INVISIBILIA NON DECIPIUNT. The Things unfeeń do not decieve us. Yet notwithstanding this Gloominefs of Temper, hé was fond of innocent Sports and Amufements: He 'Inftituted an Affembly and a Bowling-Green in his Parish, and often promoted the Mirth of the Company in Perfon. His Wit was ever poignant,* and always levelled at those who showed 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 Sin. Dr. Young thus addressed him Thou art fo witty, profligate, and thin, Thou feem'ft a Milton with his Death and Sin. As to his Character as a Poet, his Compofition was Inftinct in his Youth, with as much Vanity as was neceffary to excell in that Art. He published a Collection of fuch of his Works as he thought the belt, in 1761, in four Volumes in duodecimo, and another was published fince. Among thefe, his Satires intitled the Love of Fame, or the Univerfal Paffion, are by moit, confidered as his principal Performance. They are finely characteristic of that exceffive Pride, or rather Folly of following prevailing Fashions, and aiming to be more than we really are, or can poffibly be. They were written in early Life; and if Smoothnefs of Stile, Brilliancy of Wit, and Simplicity of Subject can enfure Applaufe, our Author may de mand it on this Occafion. After the Death of his Wife, as he had never given any Attention to domestic Affairs, fo knowing his Unfitness for it, he referred the whole Care and Management of his Family to his Housekeeper, to whom he left a handsome Legacy. It is obferved by Dean Swift, that if Dr. Young in his Satires, had been more merry or fevere, they would *In his laft Illness, a Friend of the Doctor's calling to know how he did, and mentioning the Death of a Perfon, who had been in a Decline a long Time, faid he was quite worn to a Shell, by the Time he died; very likely, replied the Doctor, but what is become of the Kernel? would have been more generally pleafing; because Mankind are more apt to be pleafed with ill-Nature and Mirth than with folid Senfe and Inftruction; it is also observed of his Night Thoughts, that though they are chiefly Flights of Thinking almoft fuperhuman, fuch as the Defcription of Death from his fecret Stand, 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 Gloominess and Melancholy*, which have a difagreeable Tendency, and must be unpleafing to a chearful 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 Benefits of true Piety efpecially in the Views of Death, and the most unanswerable Arguments in fupport of the Soul's Immortality and a future State. *The Night Thoughts undoubtedly have their Defects, as well as Beauties, but 'tis generally allowed the latter are far more numerous, and fo remarkably ftriking and confpicuous to the difcerning Reader, as in his View to echpfe the Failings which otherwise might be discovered therein. Dr. YOUNG was convinced of the Impropriety of writing the Night Thoughts in a Stile fo much above the Underftanding of common Readers, and faid to a Friend a Week or two before he died, that was he to publish such another Treatife, (refpecting fubjects) it should be in lefs elevated Language, and more suited to the Capacities of all. Life, Death, and Immortality. To the RIGHT HONOURABLE ARTHUR ONSLOW, Efq; SPEAKER of the House of COMMONS. IR D Nature's fweet Reftorer, balmy Sleep 1 TH Where Fortune fmiles; the Wretched he forfakes: From fhort (as usual) and disturb'd Repose I wake: How happy they, who wake no more! Tumult'ous; where my wreck'd defponding Thought, At Random drove, her Heim of Reafon loft: Night Night, fable Goddess! from her Ebon Throne, In rayless Majefty, now ftretches forth 20 215 Her leaden Sceptre, o'er a flumb'ring world. 3༠ The Grave, your Kingdom: There this Frame fhall A victim facred to your dreary Shrine. But what are Ye THOU, who didft put to Flight Primæval Silence, when the Morning Stars Exulting, fhouted o'er the rifing Ball; [fall 35 O THOU! whofe Word from folid Darkness ftruck Through this Opaque of Nature and of Soul, 45. .50 The Bell ftrikes One. We take no Note of Time, 55 But from its Lofs. To give it then a Tongue, Is wife in Man. As if an Angel fpoke, I feel the folemn found. If heard aright, It is the Knell of my departed Hours: Where are they? With the Years beyond the Flood. de It is the Signal that demands Difpatch How much is to be done? My Hopes and Fears 65 Poor Penfioner on the Bounties of an Hour ? 75 A Worm a God!- -I tremble at myself, 80 85 90 95 "Tis paft Conjecture; all Things rife in Proof: While o'er my Limbs Sleep's foft Dominion fpreads, What tho' my Soul fantastic Measures trod O'er fairy Fields; or mourn'd along the Gloom Of pathlefs Woods; or down the craggy Steep Hurl'd headlong, fwam with Pain the mantled Pool; 'Or fcal'd the Cliff; or danc'd on hollow Winds, With antic Shapes? wild Natives of the Brain! Her ceaseless Flight, tho' devious, speaks her Nature Of subtler Effence than the trodden Clod ; Active, aëreal, tow'ring, unconfin'd, Unfetter'd with her grofs Companion's Fall. Ev'n filent Night proclaims my Soul immortal : Ev'n filent Night proclaims eternal Day. B 2 100 For |