days with Mr. Duck, at the Queen's houfe, at Kew. At the approach of winter he was fent for to Bath, at the inftance of the duchefs of Kent, where he was introduced to many perfons of distinction; and, in the fpring of the fucceeding year, returned to London in the fuite of lady Portland. In 1738, Mr. Wright compofed his Aftronomical Secrets, and invented a Difplay of the Univerfal Viciffitude of Seafons, in folio. In the fummer he paid a vifit to the honourable Mr. Cowper, at Oxford;, went into Bedfordshire, and there, being met by the duke of Kent's fervants, made a vifit to Wreft; thence he travelled to the earl of Bristol's, in Suffolk, to wait upon the honourable Mifs Hervey, and again returned to Wieft. In the winter he was introduced to lord Cornwallis, to teach his daughters gep metry. Mr. Wright having obtained an introduction to many great families, where a very honourable attention was paid him for his fcientific knowledge, we find feveral of his fucceeding years Alled with a rotation of vifiting and journeys to the houses of illuftrious perfonages; yet even there we fee him purfuing his ftudies with unremitting ardour, and teaching the fciences to perfons of the first distinction *. To attend to all his journeyings would be tedious and unprofitable to the reader. The mof remarkable are fhortly mentioned in the notes t. In 1739, Mr. Wright fulfilled his engagement with Mr. Senex, and finished his Treatife on the Ufe of the Globes. In 1740, completed his Mathematical Schemes and Planomena; invented an Aionomical Fan for the Ladies; at planned a View of the Visible Creation; and compofed his Reprefentation of the Universe ‡. In the fummer of this year he visited the North, and then proved the orthodox faying, "A prophet has no honour in his own country;" for, he published propofals for a Course of Lectures of Natural Philofophy Durham; which exhibition held him five weeks, but was very thinly attended §. In 1742, Mr. Wright published his Aftronoinical Elements. After jour neying from place to place in the fummer, he returned to London in November. where an application was made to him from the Czarina, by the prince Pariskin, to become chief professor of navigation in the Imperial academy at St. Petersburg, with a falary of 300l. a year, and many other contingent advantages. Our mathematician thought this too fmall a recompence for leaving his native country, and deserting a round of amufements, together with the enjoyment of that British hofpitality, to which he was now eagerly invited; fo acceptable had Mr. Wright rendered himself to people of fashion, and fo much was fcience at that period thought an object of attention with thofe of high rank, of both sexes. He demanded a fixed falary of cool. a year, and his propofals were reported to the fovereign, but were not acceded to; lo that Mr. Wright was again left to a courfe of life highly pleafing to himself. (To be continued.) Thoughts on POETRY, effecially modern, THE naufenus mechanifm of the great body of modern POETRY; the falle principles of excellence that are fet Gave private lectures to the earl of Scarborough, 1739.-Projects a large horizontal dial for lord viscount Middleton; went with his lordship to his feat in Surrey; lady Middleton, lady Charlotte and lady Mary Capel, study the ute of the globes.. + Vifits fir Thomas Samwell, bart. at Upton, near Northampton; hunts with the earl of Halifax; fpent three months at Wreft, to teach the ladies to furvey; the duchefs furveyed all the pleasure-grounds, and made a plan of them, which was engraved. In 1740, with Jord Middleton at Sepperham. When in London, he was honoured with the vifits of the duke of Portland, the earl Strafford, lord Glanorchy, and feveral other great perfonages; dined almost every day with the duke and duchess of Kent; taught the honourable Mifs Cornwallis, Mifs Hervey, Mifs Talbot, and lady Sophia Grey, afterwards lady of Dr. Egerton, bishop of Durham. Mr. Ailan has these plates. Tempeft, We find the names of Thomas Allan, Ralph Gowland, Bazil Forcer, and Blake, efquires. 