also mentioned in the Biographia Britannica, that he was dismissed from college; but this report was found to be totally void of foundation, and rested solely on the authority of Dr. Eyre, the schoolfellow of Young at Winchester.

Of the Night Thoughts,* which were published from 1742 to 1744, Young's favourite and most finished poem, it may be said, that they show a mind stored with reading and reflexion, purified by virtuous feelings, and supported by religious hope. There is in them fertility of thought and luxuriance of imagination, an originality in the style, an expansion of sentiment, and an accumulation of argument and illustration, which seems almost boundless. With little or no narrative, and but few touches of personal character, the interest is endeavoured to be maintained by the

*The title of my poem (Night Thoughts) not affected; for I never compose but at night, except sometimes when I am on horseback. Dr. Young, vide Spence's Anecdotes. p. 378. See what Pope said to Warburton on Young's Night Thoughts, in Warton's Pope, vol. iv. p. 235. Miss Hawkins in her Memoirs, i. p. 170. "The Night Thoughts, on their first appearance, were thought to be the production of Tom Hervey, rather than of Young." Dr. Warton says, that Young wrote his Night Thoughts in direct opposition to Pope's view of life in his Essay on Man, which was an argument to make them satisfied even with their present state without looking at another; but Young has painted in colours too dark and uncomfortable. W. Harte assured Dr. Warton he had seen the letter which Young wrote to Pope on the subject. Swift speaks of Young sometimes with praise, and sometimes with contempt.

*

greatness of the subject, the deep and important reflections, and the copious stores of observation. The poem is filled with wise maxims of moral conduct and religious faith: and the poetical language is well chosen without being very select, or elaborately formed. But there is a want of a clear connection in the subject; every image is amplified to the utmost; every argument expanded and varied, as much as the greatest fertility of the fancy could effect. The subject is pursued through every gradation of feeling, and every channel of thought. There is no selection, no discreet and graceful reservation; no mark of that experienced taste that knows exactly when the purpose has been effected, and which leaves the rest to be supplied by the imagination of the reader. Reflection follows on reflection, and thought on thought, in such close succession, that, as in books of maxims, one truth obstructs and obliterates another; an expression, otherwise permanent, is destroyed as soon as formed; and we

So little sensible are we of our own imperfections, that the very last time I saw Dr. Young, he was severely cen suring and ridiculing the false pomp of fustian writers, and the nauseousness of bombast. I remember he said that such torrents of eloquence were muddy as well as noisy, and that these violent and tumultuous authors put him in mind of a passage of Milton, ii. 539. Some excellent observations on these poems of Young are to be found in Campbell's Specimens, vol. vi. p. 43. Dr. Johnson's Criticisms at the end of Croft's Life must not be overlooked.

matter.

feel, I am afraid, in reading this poem of Young, as we do in the perusal of Seneca, that no progress, no advancement is made: we seem to move in a perpetually dazzling circle of argument and reflection, and analogy, and metaphor, and illustration, without the power of passing beyond it; and it is on this account that the perusal of both these writers, however delightful for a season, soon fatigues and dissatisfies the mind. Any one who will compare the moral writings of Cicero and Seneca in this respect, will soon mark the distinction to which I allude. Besides, the copiousness of expression outruns the extent of the The words overload the subject; and the magnificence of language is not always supported by a corresponding grandeur of thought. There is too great a uniformity of subject for the length of the poem, to keep the attention enlivened, the fancy amused, or even the feelings awake; especially when not adorned by any peculiar harmony of numbers, or connected with the progress of a narrative. In the conclusion of the Centaur not Fabulous, Young acknowledges his not being able to quit his subject. "My busy mind (he says) perpetually suggests new hints; my heart knows not how to refrain from pursuing them. The volume grows upon my hands, till its bulk would defeat its end; new rays of thought dart in upon me, which, like cross lights, confound and perplex each other." The flow of his versi

fication was with Young of secondary importance, and made subservient to the vigorous enforcement of the subject.* Nothing can be well more inartificial, or inharmonious; it is cut up into short sentences, and terminates with the pause at the end of the line. Very seldom can it boast of that flowing harmony and those modulated cadences which other poets have produced; and which in Milton, and among those of later times, have arisen to the highest excellence, and afforded the most exquisite delight. The high strain of religious feeling, and elevated language, is often debased by vulgar or satirical expressions, as "the same old slabbered tale,”. 'peruse the parsoı'd page," or when he says,

Walk thoughtful on the silent solemn shore
Of that vast ocean it must sail too soon,
And put good works aboard.

When he calls God "the great Philanthropist,” it surely is in a taste that cannot be approved; and such lines as the following

When later there 's less time to play the fool

* As to Dr. Young (says Aaron Hill in a letter), I know and love the merit of his moral meanings, but am sorry that he overflows his banks, and will not remind himself, when he has said enough upon a subject, that it is then high time to stop. He has beauties scattered up and down his Complaints, that had he not so separated them by lengths of cooling intervals, had been capable of carrying into future ages such a fire, as few past men ever equalled. Vide Richardson's Corresp. 102.

are out of harmony with the grave and sacred character of the poem. I remember once (said Warburton) reading a poem called the Night Thoughts to Mr. Pope, where the poet was always on the strain and labouring for expression: "This is a strange man," said he, "he seems to think with the apothecaries that Album Græcum is better than an ordinary stool."

In 1745, Young wrote Reflexions on the Public Situation of the Kingdom, addressed to the Duke of Newcastle; it was originally printed as the conclusion of the Night Thoughts, though very properly he did not include it in the collection of his other works; the mediocrity of its execution has consigned it to a deserved oblivion.

In 1753, the tragedy of the Brothers,* which had lain by him above thirty years, appeared on the stage. Young had intended to apply the profits of this play to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, but as they fell much short of his expectations, he made up the sum of a thousand pounds from his own pocket.

His next performance was the 'Centaur not Fabulous,' in six letters to a friend, on the life in vogue; the conclusion is dated November 29th, 1754; the character of Altamont has been given, whether justly or not, to the notorious Lord Eus

*See an account of the 'Brothers' when it was rehearsed, and of the line, "I will speak to you in thunder," in the life of A. Bellamy, vol. ii. 144.