in which he displayed his medical sagacity, by attacking some opinions of Leuwenhoek, and other writers, at that time very generally received, and by proposing an hypothesis, which has been since adopted by the best physicians and philosophers.

He now returned to England with his friend Mr. Dyson, and the same year published The Pleasures of Imagination, which was in general received with great applause.

When the copy was offered to Dodsley, by whom it was published, the price demanded for it, which was 120 7. being such as he was not inclined to give precipitately, he carried the work to Pope, who, having looked into it, advised him not to make a niggardly offer, for "this was no every-day poet."

Warburton being dissatisfied with a note in the third book, in which he adopts Shaftesbury's assertion of the efficacy of ridicule for the discovery of truth, thought proper, in a preface to one of his publications, to make some severe strictures upon him; in which, however, he was attacked as a philosopher, not as a poet.

He was defended by his friend Mr. Dyson, in an anonymous "Epistle to Mr. Warburton, occasioned by his treatment of the Author of the Pleasures of Imagination," in which there are several sensible observations; but the style is uncouth and unpleasant.

Warburton's strictures on Akinside, were afterwards reprinted in the postscript to the dedication to the "Free-thinker," prefixed to the first volume of the "Divine Legation," without, however, any notice being taken of what had been written in his defence.

Being now to live by his profession, he first commenced Physician at Northampton, where Dr. Stonehouse then practised, with such reputation and success, that a stranger was not likely to gain ground upon him.

Dr. Kippis, who then resided at Northampton for education, relates, that Dr. Doddridge and Akinside carried on an amicable debate concerning the opinions of the ancients, with regard to a future state of rewards and punishments, in which Akinside supported the firm belief of Cicero in particular, in this great article of natural religion.

On his quitting Northampton, he would perhaps have been reduced to great exigencies in making his way as a physician; but that Mr. Dyson, with an ardour of friendship that has no examples, supported him while he was endeavouring to make himself known.

but

Mr. Dyson had studied the law, and been called to the bar; in a short time, having purchased of Mr. Hardinge his place of clerk of the House of Commons, he quitted Westminster Hall, and for the purpose of introducing Akinside to acquaintance in an opulent neighbourhood near the town, bought a house at North-End, Hampstead, where they dwelt together during the summer season frequenting the long-room, and all clubs and assemblies of the inhabitants.

At these meetings, Sir John Hawkins relates, that Akinside was for displaying those talents which had acquired him the reputation "they he enjoyed in other companies; "but here," he observes, were of little use to him; on the contrary, they tended to engage

him in disputes that betrayed him into a contempt of those that differed in opinion from him."

It was found out that he was a man of low birth, and a dependent on Mr. Dyson; circumstances that furnished those whom he offended with a ground of reproach that reduced him to the necessity of asserting that he was a gentleman.

Little could be done at Hampstead after matters had proceeded to this extremity. Mr. Dyson parted with his villa at North-End, and settled his friend in a small house in Bloomsbury Square, assigning him, with unexampled liberality, 3007. a year, which enabled him to keep a chariot, and make a proper appearance in the world.

"If our princes and nobles," says Mr. Hayley, “have not equalled those of other kingdoms in liberality to the great poets of their country, England may yet boast the name of a private gentleman, who discovered, in this respect, a most princely spirit. No nation, either ancient or modern, can produce an example of munificence more truly noble than the annual gratuity which Akinside received from Mr. Dyson; a tribute of generous and affectionate admiration, endeared to its worthy possessor by every consideration which could make it honourable both to himself and to his patron."

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At London he was known as a poet by The Pleasures of Imagination, and the Epistle to Curio, which were followed in 1745, by Odes on several Subjects, written, as he tells us, at very different intervals, and with a view to very different manners of expression and versification."

These performances appeared before he was 24 years of age; but he was afterwards more slow in his publications. His Ode to the Earl of Huntingdon came out in 1748, and in 1758 he attempted to rouse the national spirit by an Ode to the Country Gentlemen of England.

His poetical reputation was now completely established. He advanced gradually in medical reputation, but never attained any great extent of practice or eminence of popularity.

Akinside appears to have used every endeavour to become popular; "but defeated them all," says Sir John Hawkins, “by the high opinion he every where manifested of himself, and the little condescension he showed to men of inferior endowments."

