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I could quote from the Night Thoughts many fimi lar paffages of fubtile and fantastical antithefis; but I am afraid, that the bulk of readers would take them for charming poetry. Those who can diftinguith quaintnefs and affectation from true fublimity, will find fuch patiages in every page, nay, almoft in every line. However, I fhal! hazard fome specimens which feem to refemble Ralph's Riddles very much.

"All knowing! all unknown, and yet well-known!
"Near, though remote and tho' unfathom'd, felt;
"And though invisible, for ever seen !—

"Know this Lorenzo, (feem it ne'er fo strange),

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Helpless! immortal! infect infinite!

"A Worm! a God."

the

66 worm" and the

The "Devil" and the "Saint" are hardly fuch exaggerated oppofites as "God."

The following extracts I leave, without illuftration, to the common fenfe of the reader. I have fometimes quoted, and sometimes omitted to quote the particular Night and line at which the specimen may be found; but the Doctor's ftile is fufficiently marked.

"Procraftination is the thief of time! ———

"What can awake thee, unawak'd by this,
Expended Deity on human weal?

66

"Oh love of gold! Thou meanest of amours!

"Are paffions, then, the pagans of the foul?

Night 4th, 1. 195.

Night 4th, 1. 349.

A

One of the venerable ancient fathers held a very fimilar maxim, Credo quia eft impoffibile. The name of this logician was Tertullian. great part of his works is exactly in the fame style. In particular, the reft of the very paragraph now quoted, is fo grofsly indecent, that f dare not fhock the pious ear, by attempting to infert it. Yet our divines, of all defcriptions, are inceffantly appealing to the authority of this man, who was, in every respect, au hundred and fifty degrees below

Whifton or Whitefield.

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"Man's heart eats all things, and is hungry still;
"More, more! the glutton crys:→→→

Ibid. 1. 123.

"The world's all title-page, there's no contents;
"The world's all face; the man who fhews his heart,
"Is hooted for his nudities, and fcorn'd.

"Lorenzo!

Night 8th, 1. 333

"This is the most indulgence can afford;
Thy zvifdom all can do, but make thee wife;
"Nor think this cenfure is fevere on thee;
Satan, thy mafter, I dare call a dunce.

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Night 9th, l. 1414.

"When pain can't bliss, heaven quits us in despair.

Night 9th, 1. 497.

After all, and as fome apology to the numerous ad mirers of Dr. Young, I allow that there are strokes and paffages of genuine poetry to be found, though thinly scattered, among the wild effufions of this long and laboured poem. I refer, in particular, to the first five lines of Night First, and to the thirteen first lines of Night Fourth. For the fake of justice to our author, the two paffages fhall be inferted at full length.

Night Firft.

«Tir'd nature's fweet reftorer, balmy sleep!

"He like the world, his ready visit pays,

"Where fortune fmiles: the wretched he forfakes;

"Swift, on his downy pinions, flies from woe,

And lights on lids unfullied by a tear.

Night Fourth.

"A much indebted mufe, O Torke! intrudes, "Amid the fmiles of fortune and of youth; "Thine ear is patient of a serious fong. "How deep implanted in the breast of man "The dread of death? I fing its fov'reign cure. "Why start at death? Where is he? Death arriv'd "Is paft; not come, or gone; he's never bere. "E'er hope, fenfation fails; black-boding man

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Receives, not fuffers, death's tremenduous blow.

"The knell, the fhroud, the mattock, and the grave; "The deep damp vault, the darkness, and the worm; "These are the bug-bears of a winter's eve,

"The terrors of the living, not the dead.

From this, the writer runs wild, and continues with very flight and tranfient, if any lucid intervals, to the end of the poemt.

The following detached lines, among others, display the fpirit of poetry, blended with conceit and affectation.

The following lines, being the beginning of Night Ninth, may be confidered as one of the few remaining lucid intervals, referred to by our author. Pity that one who could write fo well at times, fhould have been fo little under the guidance of reason, in general. Edit.

"As when a traveller, a long day past
"In painful search of what he cannot find,
"At night's approach, content with the next cot,
"There ruminates, a while, his labour loft;
"Then cheers his heart, with what his fate affords,
"And chants his fonnet to deceive the time,
"Till the due feafon calls him to repose:
"Thus 1, long-travell'd in the ways of men,
"And dancing, with the rest, the giddy maze,
"Where difappointment smiles at hope's career,
"Warn'd by the languor of life's ev'ning ray,
"At length have hous'd me in an humble shed;
"When, future wand'ring banish'd from my thought,
"And waiting, patient, the sweet hour of reft,
"I chace the moments with a ferious fong-
#Song foothes our pains; and age has pains to foothe

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"How rich! how poor! how abject! how auguft!
"How complicate, how wonderful is man!"

And again, fpeaking of Narciffa.

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Early, bright, tranfient, chaste as morning dew! "She fparkled, was exhal'd! and went to heav'n."

Mr. Bee,

For the Bee.

NAMES have no small effect on things. It is for this reafon, I am going, through the medium of your patriotic paper, to fuggeft the advantages which our country would derive from the alteration of a name.

At prefent, the tenants about me call the gentlemen, whofe lands they occupy, mafters. I obferve this improper term has a very ill effect both upon us proprietors, and upon our tenants. We are apt to take the tenants at their word, and to imagine them to be our fervants, and to command their fervices for running our errands, and doing our work, as if we really were their mafters, and paid them wages: Whereas they pay us, in general, very good rents for our lands, and, in fo doing, confer a great obligation on us : For I do not know what kind of a figure I and my wife would make, nor how we could feed and educate our numerous family, were it not for the rents which we receive from thefe fervants. At leaft, I have tried to farm my own little bit of land; but, alas! Sir, for want of skill, and attention, and economy, I loft my rent every year, and got befides into debt. How little then do we find in our tenants of the character of fervants? The wish of a wife man would be to have many of the former, and few of the latter.

This is not the worst of it, Sir; our poor tenants are foolish enough to think themselves our fervants; and inftead of telling us frankly they have bufinefs of their own to mind, are as obedient to our commands, as if

they were our fervants, feldom refufing to obey us, very much to our hurt, as well as their own: For we frequently find a fad deficiency, when, in their true character of tenants, we fummon them to pay our rents. Neither is this the worst circumftance attending this mistaken name of mafter we proprietors grow fond of the thing, as well as the name; and when our tenants happen to refufe to obey any of our commands, we are difpofed to think them infolent, and fometimes to call them fo; and to prevent a repetition of such behaviour, we either give them no tacks at all, or very fhort ones. Now, Mr. Bee, a tenant who can be removed on fix weeks warning, and does not know where to find another farm, as frequently happens, is really a fervant; indeed, I may fay, he is a flave. Thus, Sir, we are averse to what, for our own intereft, we ought to covet. We diflike to lett our lands upon long leafes, although it is certain, they cannot be improven by any

other means.

Instead, therefore, of the word master, I would fuggeft the English term of land-lord: And I would have all our farmers to enter into an agreement among themfelves, to give us no other name, under the penalty of forfeiting a trifle to the poor of the parish, as often as they used the word master, either when fpeaking to us, or of us.

I believe too, Mr. Bee, the free and wealthy inhabitants of our towns would be induced more readily to lease our farms, and to improve them, were this flavish and improper name of master laid aside.

For my own fhare, I never could difcover that a man who rents my ground, is more my fervant, than a gentleman in a town, who happens to rent my house there. The only connection between either a tenant of a house and a farm, and their owner, is of the nature of a civil contract. When the rent of either is paid, they are independent of each other. But, if any thing, the obligation is on the fide of a good tenant. If these

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