poet by the publication of his Ode on a distant prospect of Eton College, and his Elegy in a Country Churchyard. In 1768, a sense of his unobtrusive merits induced the duke of Grafton, without any solicitation on his part, to appoint him to the Professorship of Modern History; the emoluments of which situation are four hundred pounds per annum. Though the poet repaid the kindness of his patron by celebrating his installation in an ode pre-eminent for its spirit and sublimity, the habitual indolence of the dilettante took so powerful a hold of him, that he never fulfilled his intention of rendering his office efficient by delivering a course of historical lectures. Indulging in this indolence, he was attacked by nervous affections, and was at length carried off by an access of hereditary gout, July 30, 1771, in the fifty-fifth year of his age. Gray was reputed to be one of the most learned men of his time: but of his learning he has left no memorials except a few copies of Latin verses which are, however, excellent in their kind. His English metrical compositions are also few in number; but they are most exquisitely finished, and are of the highest order of poetry. It must, however, be confessed, that as Gray was himself a scholar, he in general wrote for scholars. An acquaintance with classical mythology and history, and an ear for classical style, are requisite to enable a reader readily to follow the course of his ideas in his lyrical compositions. Hence it happens, that the small volume of his poems is most recommended to the public taste by his Ode on a distant Prospect of Eton College, and by his Elegy in a Country Churchyard. The topics of these pieces are general and obvious, but they are embodied in language at once elegant and perspicuous; and they are tinged with that sober, pensive cast of thought, which so highly approves itself to the genius of the English nation. The initiated," however, (and to such in his more splendid compositions he professedly wrote,) will dwell with unaffected pleasure on the Bard, the Installation Ode, and the b 2 Ode Ode on the Progress of Poetry. In spite of the ridicule of witlings and the cavils of malignant envy, these lyrical effusions will live and be perused with pleasure, while there exist any who unite an admiration of English poesy with a love of classic lore. Mason may be characterized as a satellite moving round the splendid orb of Gray. He was born in the year 1725, and like his friend enjoyed the advantage of an university education, having been a member of St. John's College, Cambridge, when he took his first degree in 1745. Like his friend too he changed his college, for what cause, however, does not appear, and in 1747 was elected a fellow of Pernbroke. Dedicating himself to the church, he obtained from the patronage of the earl of Holdernesse the valuable living of Aston, in Yorkshire, and was afterwards appointed precentor and canon residentiary of the cathedral of York. In that city he spent the remainder of his days in dignified opulence, and died in April, 1797, at the advanced age of seventy-two. Mr. Mason's most celebrated works are the tragedies of Elfrida and Caractacus, into which, in trying the experiment of the revival of the ancient chorus, he has introduced some sublime and spirited odes. It has been observed, that his attempt to revive the severity of the ancient drama completely failed. If this observation refer merely to scenic representation, it is correct; for on these tragedies being brought upon the theatre, they experienced from the pub. lic but a cold reception. But in fact. Mr. Mason did not write them for the stage. He composed them for the closet, --and there they are calculated to please by the splendour of their diction, and by their ornamented style. Mr. Mason's most popular works are his English Garden, a didactic poem, in which he zealously inculcates the modern system of fol lowing Nature in the laying out of grounds,-his Elegies,and his translation of Du Fresnoy's Art of Painting. In his earlier compositions, he stood forth as the bolt and energetic champion of the principles of freedom;-but alarmed and scandalized by the horrors of the French revolution, and, perhaps, perhaps, unconsciously following the bent of the times, in the year 1797, he purged himself of what was then considered as a political heresy, by publishing in a miscellaneous collection of his poems a palinody to Liberty. Mason was, perhaps, more a student of nature and less of books than his friend Gray. But he does not soar to the height which was attained by his great contemporary; nor is his language equally chaste and free from affectation, as that of the avowed object of his enthusiastic admiration. The march of his verse is proud and stately; but his diction is not unfrequently stiff and laboured; and it is often rendered. singularly unpleasant by the jingle of studied alliteration. But after making all proper deductions, we cannot deny to Mr. Mason a station of distinguished eminence among the poets of the present reign. One of Mason's early poems excited, by political and academic collision, a brilliant spark of genius in one of his learned contemporaries. We allude to his Isis, an elegy, in which he adverted to the jacobitical principles, which for some time after