1741, he gave private lectures to the duchefs of Kent, lady Sophia Grey, the marchionefs Grey, lady Mary Grey, Mifs Talbot, honourable Mifs Cornwallis, and Mits Hervey. Vifited lord Middleton, Dr. Carter; the duchefs of Kent at Old Windfor, the earl of Effex at Caffiobury, &c. Caffiobury; Brook-Green, the feat of lord Limerick; Culford, the feat of lord Cornwalis; Jeckworth, the feat of the earl of Briftel; Old-Windfor and Tepperham, &c. up; up; the minute, and foolish criticifms, ❝-Pars minima eft ipfa puella sui.” Perpetual perfoniñcation, metaphors, though trite, unceafing, thick-cluffered imagery, un-original, and ill-comb ned, like a gaudy nofegay of flowers of all kinds, borrowed from all quarters, and arranged without tafte, attempt to fupply the place of natural and energetic flights of imagination, of the elevated and pathetic fentiments, and the bold reflections of genius. Alas! how eafy is it to be a POET, if that divine name may be applied to the authors of fuch compofitions! I do not add to my com plaint the monotonous and mechanical harmony of POPE-that fashion, it feems, like other meteors of a day, has Vaathed; but I add, what is equally cenfurable, a harshness of language, encumbered with confonants, and almost enigmatically involved; unpointed, un finished, fo as to puzzle the fenfe, and disappoint, if not disgust, the ear. Yet fashion loves to combine extremes : the fame age that applauds these things applauds alfo 'profe hitched into rhyme,' and, extolling the most vapid tales, the moft infipid fentiments, and the moft common place remarks, expreffed in a language the moft unelevated, debased by terms the moft cant and familiar, added to the laxelt verfification, rings their prailes for fimplicity, manliness, and clafficality. Johnton, of the mag nitude and comprehenfion of whole mind I find every day more reason to be convinced, fomewhere fays, that definitions of poetry are dangerous. What he thought difficult, I fhall not * See Vol. LIX. attempt. But he, who, with a loftinefs of fentiment, a copioufnefs of fancy, and an exquifite fenfibility, poffeffes that attention which can arreft the operations of his own mind and heart,' and that command of language, and of ear, which can cloath them in words and in rhyme, may be fafely pronounced a true poet. Such were Spenter and Shakespeare, Milton and Cowley, of which atter Pope fo happily fays, "Forgot his Epic, nay Pindaric art, "Yet ftill we love the language of the heart." Yes! I will affirm, that every man of tafte will continue through life to read his moral effays, both in profe and verfe, with increafing delight; while his Davideis, and too many of his odes, are neglected, as the ill-directed efforts of the most energetic understanding, and the richest imagination. And why? Here he fet up artificial models of excellence; he facrificed fimplicity to the fashion of the day; "he plucked," as the great biographer fays, "a deciduous laurel;" and the natural confequence has followed.-Dryden, it may be said, is injured, by not being claffed with the four poets already named;-his faculties of ratiocination were undoubtedly great; his fancy was truly brilliant, and inexhauftible; his powers of diction were in general nervous, comprehenfive, and happy beyond all praife; his ear was exquifite-but then-(with fear and diffidence I fpeak it) he wanted that extreme fufceptibility of heart, which gives to imagination its wildest and richeft directions; its tenderett, its moft delicate, and interesting hues. Pope appears to me to have had fimilar defects, though not fimilar merits. Once, indeed, he wrote on a fubject that came home to his own bofom; and then how did he exceed himfelf! 1 mean the "Elegy on an Unfortunate Lady." But this only adds ftrength to any position. Were it not for that, and the Eloifa to Abelard," I dare not fay in which clafs 1 fhould be inclined to place him. Yet even thefe will not avail to me, fire and vehemence of natural eloquence who prefer thought to expreffion, the to the ftiff periods of labour, and the harmony of nature to the monotonous inftrument, fo long as I recollect the Tancred and Sigifmunda; the Theodore and Honoria; and the Ode on Alexander's Feaft. And, if to fuch a writer objections can be made, how rare must be the combination of faculties, that can produce a perfect poem ! GRAY, GRAY, whofe talents were certainly of the first order, has in his Elegy given one of the pureft inftances of his genuine poetry. Of his Pindaric Odes, though they do not leffen my opinion of his ability, my admiration has long been on the decline. The caufe of his failure, if he has failed, feems to me to have been over anxiety, labour, and