He seems, however, to have possessed more discretion than Sir John Hawkins allows him; for besides his eagerness in forcing himself into notice, by an ambitious ostentation of elegance and literature, he placed himself in view by all the common methods; and arrived at most of the honours incident to his profession. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society, was admitted by mandamus to the degree of Doctor in Physic in the University of Cambridge, became Physician to St. Thomas's Hospital, was elected Fellow of the College of Physicians, chosen Reader of the Gulstonian and Cronian Lectures, and, on the establishment of the Queen's household, appointed one of the Physicians to her Majesty.

He contributed to the "Philosophical Transsactions," 1757, Observations on the Origin and Use of the Lymphatic Vessels in Animals, being an extract from the Gulstonian Lectures, read

in the theatre of the College of Physicians, in June 1755. Dr. Monro at Edinburgh having taken notice of some inaccuracies in this paper, in his " Observations, Anatomical Physiological," &c. he published a small pamphlet in his vindication, 1758. To the "Philosophical Transactions," 1763, he contributed An Account of a Blow on the Heart, and its Effects. Oratio Anniversaria ex Insti tuto Harvei, &c. Anno 1759, 4to. 1760, to the first volume of the "Medical Transactions," he contributed Observations on Cancers; of the Use of Ipecacuhana in Asthmas, and a Method of treating White Swellings of the Joints. He read at the College, some observations made in St. Thomas's Hospital, on the putrid Erysipelas, which he intended for the second volume of the "Medical Transactions," but it was not returned at the time of his death. He began to give for the Cronian Lecture, A History of the Revival of Learning, from which he soon desisted, as it was supposed, in disgust, some one of the College having objected that he had chosen a subject foreign to the institution.

In 1761, the celebrated Thomas Hollis, Esq. purchased a bed which once belonged to Milton, and in which he died. This bed he sent as a present to Akinside, with the following card :-" An English gentleman is desirous of having the honour to present a beď, which once belonged to John Milton, and on which he died; and if the Doctor's genius, believing himself obliged, and having slept on that bed, should prompt him to write an ode to the memory of John Milton, and the assertor of British Liberty, that gentleman would think himself abundantly recompensed."-Akinside, it is said, seemed wonderfully delighted with this bed, and had it put up in his house; but it does not appear that he took any other notice of Mr. Hollis's benefaction and request.

In the appendix to the "Memoirs of Mr. Hollis," are two letters extracted from the "Public Advertiser," relative to his Ode to Thomas Edwards, Esq. and to his supposed Reflections on the Clergy, in a passage in The Pleasures of Imagination. Among Dr. Birch's papers in the British Museum, are several letters written to him by Akinside.

After he came into considerable reputation and practice, he wrote little poetry, but published, from time to time, medical essays and observations, in the "Transactions" of the Royal Society, and of the College of Physicians.

Sir John Hawkins, in his "Life of Dr. Johnson," has drawn Akinside's character somewhat at large; and it is, with a few exceptions, highly to his advantage.

"Akinside was a man of religion and strict virtue, a philosopher, a scholar, and a fine poet. His conversation was of the most delightful kind, learned, instructive, and without any affectation of wit, cheerful, and entertaining. One of the pleasantest days of my life, I passed with him, Mr. Dyson, and another friend at Putney bowling-green-house, where a neat and elegant dinner, the enlivening sunhine of a summer day, and the view of an unclouded sky, were the least of our gratifications. In perfect good humour with himself and all around.

him, he seemed to feel a joy that he lived; and poured out his ,gratulations to the great Disposer of all felicity, in expressions that Plato himself might have uttered on such an occasion. In conversation with select friends, and those whose course of study had been nearly the same with his own, it was an usual thing with him, in libations to the memory of eminent men among the ancients, to bring their characters into view, and thereby give occasion to expatiate on those particulars of their lives that had rendered them famous. His method was to arrange them into three classes, philosophers, poets, and legislators."

