and the Grave of Arthur, are likewise specimens of genuine poetical taste, acting on materials that are difficult to manage. Both in invention and execution, these odes may rank among the finest of their species in our language.

Warton has afforded many proofs of an exquisite relish for humour in his Panegyric on Oxford Ale, the Progress of Discontent, and other pieces classed under that denomination. His success in these productions leads once more to the remark that few men have combined so many qualities of mind, a taste for the sublime and the pathetic, the gay and humorous, the pursuits of the antiquary, and the pleasures of amusement, the labours of research, and the play of imagination.

Upon the whole, it may be allowed, that as a poet, he is original, various and elegant, but that in most of his pieces he discovers the taste that results from a studied train of thought, rather than the wild and enraptured strains that arise from passion, inspired on the moment, ungovernable in their progress, and grand even in their wanderings. Still he deserves to be classed among the revivers of genuine poetry, by preferring "fiction and fancy, picturesque description and romantic imagery," to " wit and elegance, sentiment and satire, sparkling couplets, and pointed periods "2."

THE

LIFE OF DR. JOSEPH WARTON,

BY MR. CHALMERS.

DR. JOSEPH WARTON was born at the house of his maternal grandfather, the rev. Joseph Richardson, rector of Dunsford, in the year 1722. Except for a very short time that he was at New College school, he was educated by his father until he arrived at his fourteenth year. He was then admitted on the foundation of Winchester College, under the care of the present venerable Dr. Sandby, at that time the head of the school, and now chancellor of Norwich.

He had not been long at this excellent seminary before he exhibited considerable intellectual powers, and a laudable ambition to outstrip the common process of education. Collins, the poet, was one of his school-fellows, and in conjunction with him and another boy, young Warton sent three poetical pieces to the Gentleman's Magazine, of such merit as to be highly praised in that miscellany, but not, as his biographer supposes, by Dr. Johnson. A letter also to his sister, which Mr.Wooll has printed, exhibits very extraordinary proofs of fancy and observation in one so young.

In September 1740, being superannuated according to the laws of the school, he was removed from Winchester, and having no opportunity of a vacancy at New College, he went to Oriel. Here he applied to his studies, not only with diligence, but with that true taste for what is valuable, which rendered the finer discriminations of criticism habitual to his mind. During his leisure hours he completed several of his poems, among which his biographer enumerates the Enthusiast, or the Lover of Nature, the Dying Indian, and a prose satire entitled Ranelagh House. He appears likewise to have sketched an allegorical work of a more elaborate kind, which he did not find time or inclination to complete. On taking his bachelor's degree in 1744, he was ordained to his father's curacy at Basingstoke, and officiated in that church till February 1746: he next removed to the duty of Chelsea, whence, in order to complete his recovery from the small pox, he went to Chobham.

About this time he had became a correspondent in Dodsley's Museum, to which he contributed, as appears by his copy of that work now before me, Superstition, an ode, dated Chelsea, April 1746, and Stanzas written on taking the air after a long illness. In the preceding year, as noticed in his brother's life, he published by subscription, a

VOL. XVIII.

Ꮮ

volume of his father's poems, partly to do honour to his memory, but principally with the laudable purpose of paying what debts he left behind him, and of raising a little fund for himself and family. Whether this scheme answered his full expectations is uncertain, but he appears to have been encouraged by some of his father's opulent friends, and probably was no loser. The correspondence Mr. Wooll has published, shows with what prudence the two brothers husbanded their scanty provision, and with what affection they endeavoured to support and cheer each other while at school and college.

Owing to some disagreement with the parishioners of Chelsea, which had taken place before he left that curacy, he accepted the duty of Chawton and Droxford, but after a few months returned to Basingstoke. In 1747-8 he was presented by the duke of Bolton to the rectory of Winslade, and as this, although a living of small produce, was probably considered by him as the earnest of more valuable preferment, he immediately married Miss Daman, of that neighbourhood, to whom, his biographer informs us, he had been some time enthusiastically attached. In 1747,according to Mr. Wooll's account, he had published a volume of odes, in conjunction with Collins, but on consulting the literary registers of the time, it appears that each published a volume of poems in 1746, and in the same month. It cannot now be ascertained what degree of fame accrued to our author from this volume, but in the preface we find him avowing those sentiments on the nature of genuine poetry which he expanded more at large afterwards, and which were the foundation of what has since been termed "the school of the Wartons."

"The public," he says, "has been so much accustomed of late to didactic poetry alone, and essays on moral subjects, that any work, where the imagination is much indulged, will perhaps not be relished or regarded. The author therefore of these pieces is in some pain, lest certain austere critics should think them too fanciful or descriptive. But as he is convinced that the fashion of moralizing in verse has been carried too far, and as he looks upon invention and imagination to be the chief faculties of a poet, so he will be happy, if the following Odes may be looked upon as an attempt to bring back poetry into its right channel."-In 1749 he published his ode to Mr. West.

In 1751, his patron the duke of Bolton invited him to be his companion in a tour to the south of France1. For this, Mr. Wooll informs us, he had two motives, "the society of a man of learning and taste, and the accommodation of a protestant clergyman, who, immediately on the death of his dutchess, then in a confirmed dropsy, could marry him to the lady with whom he lived, and who was universally known and distinguished by the name of Polly Peachum."

Whichever of these motives predominated in the duke's mind, it is much to be regretted that our author so far forgot what was due to his character and profession as to accept the offer. But if any circumstance besides the consciousness of doing wrong,

1 "On this occasion his brother wrote that beautiful Ode sent to a Friend on leaving a favourite Village in Hampshire; which alone, in my opinion, would place him in the higher order of poets: and which is one of the most exquisite descriptive pieces in the whole body of English poetry. Every line paints, with the nicest and most discriminative touches, the scenery about Wynslade and Hackwood.' Brydges' Censura Literaria, vol. 5. 178. C.