the accession of the house of Hanover to the throne of these realms, were reputed to be fostered in the university of Oxford. In answer to this poem, Mr. Thomas Warton published, in 1749, the Triumph of Isis, in which he vindicated in manly strains the fair fame of his Alma Mater, and retaliated upon the bold aggressor of her reputation. When he thus avowedly came before the public as an author, Mr. Warton was twenty-one years of age, having been born in 1728 at Basingstoke, of which place his father was vicar. It has been asserted that he received the rudiments of his education at Winchester school: but, in point of fact, he continued under the care of his father till he had attained his sixteenth year, when he was admitted a commoner of Trinity College, Oxford. On the 1st of December, 1750, he took his Master of Arts degree, and in 1751 he succeeded to a fellowship. In 1757 he was elected Professor of Poetry, which situation he held for the customary space of ten years. On the 7th of December, 1767, he took his degree of B.D. In 1771 he was elected a fellow of the Antiquarian Society; and on the 22d of October, in the same year, was instituted to the small living of Kiddington, in Oxfordshire. The year 1785 was fruitful to Mr. Warton of distinguished honours, as in the course of it he was appointed Camden Professor of History, in the university of Oxford, and also succeeded William Whitehead in the office of Poet Laureate. Of this office he did not long live to enjoy the emoluments, and to perform the drudgery. On Thursday, May 20, 1790, after passing his evening cheerfully in the common room of his college, he was suddenly seized with a paralytic stroke, the effects of which put a period to his mortal existence on the following day. 66 During a considerable portion of the year, Mr. Warton was habitually resident at the university. He did not, however, there waste his time in literary lounging, nor did he steep his senses" in draughts of heady port. "He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one." The range of his mind was extensive, and his judgement was penetrating and accurate. His edition of Theocritus, and his History of English poetry, respectively evince the depth of his erudition and the industry of his research. His lucubrations on Milton and Spenser likewise exhibit much sagacity of critical acumen, and pointed out the true way of elucidating the works of those English writers who first reduced our poetical language to method and consistency. Mr. Warton was not only qualified to investigate the poetical merits of others; he was also himself a poet. His poetical effusions are classically correct, and are enlivened by picturesque imagery. He was an accurate observer of the phænomena of nature; and though his poems do not abound in passages which rouse the feelings, they are rich in images which delight the fancy. His frequent references to the solemnity of the Gothic architecture, with the beauties of which, in consequence of his habitual residence amidst the finest specimens of that style, he was intimately acquainted, give to his works a striking air of grandeur, grandeur. The office of Poet Laureate is of itself a fertile subject of ridicule, and this ridicule, especially at the commencement of his panegyrical labours, Mr. Warton did not escape. But it may truly be said of his annual tributes to his sovereign, that in them he selected his topics with skill, and that he has praised royalty without descending to the meanness of adulation. His poetical reputation will however be deteriorated by the temporary and local nature of many of his subjects; and his volumes will in all probability be henceforth found on the shelves of the scholar rather than on the table of the general reader. This is much to be lamented, as Warton certainly possessed much of the "vivida vis animi ;" and it is to be wished that the laurels bestowed on academical industry may never fade. This Among the poets of modern times who have forgone the applause of future ages in their pursuit of temporary fame, may be noticed the celebrated Charles Churchill. distinguished satirist was born in 1731, in St. John's, Westminster, of which parish his father was curate. He received the rudiments of his classical education at Westminster School: but he so little improved the advantages which he enjoyed at that excellent seminary, that when he was sent to Oxford he was not found sufficiently qualified in the learned languages to gain admission into the university. Mortified as he must have been by this rejection, and encumbered as he was by an early and improvident marriage, he had resolution sufficient to pursue his studies in private till he was deemed by Dr. Sherlock fit to enter into holy orders. At his outset in the service of the church the only preferment he obtained was a Welsh curacy worth about 307. per annum. With a view of increasing this small emolument he went into the cyder trade, in which his ignorance, and probably his inattention. also, soon reduced him to bankruptcy. Returning to London he was chosen to succeed his father in the curacy of St. John's; and in addition to the stipend of his benefice, he endeavoured to better his circumstances by instructing young ladies in reading and in English composition. His extrava gant |