PARNELL.

T

HE Life of Dr. PARNELL is a tafk which

I should very willingly decline, fince it has been lately written by Goldsmith, a man of such variety of powers, and fuch felicity of performance, that he always feemed to do beft that which he was doing; a man who had the art of being minute without tedioufnefs, and general without confufion; whose language was copious without exuberance, exact without constraint, and eafy without weakness.

What fuch an author has told, who would tell again? I have made an abftract from his larger narrative; and have this gratification from my attempt, that it gives me an opportunity of paying due tribute to the memory of Goldsmith.

Τὸ γὰρ γέρας ἔσι θανόντων.

THOMAS PARNELL was the fon of a commonwealthfman of the fame name, who, at the Restoration, left Congleton in Chefhire, where the

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family had been established for several centuries, and, settling in Ireland, purchased an estate, which, with his lands in Chefhire, defcended to the poet, who was born at Dublin in 1679; and, after the usual education at a grammar-fchool, was, at the age of thirteen, admitted into the College, where, in 1700, he became mafter of arts; and was the fame year ordained a deacon, though under the canonical age, by a dispensation from the bishop of Derry.

About three years afterwards he was made a priest; and in 1705 Dr. Afhe, the bishop of Clogher, conferred upon him the archdeaconry of Clogher. About the fame time he married Mrs. Anne Minchin, an amiable lady, by whom he had two fons, who died young, and a daughter who long furvived him.

At the ejection of the Whigs, in the end of queen Anne's reign, Parnell was perfuaded to change his party, not without much cenfure from thofe whom he forfook, and was received by the new miniftry as a valuable reinforcement. When the earl of Oxford was told that Dr. Parnell waited among the crowd in the outer room, he went by the perfuafion of Swift, with his treasurer's staff in his hand, to enquire for him, and to bid him welcome; and, as may be inferred from Pope's dedication, admitted him as a favourite companion to his convivial hours, but, as it feems often to have happened in those times to the favourites of the Great, without attention to his fortune, which, however, was in no great need of improvement.

Parnell, who did not want ambition or vanity, was defirous to make himself confpicuous, and to fhew how worthy he was of high preferment. As he thought himself qualified to become a popular preacher, he difplayed his elocution with great fuccefs in the pulpits of London; but the queen's death putting an end to his expectations, abated his dili gence; and Pope reprefents him as falling from that time into intemperance of wine. That in his latter life he was too much a lover of the bottle, is not denied; but I have heard it imputed to a cause more likely to obtain forgiveness from mankind, the untimely death of a darling fon; or, as others tell, the lofs of his wife, who died (1712) in the midst of his expectations.

He was now to derive every future addition to his preferments from his personal intereft with his private friends, and he was not long unregarded. He was warmly recommended by Swift to archbishop King, who gave him a prebend in 1713; and in May 1716 prefented him to the vicarage of Finglafs in the diocese of Dublin, worth four hundred pounds a year. Such notice from fuch a man inclines me to believe, that the vice of which he has been accused was not grofs, or not notorious.

But his profperity did not last long. His end, whatever was its caufe, was now approaching. He enjoyed his preferment little more than a year; for in July 1717, in his thirty-eighth year, he died at Chester on his way to Ireland.

He feems to have been one of thofe poets who take delight in writing. He contributed to the pa pers of that time, and probably published more than

he owned. He left many compofitions behind him, of which Pope selected those which he thought beft, and dedicated them to the earl of Oxford. Of these Goldsmith has given an opinion, and his criticism it. is feldom fafe to contradict. He bestows juft praise. upon the The Rife of Woman, the Fairy Tale, and the Pervigilium Veneris; but has very properly remarked, that in the Battle of Mice and Frogs the Greek names have not in English their original effect.

He tells us, that the Bookworm is borrowed from Beza; but he should have added, with modern applications: and, when he difcovers that Gay Bacchus is tranflated from Augurellus, he ought to have remarked that the latter part is purely Parnell's. Another poem, When Spring comes on, is, he fays, taken. from the French. I would add, that the defcription of Barrenness, in his verfes to Pope, was borrowed from Secundus; but lately fearching for the paffage. which I had formerly read, I could not find it. The Night-piece on Death is indirectly preferred by Goldfmith to Gray's Church-yard; but, in my opinion, Gray has the advantage in dignity, variety, and originality of fentiment. He obferves, that the story of the Hermit is in More's Dialogues and Howell's Let-. ters, and fuppofes it to have been originally Arabian..

Goldsmith has not taken any notice of the Elegy to the old Beauty, which is perhaps the meaneft; nor of the Allegory on Man, the happieft of Parnell's performances. The hint of the Hymn to Contentment 1 fufpect to have been borrowed from Cleiveland.

The general character of Parnell is not great extent of comprehenfion, or fertility of mind. Of the little, that appears ftill lefs is his own. His praise muft

be

be derived from the eafy fweetnefs of his diction: in his verses there is more happiness than pains; he is fprightly without effort, and always delights, though he never ravishes; every thing is proper, yet every thing feems cafual. If there is fome If there is fome appearance of elaboration in the Hermit, the narrative, as it is lefs airy, is lefs pleafing. Of his other compofitions it is impoffible to say whether they are the productions of Nature, fo excellent as not to want the help of Art, or of Art fo refined as to resemble Nature.

This criticism relates only to the pieces published by Pope. Of the large appendages which I find in the last edition, I can only fay, that I know not whence they came, nor have ever enquired whither they are going. They ftand upon the faith of the compilers.