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DWARD YOUNG was born at Upham near Winchefter, in June 1681. His father, Dr. Edward Young, at that time fellow of Winchester College, was collated in 1682, to a prebend in the collegiate church of Sarum, and afterwards appointed chaplain to King William and Queen Mary, and preferred to the deanery of the faid church; he died at Sarum in 1705, and juftice was done to his memory in a funeral fermon by Bishop Burnet.

Our author remained on the foundation at Winchester college, where he had been placed by his father till the elec tion, after he had attained to his eighteenth year, when he removed to New College, Oxford, and purfued his ftudies with great affiduity. In 1708 he was nominated to a law fellowship at All Souls by Archbishop Tennifon, whofe patronage juftifies Bishop Burnet's character of the father, and reflects honour on the conduct of the fon.

He foon discovered a prevailng paffion for wealth and honours; to attain which, he purfued the beaten track of courting the favour of the titled and the opulent. His firft poetical flight was in 1712, when Queen Anne created in one day no lefs than ten peers. In order to reconcile the people to one at least of the new lords, he published "An Epistle to the Right Honourable George Lord Lanfdowne," from whom he expected patronage. I was obferved, by one of his contemp raries, that in this compo fition the poct points out his panegyric with the extravagance of a young man, who thinks his prefent flock of wealth will never be exhaufted."

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On the appearance of Addison's Cato, in 1713, Young prefixed to it a copy of recommendatory verfes, and the fame year published his Laft Day, a poem, in the compofition of which he feems, from the exordium, to have em ployed a confiderable portion of time. It was infcribed to the Queen, in a dedication in which he tells her Majefty that his only title to the great honour he now does himself is the obligation he formerly received from her royal indulgence; but of that obligation nothing is now known. Young is faid to have been engaged at a fettled flipend as a writer for the court, and to give colour to fuch a fufpicion, the following lines have been quoted from Swift's Rhapsody on Poetry.

Whence Gay was banifh'd in difgrace,
Where Pope will never show his face,
muft torture his invention,

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To flatter knaves, or lofe his penfion.

The poem, though written on a moft folemn fubject, is not without a glance at politics. The ry that the church was in danger, had not yet fubfided, the Laft Day, written by a lay man, was therefore approved by the miniftry and their friends.

Soon after, he publifhed The Force of Religion, or Vanquished Love. This poem is founded on the execution of Lady Jane, and her husband Lord Guildford Dudley in 154-It was inferibed to the Countefs of Salisbury, in language that furpaffes the eulogium of dedication in general, and is highly chracteristic of the author.

In April 1714, he took his degree of Bachelor of Civil Law, and the fame year publifhed a poem on the late queen's death, and the acceffion of George I.. It was infcribed to Addifen, then fecretary to the lords juftices.

In 1719, his tragedy of Bufiris was brought on the ftage, and received with applaufe; the fame year the author took the degree of Doctor of Laws, and lamented the death of Additon in an epiftle addreffed to their common friend Tickel. Soon after appeared A Paraphrafe on the Book of Job, a work which at once evinced the piety and learning of the author.

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In 1721, his tragedy of The Revenge was performed, and met with very great fuccefs. It was dedicated to the Duke of Wharton, whom he acknowledges not only as the defender of his poetry, but the promoter of his future fortune.

His fatires were originally publifhed feparately under the title of The Love of Fame, or The Universal Paffion. The firft appeared in 1725, the last was finished in the beginning of the year 1726. The fifth Satire on Women, was not pubIfhed till 1727, and the fixth not till 1728.

In 1726, he addreffed a poem to Sir Robert Walpole, which the title, The Infialment, fufficiently explains, and at the acceflion of George II. he published Occan, an Ode, prefixed to which were an Ode to the King, Pater Patriæ, and An Foy on Lyric Poetry.

About this time, when he was almoft fifty, he entered into orders, and was foon after appointed chaplain to the king. The tragedy of The Brothers he immediately withdrew from the ftage as unbecoming his new profeffion.

Soon after he affumed the gown, he published in profe A True Efimate of Human Life. dedicated to the Queen, and a fermon preached before the House of Commons, January30th, 1729, on the Martyrdom of King Charles, entitled An Apoty for Princes, or The Reverence due to Government.

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In 1730, he published Imperium Pelagi, a Naval Lyric, in imitation of Pindar's Spirit. The defign was to compliment his majesty on his return from Hanover, and the fucceeding peace. Soon after this fublime attempt, appeared two Epiltles to Pope concerning the Authors of the Age.

In July 30 of the fame year, he was prefented by All Souls College, of which he was a member, to the rectory of Welwyn in Hertfordshire; and in April 1732, married Lady Elizabeth Lee, daughter of the Earl of Leicester, and widow of Colonel Lee, an officer of rank and valour.

His next publication was the Sea Piece in two Odes, with a poetical dedication to Voltaire, whom he had feen when he was in England, at the feat of Mr. Doddington in Dorsetshire, which Thomson, in his Autumn, calls the feat of the mufes;

'Where in the secret bower and winding walk

For virtuous Young and thee they twine the bays.'

