1 With louder plaints the mother spoke her woes, O Luxury! thou curs'd by Heaven's decree, At ev'ry draught more large and large they grow, And half the bus'ness of destruction done; Down where yon anch'ring vessel spreads the sail, And thou, sweet Poetry, thou loveliest maid, THE HERMIT. A BALLAD. "TURN, gentle hermit of the dale, "For here forlorn and lost I tread, "Forbear, my son," the hermit cries, To tempt the dang'rous gloom; For yonder faithless phantom flies To lure thee to thy doom. "Here to the houseless child of want My door is open still; And though my portion is but scant, "Then turn to-night, and freely share Whate'er my cell bestows; My rushy couch and frugal fare, "No flocks that range the valley free To slaughter I condemn : Taught by that Pow'r that pities me, I learn to pity them: "But from the mountain's grassy side A guiltless feast I bring; A scrip with herbs and fruits supplied, And water from the spring. Our Will* shall be wild fowl, of excellent flavor; And Dickt with his pepper shall heighten the sa vor: Our Cumberland's sweet-bread its place shall obtain ; And Douglas is pudding, substantial and plain: If he had any faults, he has left us in doubt, We scarcely can praise it, or blame it too much; To persuade Tommy Townshend to lend him a vote; Who, too deep for his hearers, still went on re- And thought of convincing, while they thought of Though equal to all things, for all things unfit; To eat mutton cold, and cut blocks with a razor. While the owner ne'er knew half the good that was The pupil of impulse, it forc'd him along, His conduct still right, with his argument wrong; Still aiming at honor, yet fearing to roam, own. Here lies honest Richard, whose fate I must Alas! that such frolic should now be so quiet: Here Cumberland lies, having acted his parts, Here Douglas retires from his toils to relax, When satire and censure encircled his throne; Macpherson write bombast, and call it a style; No countryman living their tricks to discover; Here lies David Garrick, describe him who can, *Mr. William Burke, Secretary to General Conway, An abridgment of all that was pleasant in man: and Member for Bedwin. † Mr. Richard Burke, Collector of Grenada. ↑ Mr. Richard Cumberland, author of the West-Indian, Fashionable Lover, The Brothers, and other dramatic pieces. § Dr. Douglas, Bishop of Salisbury, who no less distinguished himself as a citizen of the world, than a sound critic, in detecting several literary mistakes (or rather forgeries) of his countrymen; particularly Lauder on Milton, and Bower's History of the Popes. David Garrick, Esq. ¶ Counsellor John Ridge, a gentleman belonging to the Irish bar. **Sir Joshua Reynolds. † An eminent attorney. tt Mr. T. Townshend, Member for Whitchurch. As an actor, confest without rival to shine; Mr. Richard Burke. This gentleman having slightly fractured one of his arms and legs, at different times, the Doctor has rallied him on those accidents, as a kind of retributive justice for breaking his jests upon other people. †The Rev. Dr. Dodd. Dr. Kenrick, who read lectures at the Devil Tavern, under the title of The School of Shakspeare. § James Macpherson, Esq. who, from the mere force of his style, wrote down the first poet of all antiquity. Like an ill-judging beauty, his colors he spread, 1 Then what was his failing? come, tell it, and burn ye, He was, could he help it? a special attorney. Here Reynolds is laid, and, to tell you my mind, His pencil our faces, his manners our heart: When they talk'd of their Raphaels, Correggios, and stuff, He shifted his trumpet, and only took snuff. STANZAS ON WOMAN. FROM THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD. WHEN lovely woman stoops to folly, And finds too late that men betray, What charm can soothe her melancholy, What art can wash her guilt away? The only art her guilt to cover, To hide her shame from ev'ry eye, To give repentance to her lover, And wring his bosom-is, to die. SONG. O MEMORY! thou fond deceiver, And turning all the past to pain; Thou, like the world, th' opprest oppressing, Sir Joshua Reynolds was so remarkably deaf as to be under the necessity of using an ear-trumpet in company. SAMUEL JOHNSON. SAMUEL JOHNSON, a writer of great eminence, thirteen nights, but has never since appeared on was born in 1709 at Litchfield, in which city his the theatre: Johnson, in fact, found that he was not father was a petty bookseller. After a desultory formed to excel on the stage, and made no further course of school-education, it was proposed to him, trials. 