too much fludy of the arts of writing. Paffages of ftupendous fplendos and fublimity there are; but, as a whole, they are too artificially combined; their con nexions are too remote, and wanting that natural affociation of ideas, which, like Dryden's Ode, proves itself to have been produced under one impreffion of the mind, and at a fingle fitting. Next, therefore, to the Alexander's Feat, and in fome refpe&ts fuperior; is Collins's noble 04 to the Paffions, which, whether we confider the originality and magnificence of the defign of the whole, and its parts, or its imagery, its fentiments, its expreffions, and its verfification, has ever appeared to me one of the happieft efforts of human poetry. To be thus fuccefsful again could not be expected; yet, from his almofl conftant adherence to allegory, it is a fubject of great regret that even he feems fometimes to have, miftaken the form for the foul. Why does Thomfon continue to pleafe, nay to gather frength, and have his fails filled with the increafing blasts of faine, as he rolls down the tide of time? Why, but because he does not fiudy what he fhall write; nor dreffes up a trite thought in tinfel expreffions, like a commen hatlot difguifed in rich apparel, but becaufe he fits down to defciibe the fcenes of nature, that have from childhood delighted his exuberant fancy, and the benevolent feelings with which they have made his big heart expand. His language is not perhaps always the molt pure and polished; but, being fufficient to convey his ideas without debating them, though it may not add to their power of charming, can diminish httle from it.-Akenfide's Pleafures of Imagination is a moft fplendid and beautiful poem, efpecially when we recollect it was produced before the age of twenty four; and fuch perfons of taste as with to fce an infance how intle learning, and toil, and attention to the rules of criticilm, will do towards the excellence of fuch a work, may compare this brilliant compofition with the dull and vapid performance which the Doctor, in the latter part of his life, by re writing the whole, intended to have fubflituted for it. a Sonnets, or what they call fuch, are become very fashionable of late. Your Magazines are over-run with them; for, being fhort, the writer's labour, however great, (and great I have no doubt it often is), foon comes to a clofe. Three four-lined e'egiac ftonzas, of alternate rhyme, are trung together, with couplet at the end-and then, (how ever crude, complex, unnatural, dull, and hobbling), the deed is done. Johnfon has faid that the legitimate founet is ill-adapted to our language; and has condemned even thofe of Milton. I muft differ from him here. That it is very difficult, I confefs: the repetition, of rhymes will, without great command of language, produce embarrassment to the expreffion, and diffonance to the flow of the verle. To my ear, habituated to the general firucture of Milton's fentences, and cadence of his verles, he does not appear to have failed in the fe refpects: in elevation of thought, and majestic plainnefs of phrafe, I must think his fonnets of a tone with his other poems. How noble are the 7th, the 8th, the 12th, the 14th, the 15th, the first part of the 16th, the 18th, 20th, 21, 22d, and above all the 23d and left!-After thefe what fhall I name? Among the older poets, a few of Drummond of Hawthorden, and perhaps one or two of Daniel and Drayton"! Of the later, the highly-plaintive and perfect one of Gray, and the best of T. Warton !-Shall I mention the living? Thote of Mrs. Smith, always natural and pathetic, and full of fancy, and fometimes fublime, ae above my praife! The objection to them is, too intle variety. But grief will harp on the fame rings. Yet few of these fonnets * are legitimate. This is certainly a defect, but only a fubordinate one, as it affects their form alone. But if genius like hers may be excufed from thele rules, is it to be endured, that poetalters, of whole productions the outward refemblance (very flight as it is) 15 the only claim they have to the title, fhould be exempt from the laws that mark their thape? Miis Seward, the fuperiority of whose imagination over her judgement, every perion of understanding must be convinced of, and herleif probably may not be unwilling to allow; always poetical, * A new edition, the 6th is now published. always always refpectable, (except when the piraphrafes Hoiace), though very unequal; when the purfues the natural fre of her fancy, produces paffages of fublimity or pathos, that leave all com. petitors far behind her.