In 1740, he lost his wife, who was foon followed to the grave by an amiable daughter, the child of her former hufband. She had been lately married to Mr. Temple, fon of Lord Palmerfton. Mr. Temple did not long furvive his wife. How fuddenly their deaths happened, and how nearly together, no one who has read the Night Thoughts need be informed.

Infatiate Archer! could not one fuffice?

Thy shaft flew thrice, and thrice my peace was flain,
And thrice, ere thrice yon moon had fill'd her horn.

To the forrow Young felt at these loffes, we are indebted for thefe poems. There is a pleasure in sadness which mourners only know. By these extraordinary poems, written after he was fixty, it was the defire of Young principally to be known. He entitled the four volumes which he publifhed-The works of the Author of the Night Thoughts.'

In 1753, the tragedy of The Brothers was at length performed at Drury-Lane; the profits accruing to him from which, as the author, he defigned as a gift to the fociety for the propagation of the Gospel. He had calculated the amount at a thousand pounds; but being deceived in his expectation, through the indifferent reception of the piece, he made up the fum deficient out of his own purfe, a circumftance which, though it failed to increase his reputation as a poet, did him the highest honour as a man.

His

His next publication was The Centaur not Fabulous, in fix letters to a friend on the life in vogue. In the third letter is defcribed the death bed of the gay, young, noble, ingenious, accomplished, and moft wretched Altamont. His laft words were My principles have poifoned my friend; my extravagance has beggared my boy; my kindness has murdered my wife'

In 1762, Young published his last work, Refignation. It was printed by Richardfon (author of Pamela, and other fentimental novels) who died fuddenly during the impreffion of the first edition. He laments him as a friend, and has given fome sketches of his genius.

To teach our paffions fecret fprings
Was his peculiar care,

And deep his genius div'd

In bofoms of the fair.

Nature which favours to the few,
All art beyond imparts,
To him prefented at his birth,

The key of human hearts.

To Refignation was prefixed an apology for its appearance, to which more credit is due than to the generality of fuch apologies, from the author's unufual anxiety that no more productions of his old age fhould difgrace his former fame. From this time the infirmities of old age rendered him incapable of performing any duty, and he refigned himfelf to the direction of his houfe-keeper, whose ascendancy in his family is ridiculed with more ill-nature than wit, in a novel by Kidgell, in 1755, called THE CARD, under the names of Dr. Elwes and Mrs. Trufty. Kidgell had been Young's curate. Dr. Young departed this life on the 5th day of April 1765, and a monument was erected to his memory in Welwyn Church with a concife and modeft infcription.

Of the private habits and domestic manners of Young, curiofity may require more ample information than is to be found in the few scattered notices which the diligence of his biographers have collected, or the zeal and veneration of his friends have supplied.

Singularity feems to have predominated over his moft juvenile practices. Dr. Ridley mentions a report current at Oxford, that when he was compofing, he would shut 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 study. He indulged an early luxury in de

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fcribing the miseries of a world that did not immediately forward his defigns and gratify his expectation. It has been faid, that if he had been a bishop, he would never have written the Night Thoughts.

Dr. Young, as a man, no doubt partook of the foibles incidental to human nature. His leading paffions seem to have been ambition and avarice, from which it has been deemed very fingular, that though he most diligently fought he never obtained any preferment in the church, except that which he procured from the college of which he was a mem ber, without any favour. One obftacle feems to have been his invariable attachment to politics, by which if he gained fome friends he made many enemies.

He was ftrictly attentive to the duties of religion, and read prayers every morning and night to his family when there was no public fervice. He was moderate in his meals, and rarely drank wine except when he was ill, being (as he said) unwilling to wafte the fuccours of fickness in the ftability of health. He lived at a moderate expence, rather inclining to parfimony than profufion, infomuch that he expended annually little more than half his income.

As a divine he was highly efteemed, being a very popular preacher, much followed for the graces and animation of his delivery. Yet his oratorical powers did not always produce the defired effect, for one Sunday, preaching officially at St. James's, though he ftrove to fix the attention of his audience, he could not prevail. This fo affected his feelings, that he fat back in the pulpit, and burst into tears.

The writings of Young may be diftinctly confidered as comprifing eflays, plays, and poems. As an effayift, his Centaur not Fabulous, and his letters on original compofition, are his most confiderable productions, Of the former it may truly be faid, that it has a powerful tendency to promote the cause of religion and virtue. Of the latter, that though the style is fometimes affected and hyperbolical, the fentiments are bold, penetrating and fublime. As a dramarift, he has been fuccessful in imitating the beauties of art, with the energies of natural fire and spirit. None of his productions are in poffeffion of the stage except The Revenge. Though the diction and fentiment of this tragedy are upon the whole animated, brilliant, and claffical, though they paint in glowing language, the fury of rage and revenge, and the agonies of jealoufy, love, and defpair; yet it muft be confeffed, that, with many and great beauties, are interfperfed puerile cant, fuftian and bombast.

With refpect to his poetical productions, it may be faid of Young, as Addison faid of Lee, that they poffefs true

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