His adherence to lord Townshend ended in nothing but a nomination (May 1729) to be clerk-extraordinary of the Privy Council, which produced no immediate profit; for it only placed him in a state of expectation and right of fucceffion, and it was very long before a vacancy admitted him to profit. Soon afterwards he married, and fettled himself in a very pleafant houfe at Wickham in Kent, where he devoted himself to learning, and to piety. Of his learning the late Collection exhibits evidence, which would have been yet fuller if the differtations which accompany his verfion of Pindar had not been improperly omitted. Of his piety the influence has, I hope, been extended far by his Obfervations on the Refurrection, publifhed in 1747, for which the Univerity of Oxford created him a Doctor of Laws by diploma (March 30, 1748), and would doubtlefs have reached yet further had he lived to complete what he had for fome time meditated, the Evidences of the truth of the New Teftament. Perhaps it may not be without effect to tell, that he read the prayers of the publick liturgy every morning to his family, and that on Sunday evening he called his fervants into the parlour, and read to them firft a fermon, and then prayers. Crafhaw is now not the only maker of verfes to whom may be given the two venerable names of Poet and Saint. He was very often vifited by Lyttelton and Pitt, who, when they were weary of faction and debates, ufed at Wickham to find books and quiet, a decent table, and literary converfation. There is at Wickham a walk made by Pitt; and, what is of far more importance, importance, at Wickham Lyttelton received that conviction which produced his Differtation on St. Paul. These two illuftrious friends had for a while liftened to the blandishments of infidelity, and when Weft's book was published, it was bought by fome who did not know his change of opinion, in expectation of new objections against Chriftianity; and as infidels do not want malignity, they revenged the difappointment by calling him a methodist. Mr. Weft's income was not large; and his friends endeavoured, but without fuccefs, to obtain an augmentation. It is reported, that the education of the young prince was offered to him, but that he required a more extenfive power of fuperintendence than it was thought proper to allow him. In time, however, his revenue was improved; he lived to have one of the lucrative clerkships of the Privy Council (1752); and Mr. Pitt at laft had it in his power to make him treasurer of Chelfea Hofpital. He was now fufficiently rich; but wealth came too date to be long enjoyed: nor could it fecure him from the calamities of life; he loft (1755) his only son ; and the year after (March 26) a ftroke of the palfy brought to the grave one of the few poets to whom the grave might be without its terrors. Of his tranflations I have only compared the first Olympick Ode with the original, and found my expectation furpaffed, both by its elegance and its exactnefs. He does not confine himself to his author's train of ftanzas; for he faw that the difference of the languages required a different mode of verfification. The first ftrophe is eminently happy; in the fecond he has a little ftrayed from Pindar's meaning, who fays, if thou, my foul, wishest to Speak of games, look not in the defert sky for a planet hotter than the fun, nor fball we tell of nobler games than thofe of Olympia. He is fometimes too paraphraftical. Pindar beftows upon Hiero an epithet, which, in one word, fignifies delighting in horfes; a word which, in the tranflation, generates thefe lines: Hiero's royal brows, whofe care Tends the courfer's noble breed, Pleas'd to train the youthful fteed. Pindar fays of Pelops, that he came alone in the dark to the White Sea; and Weft, Near the billow-beaten fide which however is lefs exuberant than the former paffage. A work of this kind muft, in a minute examination, difcover many imperfections; but Weft's verfion, fo far as I have confidered it, appears to be the product of great labour and great abilities. His Inftitution of the Garter (1742) is written with fufficient knowledge of the manners that prevailed in the age to which it is referred, and with great elegance of diction; but, for want of a procefs of events, neither knowledge nor elegance preferve the reader from wearinefs. His Imitations of Spenfer are very fuccefsfully performed, both with respect to the metre, the language, and the fiction; and being engaged at once by the excellence of the fentiments, and the artifice of the copy, copy, the mind has two amusements together. But fuch compofitions are not to be reckoned among the great atchievements of intellect, because their effect is local and temporary; they appeal not to reafon or paffion, but to memory, and pre-fuppofe an accidental or artificial state of mind. An Imitation of Spenfer is nothing to a reader, however acute, by whom Spenfer has never been perufed. Works of this kind may deferve praise, as proofs of great industry, and great nicety of obfervation; but the highest praise, the praise of genius, they cannot claim. The nobleft beauties of art are thofe of which the effect is co-extended with rational nature, or at least with the whole circle of polished life; what is lefs than this can be only pretty, the plaything of fashion, and the amufement of a day. THERE is in the Adventurer a paper of verfes given to one of the authors as Mr. Weft's, and fupposed to have been written by him. It should not be concealed, however, that it is printed with Mr. Jago's name in Dodfley's Collection, and is mentioned as his in a Letter of Shenftone's. Perhaps Weft gave it without naming the author, and Hawkefworth, receiving it from him, thought it his; for his he thought it, as he told me, and as he tells the publick. COLLINS. COLLINS. WIL ILLIAM COLLLINS was born at Chichefter on the twenty-fifth of December, about 1720. His father was a hatter of good reputation. He was in 1733, as Dr. Warton has kindly informed me, admitted fcholar of Winchefter College, where he was educated by Dr. Burton. His English exercifes were better than his Latin. He first courted the notice of the publick by fome verfes to a Lady weeping, publifhed in The Gentleman's Magazine. In 1740, he stood firft in the lift of the scholars to be received in fucceffion at New College; but unhappily there was no vacancy. This was the original misfortune of his life. He became a Commoner of Queen's College, probably with a feanty maintenance; but was in about half a year elected a Demy of Magdalen College, where he continued till he had taken a Bachelor's degree, and then fuddenly left the Univer fity; for what reafon I know not that he told. He |