finefs of accefs, his humanity to the diftreffed, his impartial adminiftration of justice, and his great difpatch of bufinefs, engaged the affection and veneration of all who approached him. By conftantly delivering his reafons for every decree he made, the court of chancery became an inftructive fchool of equity; and his decifions were generally attended with fuch conviction to the parties, against whofe intereft they were given, that their acquiefcence ufually prevented the expence and trouble of appeals. As no fervile expedient raifed him to power, his countrymen knew he would make ufe of none to support himself in it. His private life was the mirrour of every virtue; his piety was exalted, rational, and unaffected. In his conversation was united the utmoft freedom of debate, with the highest goodbreeding, and the vivacity of mirth with primitive fimplicity of manners.”

Such was the noble patron by whose death Mr. Thomfon faw himfelf reduced from a genteel competency to a state of precarious dependence; the chancellor having made him his fecretary of briefs, a place of little duty or attendance, fuited to his retired way of living, and affording an income fufficient for his moderate demands. This place fell with his patron; yet his genius was not depreffed, nor his temper hurt by this reverfe of fortune. He refumed his natural vivacity after he had paid the tribute of grief to the memory of his deceafed benefactor; and the profits arifing from the fale of his works, together with the liberality of new patrons, enabled him to continue his ufual mode of living, which, though fimple, was focial and elegant. In 1738, his tragedy of AGAMEMNON was acted, and met with fuch a favourable reception, that it produced him a confiderable fum. His friend, Mr. Quin, was likewife very kind to him.

Bu

But his chief dependence, after the death of lord Talbot, was on the protection and bounty of his royal highness Frederick prince of Wales, who, upon the recommendation of the late lord Lyttelton, fettled on our poet a genteel penfion, and always received him very graciously. It so happened, however, that the patronage of his royal highness was, in one instance, prejudicial to Mr. Thomson, owing to the quarrel fubfifting between the prince and the king, when Mr. Thomfon's Tragedy of EDWARD and ELEANORA was ready for the ftage. The refufal of a licence to this piece was confidered as an intended affront to the prince; and there is great reafon to believe this to be true, because there is not a fingle paffage in the play which could render it exceptionable.

His next dramatic performance was the Mafque of ALFRED, in which he was affifted by the late David Mallet, who was his ufeful friend upon many occafions: it was compofed by command of the prince of Wales, for the entertainment of his felect friends in the fummer at Kew; and it was afterwards brought upon the stage, when it met with great fuccefs.

In the year 1745, his TANCRED and SIGISMUNDA was performed, and the ufual applause was defervedly beftowed on this affecting tragedy. He now finished his CASTLE OF INDOLENCE, an allegorical poem in two cantos, a performance highly efteemed by the critical judges of the poetic art: this was the laft work he lived to publish; his Tragedy of COR 10LANUS being only prepared for the ftage, when a violent fever deprived his country, at a premature age, of a most worthy man, and an excellent poet. His death happened on the 27th of Auguft, 1748. His executors were the lord Lyttelton, and Mr. Mitchel, by whofe intereft his orphan tragedy of

CORIOLANUS was brought upon the ftage: from the profits of which, and from the fale of his manufcripts, and other effects, all demands were duly fatisfied, and a handsome sum of money was remitted to his fifters in Scotland. His remains were deposited in the parish church of Richmond, under a plain flone, without any infcription.

Mr. Thomson himself acknowledges, in his Works, that his perfon was not the most promising: he was, indeed, rather robust than graceful, and his countenance was not the most pleasing: his worst appearance was, when he was feen walking alone, in a penfive mood; but when his friends accofted him, and entered into converfation, he would inftantly affume a more amiable afpect, his features appearing to more advantage. He had improved his tafte in poetry upon the best originals, ancient and modern. What he borrows from the ancients, he gives us in an avowed faithful paraphrafe, or tranflation, as may be obferved in a few paffages in his Seasons, taken from Virgil; and in-that beautiful picture from the elder Pliny, where the courfe and gradual increase of the Nile are figured by the stages of a man's life. The autumn was his favourite time for poetical compofition; and the deep filence of the night, the time he commonly chofe for fuch ftudies; fo that he would often be heard walking in his ftudy till near morning, humming over what he was to correct and write out the next day. The amufements of his leifure hours were civil and natural hiftory, voyages, and the best relations of travellers; and, had his fituation favoured it, he would certainly have excelled in gardening, agriculture, and every rural improvement and exercise.

Although he performed on no inftrument, he was paffionately fond of mufick, and would fomeVOL. VI.

times

times liften a full hour at his window to the nightingales in Richmond-gardens. Nor was his tafte lefs exquifite in the arts of painting, fculpture, and architecture: in his travels he had seen all the moft celebrated monuments of antiquity, and the beft productions of modern art; and had ftudied them fo minutely, and with fo true a judgment, that, in fome of his defcriptions in the poem of Liberty, we have the mafter-pieces mentioned placed in a stronger light, perhaps, than if we saw them. As for the more diftinguifhing qualities of his mind and heart, they are better reprefented in his writings than they can be by the pen of any biographer. There his love of mankind, of his country, and friends; his devotion to the Supreme Being, founded on the most elevated and just conceptions of his operations and providence; fhine out in every page. So unbounded was his tendernefs of heart, that it took in even the brute creation. He was extremely affectionate to his fellowmortals it is not indeed 'known, that, through his whole life, he gave any one perfon pain by his writings, or any part of his conduct. He took no part in any literary difputes, and therefore was refpected and unmolefted, even by rival candidates for poetic fame. Thefe amiable virtues, this divine temper of mind, did not fail of their due reward; the beft and the greateft men of his time honoured him with their friendship and protection; the applaufe of the publick attended all his productions; his friends loved him with an enthusiastic ardour, and fincerely lamented his death, at an age, when the greatest expectations were rationally formed, that they might enjoy his fociety, and the entertaining productions of his pen, for many years.

The works of this poet, particularly "The Seafons," have been frequently reprinted; and in

the

the year 1762, two editions of all his works, with his laft corrections and improvements, were published by Mr. Patrick Murdoch, who has prefixed an account of his life and writings: one of these editions is in 2 vols. 4to. the other in vols. 4 8 vo. and to them we ftand indebted for the chief incidents in these memoirs.

THE LIFE OF

SIR HANS SLOANE, BART.

THE

[A. D. 1660, to 1752.]

HE greatest discoveries and improvements in the medical art, and in natural philofophy, have been made in the prefent century; to which our countrymen have largely contributed. In philofophy, our Newton and Boyle hold the firft rank: the palm in phyfick muft be given to Boerhaave, the celebrated Dutch phyfician; but Sloane and Mead defervedly lay claim to the fecond degree of honour in this ufeful profeffion. To the firit, the pation ftands moft confiderably indebted; and as the requifite variety, and limits of our work, ob. lige us to give a preference, having determined in favour of his life, we beg leave to refer the curious for that of Dr. Mead to an excellent performance,

inti