Scotland.

His mother indeed, who lived till

ninety, had a jointure of fix hundred.

It is with regret that I find myself not better enabled to exhibit memorials of a writer, who at least must be allowed to have fet a good example to men of his own class, by devoting part of his time to elegant knowlege; and who has fhewn, by the subjects which his poetry has adorned, that it is practicable to be at once a fkilful sportsman and a man of letters.

Somervile has tried many modes of poetry; and though perhaps he has not in any reached fuch excellence as to raife much envy, it may commonly be faid at least that " he writes very "well for a gentleman." His ferious pieces are fometimes elevated, and his trifles are fometimes elegant. In his verses to Addison, the couplet which mentions Clio is written with the most exquifite delicacy of praife; it exhibits one of thofe happy ftrokes that ar feldom attained. In his Odes to Marlborough there are beautiful lines; but in the fecond Ode he fhews that he knew little of his hero, when he talks of his private virtues. His fubjects are commonly fuch as require no

great

great depth of thought or energy of expreffion. His Fables are generally ftale, and therefore excite no curiofity. Of his favourite, The Two Springs, the fiction is unnatural, and the moral inconfequential. In his Tales there is too much coarfenefs, with too little care of language, and not fufficient rapidity of narration.

His great work is his Chace, which he undertook in his maturer age, when his ear was improved to the approbation of blank verfe, of which however his two firft lines give a bad fpecimen. To this poem praise cannot be totally denied. He is allowed by sportsmen to write with great intelligence of his fubject, which is the first requifite to excellence; and though it is impoffible to interest the common readers of verfe in the dangers or pleasures of the chace, he has done all that tranfition and variety could eafily effect; and has with great propriety enlarged his plan by the modes of hunting used in other

countries.

With ftill lefs judgement did he chuse blank verfe as the vehicle of Rural Sports. If blank verse be not tumid and gorgeous, it is crippled

profe;

profe; and familiar images in laboured language have nothing to recommend them but abfurd novelty, which, wanting the attractions of Nature, cannot please long. One excellence of the Splendid Shiiling is, that it is short. Difguife can gratify no longer than it de

ceives.

SAVAGE.

SAVAGE.

I

T has been obferved in all ages, that the advantages of nature or of fortune have contributed very little to the promotion of happiness; and that those whom the splendour of their rank, or the extent of their capacity, have placed upon the fummit of human life, have not often given any juft occafion to envy in thofe who look up to them from a lower station: whether it be that apparent fuperiority incites great defigns, and great defigns are naturally liable to fatal miscarriages; or that the general lot of mankind is mifery, and the miffortunes of thofe, whofe eminence drew upon them an univerfal attention, have been more carefully recorded, because they were more generally, obferved, and have in reality been

only

only more confpicuous than thofe of others, not more frequent, or more fevere.

That affluence and power, advantages extrinfic and adventitious, and therefore eafily feparable from those by whom they are poffeffed, fhould very often flatter the mind with expectations of felicity which they cannot give, raises no aftonishment; but it feems rational to hope, that intellectual greatnefs fhould produce better effects; that minds qualified for great attainments fhould firft endeavour their own benefit; and that they, who are most able to teach others the way to happiness, should with most certainty follow it themselves.

But this expectation, however plaufible, has been very frequently disappointed. The heroes of literary as well as civil hiftory have been very often no lefs remarkable for what they have fuffered, than for what they have atchieved; and volumes have been written only to enumerate the miseries of the learned, and relate their unhappy lives, and untimely deaths.

To thefe mournful narratives, I am about to add the Life of Richard Savage, a man whose writings entitle him to an eminent rank in the claffes of learning, and whose misfortunes