66 by Mr. Corbet, a neighboring gentleman, that he His periodical paper, entitled "The Rambler," should accompany his own son to Oxford as his appeared in. March 1750, and was continued till companion; accordingly, in his nineteenth year, he March 1752. The solemnity of this paper prewas elected a commoner of Pembroke College. vented it at first from attaining an extensive cirFrom young Corbet's departure, he was left to culation; but after it was collected into volumes, it struggle with penury till he had completed a resi- continually rose in the public esteem, and the author dence of three years, when he quitted Oxford had the satisfaction of seeing a tenth edition. The without taking a degree. His father died, in very Adventurer," conducted by Dr. Hawkesworth, narrow circumstances, soon after his return from the succeeded the Rambler, and Johnson contributed university; and for some time he attempted to gain several papers of his own writing. In 1755, the a maintenance by some literary projects. At length, first edition of his "Dictionary" made its appearin 1735, he thought proper to marry a widow twice ance. It was received by the public with general his own age, and far from attractive, either in her applause, and its author was ranked among the person or manners. By the aid of her fortune he greatest benefactors of his native tongue. Modern was enabled to set up a school for instruction in Latin accuracy, however, has given an insight into its and Greek, but the plan did not succeed; and after defects; and though it still stands as the capital a year's experiment, he resolved to try his fortune work of the kind in the language, its authority as a in the great metropolis. Garrick, afterwards the standard is somewhat depreciated. Upon the last celebrated actor, had been one of his pupils, accom- illness of his aged mother, in 1759, for the purpose panied by whom he arrived in London; Johnson of paying her a visit, and defraying the expense of having in his pocket his unfinished tragedy of Irene. her funeral, he wrote his romance of " Rasselas, The first notice which he drew from the judges Prince of Abyssinia," one of his most splendid perof literary merit, was by the publication of "London, formances, elegant in language, rich in imagery, a Poem," in imitation of Juvenal's third satire. and weighty in sentiment. Its views of human life The manly vigor, and strong painting, of this per-are, indeed, deeply tinged with the gloom that overformance, placed it high among works of its kind, shadowed the author's mind; nor can it be praised though it must be allowed, that its censure is coarse for moral effect. and exaggerated, and that it ranks rather as a party, Soon after the accession of George III., a than as a moral poem. It was published in 1738. grant of a pension of 300l. per annum was made For some years Johnson is chiefly to be traced in him by His Majesty during the ministry of Lord the pages of the Gentleman's Magazine, then con- Bute. A short struggle of repugnance to accept a ducted by Cave; and it was for this work that he favor from the House of Hanover was overcome gratified the public with some extraordinary pieces by a sense of the honor and substantial benefit conof eloquence which he composed under the disguise ferred by it, and he became that character, a penof debates in the senate of Liliput, meaning the sioner, on which he had bestowed a sarcastic defiBritish parliament. He likewise wrote various nition in his Dictionary. Much. obloquy attended biographical articles for the same miscellany, of this circumstance of his life, which was enhanced which the principal and most admired was "The when he published, in several of his productions, Life of Savage." arguments which seemed directly to oppose the rising spirit of liberty. The plan of his English Dictionary was laid before the public in a letter addressed to Lord Ches- A long-promised edition of Shakspeare appeared terfield in 1747. In the same year he furnished in 1765; but though ushered in by a preface writGarrick with a prologue on the opening of Drury-ten with all the powers of his masterly pen, the lane theatre, which in sense and poetry has not a edition itself disappointed those who expected much competitor among compositions of this class, except- from his ability to elucidate the obscurities of the ing Pope's prologue to Cato. Another imitation great dramatist. A tour to the Western Islands of of Juvenal, entitled "The Vanity of Human Scotland in 1773, in which he was attended by his Wishes," was printed in 1749, and may be said to enthusiastic admirer and obsequious friend, James reach the sublime of ethical poetry, and to stand at Boswell, Esq. was a remarkable incident of his life, the head of classical imitations. The same year. considering that a strong antipathy to the natives of under the auspices of Garrick, brought on the stage that country had long been conspicuous in his conof Drury-lane his tragedy of Irene." It ranversation. But when, two years afterwards, he |