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GILBERT WEST is one of the writers of win my inability to give a suficient account: the m which my inquiries have obtained is general andic He was the son of the reverend Dr. West: him whe pubished Pindar, at Oxford, about the begi of this century. His mother was sister to sir B Temple, afterwards lord Cobham. His father, per to educate him for the church, sent him first to E afterwards to Oxford; but he was seduced to a mik mode of life, by a commission in a troop of horse, pr him by his uncle.

He continued some time in the army; though it h sonable to suppose that he never sunk into a mere so nor ever lost the love, or much neglected the pur learning; and, afterwards, finding himself more incline. civil employment, he laid down his commission, and gaged in business under the lord Townshend, then se tary of state, with whom he attended the king to Han

His adherence to lord Townshend ended in nothing a nomination, May, 1729, to be clerk extraordinary t privy council, which produced no immediate profit; fr only placed him in a state of expectation and right of s

cession, and it was very long before a vacancy him to profit.

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Soon afterwards he married, and settled himself in av pleasant house at Wickham, in Kent, where he deve himself to learning and to piety. Of his learning, the collection exhibits evidence, which would have been

fuller, if the dissertations which accompany his version Pindar had not been improperly omitted. Of his piety, influence has, I hope, been extended far by his Observ tions on the Resurrection, published in 173

4 Certainly. It was publish

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These two illustrious friends r blandishments of infidere -blished, it was bought Y

ange

of opinion, in expectat ristianity; and as infides i

venged the disappointment. Mr. West's income was

eavoured, but without an t is reported, that the edu

offered to him, but that en

power of superintendence dow

allow him.

In time, however, his

proved, he lived

to have one of the lucrative retas of the privy council, 1752: and Mr. Pitt at last power to make him treasurer of Chelsea hosil

A

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He was now sufficiendy nd; but wealth came too late long enjoyed; nor could it secure him from the ities of life: he lost, 1755, his only son; and the March 26, a stude of the palsy brought to the

grave one of the few poets to v without its terrours.

Of his translations, I have
Olympick Ode with the origin.
tion surpassed, both by its elegat
does not confine himself to his a
he saw that the difference of the
ferent mode of versification. Th.
happy: in the second he has a li
meaning, who says, "if thou, my
games, look not in the desert sk
the sun; nor shall we tell of no
Olympia." He is sometimes too
bestows upon Hiero an epithet,
nifies "delighting in horses;" a v
lation, generates these lines:

Hiero's royal brows, whose c
Tends the courser's noble
Pleas'd to nurse the pregnan

Pleas'd to train the youthf

Pindar says of Pelops, that "he car
the White Sea;" and West,

Near the billow-beaten si

Of the foam-besilver'd ma
Darkling, and alone, he sto

which, however, is less exuberant
sage.

A work of this kind must, in a minu cover many imperfections; but West's have considered it, appears to be th

labour and great abilities.

His Institutio

ficient knowled
to which it is

but, for wan

nor eleganc
His Imi

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401

edge considerable, gant, and his disd his confidence ; was immured by On this occasion on the credit of h he engaged to as much money y. He showed afterwards his him about two could scarcely ve to exhaust. anslation neg

18, who, while ⚫ sooner lived

readful cala

ile, perhaps, memory, I

, ac.

iture, and of only with the

, and Spanish Jefly upon works by indulging some ntly delighted with

s the bounds of naed only by a pas He loved f ed to rove th on the magnif waterfalls of el

1 Woty,

collection of poc

COLLINS.

WILLIAM COLLINS was born at Chichester, on the 25. of December, about 1720. His father was a batter ke good reputation. He was, in 1733, as Dr. Warton be kindly informed me, admitted scholar of Winchester to lege, where he was educated by Dr. Burton. His Englis exercises were better than his Latin.

He first courted the notice of the publick by su verses to a Lady Weeping, published in the Gentlema

Marazine.

In 1740, he stood first in the list of the scholars to received in succession at New college, but unhapp: there was no vacancy. This was the original misfortux of his life. He became a commoner of Queen's colleg probably with a seanty maintenance; but was, in aber half a year, elected a demy of Magdalen college, where continued till he had taken a bachelor's degree, and thi suddenly left the university; for what reason I know b that he told.

He now, about 1744, came to London a literary adres turer, with many projects in his head, and very money in his pocket. He designed many works; but li great fanit was irresciution; or the frequent calls of inge date necessity broke his schemes, and suffered him to p sue no settled purpose. A man doubtful of his dinner, it

trembing at a creditor, is not much disposed to abstracted medication, or remote inquires. He published proposa for a History of the Revival of Learning; and I have heart him speak with great kindness of Leo the tenth, and vi keen resentment of his tasteless successour. But probably not a page of the history was ever written. He planned several tragedies, but he only planned them. He wrote now and then odes and other poems, and did something

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About this time I fell into his company. His appear

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