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respects, my mind is altered. But I dare not make resolutions.' tioning former times, and the days of his youth, in which they frequently conversed about, and were both clearly convinced of, the necessity of inward and experimental piety, he answered-' I was then very deficient, but I have since been much more shaken.' Visiting the sick in a formal customary manner, being represented as unprofitable, he replied, ⚫ Oh! it is not a time to be solicitous about forms! Here is a scene, indeed, enough to bring down the grandeur of many, if they could see it. I buoyed myself up with the hope of many days.' Recommending him to the great object, Christ within, the hope of glory, to which his mind was measurably turned, his brother seemed to withdraw, on which he clasped his hand, and took a solemn farewell.

"He continued in mutability about two days longer, altogether in a calm and rational state. About twelve hours before his decease, his speech much faltered: but, by some broken expressions, it appeared that the religious concern of his mind was continued.

"On the 12th day of the 12th month, 1783, he departed this life in remarkable quietness, without sigh or groan, and was buried in friends' burying ground on the 18th, being nearly 54 years of age.

"The publication of these Memoirs proceeds not from partiality to our deceased friend: they are preserved as a word of reproof to the careless, and of comfort to the mourners in Zion.

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May none, in a day of health and prosperity, reject the visitation of his divine grace and favour, who hath declared, that his spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh.' Nor, on the other, may the penitent, and truly awakened, at no time despair of that mercy and forgiveness which the Lord hath promised to them who sincerely repent."

His Critical Essays were published in 1785, by Mr. Hoole, who prefixed a life, written with much affection, yet with impartiality. He loved the man, and he freely criticises the poet. Of his peculiar habits we have only one anecdote :-" He preferred the time for poetical composition, when the rest of the family were in bed; and it was frequently his custom to sit in a dark room, and when he had composed a number of lines, he would go into another room where a candle was burning, in order to commit them to paper. Though in general very regular in his hour of retiring to rest, he would sometimes be up great part of the night, when he was engaged in any literary work."

As a poet, he may be allowed to rank among those who possess genius in a moderate degree; who please by short efforts and limited inspirations; but whose talents are better displayed in moral reflection and pathetic sentiment than in flights of fancy. His Elegies, as they were the first, are among the best of his performances. Simplicity appears to have been his general aim, and he was of opinion that it was too little studied by modern writers. In the Mexican Prophecy, however, and in Serim, there is a fire and spirit worthy of the highest school. His Amwell will ever deserve a distinguished place among descriptive poems; although it is liable to all the objections attached to descriptive poetry. But he cannot be denied the merit of being original in many individual passages; and he appears to have viewed Nature with the eye of a genuine poet. He has himself pointed out some coincidences with former poets, which were accidental; and perhaps others may be discovered, without detracting from the independence of his Muse. His feeblest effort is the Essay on Painting, a hasty sketch, in which he professed himself,

and that not in very humble terms, to be the rival of Hayley*, on the same subject. The public, I am afraid, has decided against him. Upon the whole, however, the vein of pious and moral reflection, and the benevolence and philanthropy, which pervade all his poems, will continue to make them acceptable to those who read to be improved, and are of opinion that pleasure is not the sole end of poetry.

4 See his two letters in Forbes's Life of Dr. Beattie, vol. ii. but especially his letter to the Critical Reviewers. C

ADVERTISEMENT.

SUCH of the following pieces as were formerly published having been honoured with general approbation, any apology for reprinting them must be unnecessary. The others, which constitute the principal part of this volume, it is apprehended, are not of inferior merit; and the whole may perhaps afford an innocent and agreeable amusement to the lovers of nature and poetry.

AMWELL, 1782.

POEMS

OF

JOHN SCOTT.

EPIDEMIC MORTALITY,

FROM ECCL. XII.

PUBLISHED IN THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE 1753.

T%

move unthinking youth to just regard,

On Judah's plains thus sung the royal bard.
"Thy Maker, God, in early time revere !
Ere evil days, those dreadful days, draw near,
When health shall fly, and pleasure leave the plain,
And woe, and languor, and distress remain;
When stars, nor Moon, nor Sun, shall cheer the skies;
On Earth, when pestilence enrag'd shall rise;
The rain scarce past, when threat'ning clouds return,
And sickly mists ascend, and south winds burn;
When the bold guarders of the house shall shake,
And, pain'd, their station at the door forsake;
When the fierce heroes, dreadless in the field,
Bow with disease, and slowly drooping yield;
When, freed from labour, captives idle lie,
Nor, though their numbers lessen'd, find employ;
When the proud daughters, of their beauty vain,
Griev'd for their friends, or for themselves in pain,
At the high windows spread their charms no more,
But all sequester'd in the dark deplore;
When barr d the gates, and clos'd the doors appear,
And scarce of grinding the faint sounds they hear;
Long ere the dawn, when early mourners rise,
The solemn rites of grief to exercise.

Nor songs are heard, nor mirthful minstrels meet;
Death's in the house, and silence in the street!
When e'en high places shall be seats of fear;
Still in the way when danger shall be near;
When the thick, sultry, foul, and stagnant air
Unseen infection scatters ev'ry where;
When the ripe almond shall be pluck'd no more,
Despis'd untasted all its luscious store!

Wide o'er the land when locusts sha'l be spread,
Dead all the crowds that on their numbers fed:
When fairest objects fail to move desire,
Of youth extinguish'd all the sprightly fire:

Because the time of desolation 's come,

And man swift passes to his final home;
And pensive mourners range about the street,
And rend their garments, and their bosoms beat."

VERSES

OCCASIONED BY THE DESCRIPTION OF THE MOLIAN HARP,
IN FEBRUARY MAGAZINE, 1754.

UNTAUGHT o'er strings to draw the rosin'd bow,
Or melting strains on the soft flute to blow,
With others long I mourn'd the want of skill
Resounding roofs with harmony to fill.
Till happy now th' Eolian lyre is known,
And all the powers of music are my own.
Swell all thy notes, delightful harp, O! swell!
Inflame thy poet to describe thee well,
When the full chorus rises with the breeze,
Or, slowly sinking, lessens by degrees,
To sounds more soft than amorous gales disclose,
At evening panting on the blushing rose;
More sweet than all the notes that organs breathe,
Or tuneful echoes, when they die, bequeathe;
Oft where some Sylvan temple decks the grove,
The slave of easy indolence I rove;
There the wing'd breeze the lifted sash pervades,
Each breath is music, vocal all the shades.
Charm'd with the soothing sound, at ease reclin'd,
To Fancy's pleasing pow'r I yield my mind:
And now enchanted scenes around me rise,
And some kind Ariel the soft air supplies:
Now lofty Pindus through the shades I view,
Where all the Nine their tuneful art pursue:
To me the sound the panting gale conveys,
And all my heart is ecstasy and praise.
Now to Arcadian plains at once convey'd,
Some shepherd's pipe delights his favourite maid,
Mix'd with the murmurs of a neighbouring stream,
I hear soft notes that suit an amorous theme!

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