AKINSIDE was very much devoted to the study of ancient literature, and was a great admirer of the best philosophers of antiquity, particularly of Plato and Cicero. His philosophical knowledge and classical taste are conspicuous in his poems, and in the notes and illustrations which he has annexed to them. Of the modern philosophers, Shaftesbury and Hutcheson were his greatest favourites. His high veneration for the Supreme Being, his noble sentiments of the wisdom and benevoience of the Divine Providence, and his zeal for the cause of virtue, are apparent in all his poems. His Ode to William Hall, Esq. with the works of Chaulieu, condemns the licentiousness of that poet. His regard to the Christian revelation, and his solicitude to have it preserved in its native purity, are displayed in the Ode to the Bishop of Winchester. The Ode to the Author of the Memoirs of the House of Brandenburgh, seems to have been written on purpose to expose the irreli gious tenets of the royal historian. He was warmly attached to the cause of civil and religious liberty. His zeal for freedom is a distinguished feature, and peculiar excellence in the character of his poetry. His productions uniformly glow with the sacred fire of liberty, insomuch that he well deserves to be stiled, "the Poet of the Community." Two of his principal odes are directly consecrated to it, the Ode to the Earl of Huntingdon, and that to the Bishop of Winchester.

His Dissertatio de Dysenteria, published in 1764, which has been twice translated into English, was considered as a very conspicuous specimen of Latinity, that entitled him to the same height of place among the scholars as he possessed before among the wits; and he might have risen to a greater elevation of character, but that his studies were ended with his life, by a putrid fever, June 23, 1770, in the 49th year of his age. He was buried in the parish church of St. James's, Westminster. His effects, and particularly his books and prints, which last he was fond of collecting, became the property of his great and intimate friend, Mr. Dyson.

AKINSIDE, considered as a didactic and lyric poet, ranks with the most eminent writers of didactic and lyric poetry, in ancient or modern times. In his Pleasures of Imagination, he has attempted the most rich and poetical form of didactic

writing; and though, in the execution of the whole, he is not equal, he has, in several parts, succeeded happily, and displayed much genius. "For my own part, I am of opinion, says Cooper, in his "Letters on Taste," "that there is now living, a poet of as genuine a genius as this kingdom ever produced, Shakespeare alone excepted. The gentleman I mean is Dr. Akinside, the worthy author of The Pleasures of Imagination, the most beautiful didactic poem that ever adorned the English language.” On the other hand, Gray, writing to Dr. Wharton, says: "I will tell you, though I have rather turned over than read the poem of your young friend (Dr. Akinside), that it seems to me above the middling, and now and then, for a little while, rises even to the best, particularly in description. It is often obscure, and often unintelligible, and too much infected with the Hutchesonian jargon. In short, its great fault is, that it was published at least nine years too early." This opinion hastily delivered in a private letter, before the poem had been maturely examined, must be considered as too severe. The obscurity of The Pleasures of Imagination, when read with attention, will chiefly be found in the allegory of the second book. It might likewise have been better if the peculiar language of Hutcheson, or rather of Shaftesbury, had sometimes been omitted. But though it is perhaps defective in some respects, and redundant in others, yet it is a noble and beautiful poem, exhibiting many bright displays of genius and fancy, and holding out sublime views of nature, providence, and morality. Akinside himself was convinced that it was published too early. "That it wanted revision and correction," says his friend and editor, Mr. Dy. son, "he was sufficiently sensible; but so quick was the demand for several successive republications, that, in any of the intervals, to have completed the whole of his corrections was utterly impossible. He chose therefore to continne for some time reprinting it without any alteration, and to forbear publishing any alterations or improvements, till he should be able at once to give the whole to the public complete. And, with this view, he went on for several years to review and correct his poem at his leisure, till at length he found the task grow so much upon his hands, that, despairing of ever being able to execute it sufficiently to his own satisfaction, he abandoned the purpose of correcting, and resolved to write the poem over anew, upon somewhat a different and enlarged plan."

His Inscriptions are for the most part, simple, energetic, and sufficiently poetical. His Hymn to the Naiads is justly esteemed a classical performance. Lloyd, speaking of Homer's hymns, which he had some thoughts of translating, says: They who would form the justest idea of this sort of composition among the ancients, may be better informed by perusing Dr. Akinside's most classical Hymn to the Naiads, than from any translation of Homer or Callimachus." The

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