-But when the bewilders herfeif with critical, fyftems, when the reins-in "her courfers of ethe"ial race" to follow after models of petty excellence, we lament the degradation of the brightest talents. The more equable ftrains of Mrs. Barbauld, legant and exfy, give a more placid delight to the judgement, if they do not equally tranfport the soul, And here I clole the lift, nor enter upon thofe other female names, with which Mifs S. has chofen to ftuff her lift, and flatter her contemporaries. But let me ftop my pen, Left I preclude myfelf from that indulgence, of which I fear that I ftand in too much need. My own produions may be too liable to thofe objections, that I have foliberally imputed to others. Alas! I fear they may!-There was, I fufpe&t, a time of that youth, which is not yet filed, when; dazzled by the tin fet of corrupt examples, and deferting the ftandards of antiquity with which the fimplicity of my childhood was delighted, and to the merits of which the fympathy of my heart bore testimony, I cramped my thoughts, and controlled the ardor of my foul, in fearch of falfe beauties, and the inanimate fparkles of affetation. But hope flatters me the ume is paft, and that I fhall yet live to complete the defigns with which the dreaïns of my infancy filled my linguine heart, and which, however depreft by disappointment, repelled by envy and malice, and overclouded by grief, ftill rife buoyant over the waves of oppofition, and direct the tenor of my thoughts and my actions. MEET PIERS DE GRANDISON. Mr. URBAN, Jan. 3. EETING accidentally with the following thort sketch of the family of Bithop Gunning, I would requeft its infertion in your ufeful Mifcellany, as it may afford fome alfiftance to the Editors of the Biographia BritanBica, towards perfecting their life of that worthy Prelate. The particulars ap pear to have been taken from a manu. fcript hittury of the House of Tracy. Thomas Gunning had iffue Peter, two other fons, and four daughters. Peter received a clerical education; and, taking orders, was prefented, by the Dean and Chapter of Rochester, to the vicarage of Hoo, near that city. He alfo obtained, a fhort time before his death, the rectory of Gravefend in the fame county. At this latter place, he dates his will Dec. 5, 1615, and his body was interred there the 12th of the famne month. By Eleanor his wife, daughter of Francis Tracy or Treffe, of Hoo, gent. and aunt to Sir Thomas T. of the fame place, knt. he left an infant fon, named Peter, afterwards the famous Bishop of Ely, born at Hoo, Jan. 11, 1613. Which fon, he requests in his will, that Eleanor, his wife and executrix, would bring up to learning; fo that, it is probable, young Peter had fhewn fome tokens of genius, which had led his father to conceive a prefage of his future advancement. Eleanor his mother afterwards married with a Mr. Hen thaw, by whom he had two fons; the Rev. Tobias Henshaw, inflalled Archdeacon of Lewes, Sept. 5, 1670; and Edward, living 1683. The fel ffixed to Mr. Gunning's will is quarterly of two coats; 1, 4, 3 billets (or a charge very like them) in fefs,-2, 3, per fefs-,and-a Bend, -which is noticed, becaufe Peter his fen, when he became a Bishop, had, on May 9, 1670, from Sir Edw. Walker, Kat. Garter, the grant of another coat, viz. Gules on a fels, between three doves, Argent, as many croffes patée, of the firft. Creft, a dove, Argent, fupporting staff. And in the pateat it is fet forth, that he was defirous of changing his family arms derived to him from his ancellors, and which had been until that time by him ufed. This latter coat has fince been affigned, with proper variation, to the Dutchefs of Hamilton; Sir Rob. Gunning, bart. &c. with his dexter claw a crofier From one of the two other fons of Thomas Gunning, defcends the prefent Mr. Geo. Gunning, of Friafbury, near Rochester. So, likewife, froin one of them did the Gunnings of Cowling, not far diftant, derive their extrace Yours, &c. tion, Mr. URBAN, F. Jan. 42 OU will much oblige an old corre fpondent, by procuring him infor. mation with refpect to the initial letters prefixed to the old version of the pfalms. He is well aware that T. S. and J. H. denote