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POETICAL WORKS

5

OF

DR. WILLIAM KING.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

WITH THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR.

I fing the various chances of the world,

Thro' which men are by Fate or Fortune hurl'd.
"Tis by no fcheme or method that I go,

But paint in verfe my notions as they flow;
With heat the wanton images purfue,
Fond of the old, yet ftill creating new ;
Fancy myfelf in fome fecure retreat,
Refolve to be content, and fo be great.

VOL. I.

EDINBURG:

AT THE Apollo Peels, BY THE MARTINS.
Anno 1781.

KING.

THE LIFE OF

DR. WILLIAM KING,

THIS ingenious and humorous Poet was fon of Eze kiel King of London, in which city he was born about the year 1663. He was bred with the strictest care from his infancy, and as foon as he became fit for it was put under the care of Dr. Bulby at Weftminster school, where being chosen King's Scholar, his natural good talents received all those improvements from cultivation that might be expected from fo admirable a mafter. He was afterwards elected to Chrift-church College in Oxford, and admitted a ftudent there on Michaelmas term 1681, at the age of eighteen years. With this fituation he was particularly pleased, and made use of the advantages it gave him. He had a strong propensity to letters, and of thofe valuable treasures he daily increased his stock; but being well descended, and becoming carly poffeffed of an easy fortune *, he indulged his genius and

*The author of fome Account of his Life obferves that he was allied to the noble families of Clarendon and Rochester; and feveral paffages of his life mentioned in the course of this Memoir confirms it. The Doctor himself having occafion to fpeak of fome fine pictures of Paulo Veronefe, in the poffeffion afterwards of Lord Harcourt, calls him his Coufin; and among his Hints for making a collection of books, manuscripts,

c. which might tend to the honour of the British name, he propofes an inquiry to be made what lives of merchants and

inclination in the choice method of his ftudies, ran-* ging freely and at large through the pleasant fields of polite literature; and being ravifhed with the sweet purfuit he profecuted it with incredible diligence and affiduity.

It appeared from his loose papers, termed by him Adverfaria, that before he was eight years standing in the university he had read over and made Reflections on twenty-two thoufand and odd hundred books and manufcripts, a few of which we shall give below

citizens of eminency have been wrote. "It is a pity, continues he," if none or few are found. Whether there is not a life wrote "of my grandfather La Motte: he was a merchant of note." With regard to his fortune, we are informed in the Account of his Life, that he enjoyed a pretty paternal eftate in Middlesex and elsewhere; and our Author himself occafionally mentions his eftates in Northampton and Leicefterthire. The passage is in his Animadverfions on Lord Molefworth's Account of Denmark, which because it will furnith no unfit specimen of the taste and manner of that piece, we thall prefent our readers with it as follows. In anfwer to fome of his Lordship's remarks on the poor diet in Denmark he writes thus: "Their peasants "live as plentifully as in other countries; they have good

fleth and falt fith, white meats, roots, &c.; but what figni"fies all this (according to our Author, p. 11.) fince necesaદ ry fresh fith is wanting? I could heartily condole their condition if my tenants in Northampton and Leicestershire "would not take exception; for if they found me once fo inદ dulgent to the peasants of another nation, they would cer"tainly expect a double barrel of Colchefter oyfters by the "next carrier; and without a cod's head, fmelts, or turbot, "I might even go to plough myself for Hodge and Sawney." + Diogenes Laertius, book 1. “Thales being asked how a

as a fpecimen, in order to let the reader into the humour and taste of our Author.

man might moft easily brook misfortunes? answered, "if he "faw his enemies in a worfe condition." It is not agreed con "cerning the Wife Men, or whether indeed they were Seven. "Solon ordained that the guardians of orphans should not "cohabit with their mothers, and that no perfon should be a "guardian to those whofe eftate defcended upon them at the "orphan's decease; that no fealgraver thould keep the feal "of a ring that was fold; that if any man put out the eye of "him who had but one he thould lofe both his own; that "where a man never planted it should be death to take away; that it thould be death for a man to be taken in "drink. Solon's letters, at the end of his life in Laertius, give "us a truer idea of the man than all he has written before, "and are indeed very fine. Solon's to Croefus are very gen"teel; and Pittacus's, on the other fide, as rude and philofo

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phical however, both thew Croefus to have been a very 66 great man.-Anacharfis has an epiftle to Croefus to thank "him for his invitation; and Periander one to all the Wife "Men to invite them to Corinth to him after their return from "Lydia.-Epimenides has an epiftle to Solon to invite him "to Crete under the tyranny of Pififtratus. Epimenides often pretended that he rose from death to life.-Socrates is said "to have affifted Euripides in his tragedies. He was a great "champion of democracy, and extols pleafure as the best "thing a man could enjoy, as Xenophon witneffes in his Syna66 pofium.-Xenophon was modeft to excefs, and the mot "lovely perfon living.-Bion used to say it was more easy to "determine differences between enemies than friends; for "that of two friends one would become an enemy, but of "two enemies one would become a friend-Ariftippus was "a man of a foft temper, and could comply with all perfons, 66 places, and feafons. He could enjoy and fcorn pleasure if "too expenfive to his way of living. He faid pleasure was no "crime, but it was a crime for a man to be a flave to his pleasure. We can have no true character of him from his

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