum; he fat back in the pulpit, and burft into a flood of tears.

In the middle of it are inscribed these words, “I am the bread of life." On the north side of the chancel is this inscription, as supposed by the Doctor's orders, VIRGINIBUS --increase in Wisdom and Understanding ;" and opposite an the south side, "PUERISQUE―aud in favour with Go? Ser-App.to Biog.Brit.

and Man."

The turn of his mind was naturally folemn; and he ufually, when at home in the country, fpent many hours in a day walking along the tombs in his own church-yard; His converfation as well as writings, had all a reference to a future life; and this turn of mind mixed itself even with his improvements in gardening : He had, for inftance, an alcove, with a bench fo well painted in it, that, at a distance, it seemed to be real, but, upon a nearer approach, the deception was perceived, and this motto appeared,

INVISIBILIA NON DECIPIUNT.

The things unseen do not deceive us.

Yet, notwithstanding this gloominefs of temper, he was fond of innocent sports and amufements. He inftituted an affembly and a bowling-green in his parifh, and often promoted the mirth of the company in perfon. His wit was ever poignant*, and always levelled at those who fhowed any contempt for decency and religion. His epigram, fpoken extempore upon Voltaire, is well known : Voltaire happening to ridicule Milton's allegorical perfonages of death and fin, Dr. Young thus addreffed

him :

Thou art fo witty, profligate and thin,

Thou feem'ft a Milton with his death and fin.

As to his character as a poet, his compofition was inftinct in his youth, with as much vanity as was neceffary to excel in that art. He publifhed a collection of fuch of his works as he thought the beft, in 1761, in four volumes, in duodecimo; and another was publifhed fince.

*In bis last ilness, a friend of the Doctor calling to know bow he did, and mentioning the death of a person, who bad been in a decline a long time, said he was quite worn to a shell by the time he died; very likely, replied the Doctor, but what is become of the kernel ?

Among these his fatires, intitled The Love of Fame, or The Univerfal Paffion, are by moft confidered as his principalperformance. They are finely characteristic of that exceffive pride, or rather folly, of following prevailing fafhions, and aiming to be more than we really are, or can poffibly be. They were written in early life; and if fmoothness of ftyle, brilliancy of wit, and fimplicity of fubject, can enfure applaufe, our author may demand it on this occafion. After the death of his wife, as he had never gi ven any attention to domestic affairs, fo knowing his unfitnefs for it, he referred the whole care and management of his family to his house-keeper, to whom he left a handsome legacy.

It is obferved by Dean Swift, that if Dr. Young, in his fatires, had been more merry or fevere, they would have been more generally pleafing; because mankind are more apt to be pleased with ill-nature and mirth, than with folid fenfe and inftruction. It is alfo obferved of his Night Thoughts, that, though they are chiefly flights of thinking almoft fuper-human, fuch as the description of death, from his fecret ftand, noting down the follies of a Bacchanalian Society, the epitaph upon 'the departed world, and the iffuing of Satan from his dungeon; yet these, and a great number of other remarkable fine thoughts, are fometimes overcaft with an air of gloominefs and melancholy*, which have a difagreeable tendency, and must be unpleafing to a cheerful mind; however, it must be acknowledged by all, that they evidence a fingular genius, a lively fancy, an extenfive knowledge of men and things, efpecially of the feelings of the human heart, and paint in the ftrongest colours, the vanity of life, with all its fading honours and emoluments, the be

*The Night Thoughts undoubtedly have their defects, as well as beauties; but 'tis generally allowed the latter are far more numerous, and so remarkably striking and conspicuous to the discerning Reader, as, in bis view, to eclipse the failings which otherwise might be discovered therein.

nefits of true piety, especially in the views of death, and the most unanswerable arguments in fupport of the foul's immortality, and a future state.

G. W.

DR. YOUNG was convinced of the impropriety of writing the Night Thoughts in a ftyle fo much above the understanding of common Readers, and faid to a friend, a week or two before he died, that was he to publifh fuch another treatife, (refpecting fubjects), it. fhould be in lefs elevated language, and more fuited to the capacities of all.

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THE

COMPLAIN T.

NIGHT THE FIRST.

ON

LIFE, DEATH, AND IMMORTALITY.

TR

pays

IR'D Nature's fweet reftorer, balmy Sleep!
He, like the world, liis ready vifit pa
Where Fortune fimiles; the wretched he forfakes;
Swift on his downy pinion flies from woe,
And lights on lids unfully'd with a tear.

From fhort (as ufual) and disturb'd repofe

I wake: How happy they who wake no more !
Yet that were vain, if dreams infeft the grave.
I wake, emerging from a fea of dreams

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Tumultous, where my wreck'd defponding thought,
From wave to wave of fancy'd mifery,

At random drove, her helm of reafon loft:
Tho' now reftor'd, 'tis only change of pain,
(A bitter change !) feverer for fevere:

The Day too fhort for my diftrefs; and Night,
Even in the zenith of her dark domain,

15°

Is funfhine to the colour of my fate.

Night, fable goddess! from her ebon throne,

In raylefs majefty, now ftretches forth

Her leaden fceptre o'er a flumb'ring world.

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Silence, how dead! and darkness, how profound!

Nor eye, nor listening ear, an object finds :

Creation fleeps. 'Tis as the general pulfe
Of life ftood ftill, and Nature made a pause;
An awful paufe! prophetic of her end.
And let her prophecy be foon fulfill'd ;

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