Muffieurs Thomas Sternhold and John Hopkins. And he imagines that the other contributors to the work, to whofe merit he thinks adequate juf tice has not been done, are not altogether forgotten. There are many perfons, befides G, who prefer the "venerable ancient pfalm-inditers" to the Poet Laureat of William and his co-adjutor, and even to the elegant Merrick, for the purpose which called for their homely, but nervous and animated, ftrains. mode of expreffing my hope, that the publick may ftill not be deprived of thofe papers, which, in his laft letter, he kindly offered to let pafs, through my hands, to a very respe&table gentleman; who has already printed, and most dilintereftedly difperfed, two different fets of extracts from Bishop Taylor's works, and who means fhortly to publif, with continued liberality, the entire Allow me to repeat my unanfwered collection, abridged, in a quarto voI think I place Mr. N. but in query, as to the age of our bleffed Sa- lume. viour at the time of the crucifixion. He the amiable light in which, I must be. is faid to have been born four years believe, he deferved to appear alfo, as a fore the vulgar Chriflian ra; to have father and a husband, when I give you, fuffered thirty three years after it; and from a letter now before me, his account yet no one harmonizer of the Gospels, of the first article he fent you; to which or chronological enquirer, affigns to his (as he alluded to it in the fecond, p. 301.) abode on earth a period exceeding three I had defired to be directed; as, not fufand thirty years. Yours, &c. G. pecting it to be poetical, I had omitted to fearch for it in that department of your Magazine. His choice of subje& for a first effay is to be confidered. Mr. URBAN, WITH Jan. 16. ITH much regret, I read in the papers, that, on the 26th ult. died at Liverpool, the Rev. Ralph Nicholfon, rector of Dudcote, Berks. Such was this gentleman's diffidence, and great unwillingness to appear in print, that, notwithstanding his great zeal for a fa vourite fubject, fuch encouragement only, and fuch a repofitory as yours, could have overcome it, by allowing him to take fhelter there under the initials, or a fimilar cover, of his name; as he had on his mind, for feven years together, a with to fee a question in it answered (which was ftarted vol. LIII. p. 144 ); and, after confulting the fucceffive volumes, not to have brought forward the queftion himself till vol. LX. p. 301. Not being perfonally known to him (and I fpeak it with concern, as I hoped better), I owe the pleasure of a correfpondence with him to the communications he gave the publiek in your Magazine, under his initials R. N. (of which more will be found vol. LXI. pp. 313. 1017.), and to his active zeal, which traced the initials of another writer therein, whofe fituation cafually enabled him to give fome authentic information, relating to the favourite object of his repeated enquiries-Bishop Jeremy Taylor. In confequence of this difcovery, I have been able, in the courfe of the laft fummer, to receive from him, and communicate the refult of farther mutual re "The lines, with the fignature of Arren at the feet of them, occur p. 165, Gent. Mag. 1799, and refer to p. 12, though not worthy your enquiry. The circumftance that gave birth to them was this: My eldest daughter, whilft I was giving a profe translation of the Latin verfes to her mother, defired I would give ber one in verfe; on which I hastily took a piece of paper, and scratched The gratifioff the lines as you fee them. cation of this request was followed by another, that I would fend them to Mr. Úrban. His infertion of "the trifle" encouraged me to fend him my fubfequent papers on the Bishop, &c. &c.; fome of which he has not yet admitted." From thofe fpecimens we have seen, and from the certainty that they muft now be the last from himself, it may be` hoped, that, if any with that fignature of I believe I ought not to withhold from you an obfervation which he lately communicated to me, with an apparent defign of tranfmitting it to you at his leifure; his great unwillingness to let any thing too harsh escape him, having in duced him to defire me to give fentiments on the paffage; and, if I thought there was too much afperity in it, to foften it as I pleased; nay, even to fearches on that fubject. As I wish to my * We do not recollect any; but a diligent take |