"the sect of inspired physicians," with their most lucrative practice; and shortly after, The Economy of Love," a poem. The object of both productions seems to have been the same, and though it was an object sufficiently consistent with professional assiduity, it brought no honor to his character, either as a man of letters or a moralist. In the one, he allured with syren power the youth of the land to those indiscretions for which the other presented the cure; it was, in short, altogether a business matter, in which self-interest supplied the cunning, and genius the capital. As a physician, and a poor physician, he panted after practice; and not content with encounter ing the quacks who engrossed it, with the might of learning and skill, he was ungallant enough to call in the Muses, to assist him in his interested rivalry. It would seem, however, that he failed in obtaining the reward he anticipated. The "Economy of Love” sold rapidly, but it brought but little practice to the author of "The Synopsis of the History and Cure."

At a later period, Dr. Armstrong appears to have suppressed the most obnoxious passages of "The Economy of Love," in a new edition which bore to be "revised and corrected by the author." He would have done better could he have suppressed it entirely. It is still a licentious poem, and remains very properly excluded from every collection of poetry-even from his own collection of his works. From one of the cases on literary property, it appears, that the whole sum he received for it from his publisher, Mr. Millar, was only fifty guineas.

The Art of Preserving Health," by which Dr. Armstrong made ample atonement to his injured re

putation, was published in 1744. It raised him instantly to a place among the first poets of his age, and was universally read and admired.

In 1746, he was appointed one of the physicians to the hospital for lame and sick soldiers, behind Buckingham-house, through the influence, it is believed, of Dr. Mead, whom he had thus handsomely invoked in his last poem :

O thou! belov'd by all the graceful arts,
Thou, long the fav'rite of the healing powers;
Indulge, O Mead! a well design'd essay,
Howe'er imperfect: and permit, that I
My little knowledge with my country share,
Till you the rich Asclepian stores unlock,
And with new graces dignify the theme.

In 1751, he presented the public with "Benevolence," an epistle to Eumenes; and in 1753, "Taste," an epistle to a young critic. In 1758, he published "Sketches or Essays on various subjects," under the title of Launcelot Temple, Esq. The sale of this work was remarkably rapid, owing, in some measure probably, to a fable of the day, that Mr. Wilkes, then in the zenith of his popularity, had assisted in its production. Its merit was not of the highest order, and it is not among the collections of Essays that are now generally read.

In 1760, Dr. Armstrong was honored by the distinguished appointment of physician to the forces in Germany. While engaged on this service, he transmitted to Mr. Wilkes, in England, an epistle in rhyme, which soon afterwards found its way into

print, under the title of "Day, an epistle to Johar Wilkes, Esq. of Aylesbury," "without the knowledge," as was pretended in a prefatory advertisement," or consent of the author, or of the gentleman to whom it is addressed."

On the peace, Dr. Armstrong returned to London, and resumed, but with little success, his practice as a physician. In 1770, he published a Collection of his works in two volumes, containing the productions already mentioned, with the exception of the Economy of Love, and Day, the Epistle to Mr. Wilkes, and the following hitherto unpublished pieces.—“ Imitations of Shakespeare and Spenser." "The Universal Almanack, by Noureddin Ali." "The Forced Marriage," a tragedy which was offered to Garrick in 1754, but rejected; and some additional" Sketches." In an advertisement prefixed to these volumes, Dr. A. modestly says, he had, at last, "taken the trouble upon him to collect his works, and to have them printed under his own inspection; a task that he had long avoided; and to which he would hardly have submitted himself, but for the sake of preventing their being, at some future time, exposed in a ragged mangled condition, and loaded with more faults than they originally had.”

In 1771, he took "a short ramble through some parts of France and Italy," in company with Mr. Fuseli, the painter, and published a discontented account of it on his return. In 1773, he closed his literary career, by the publication of a quarto volume of "Medical Essays," in which he accounts for his not having such extensive practice as some of his brethren, on the ground of his not being qualified to

employ the usual means of foreing his way, by a ticklish state of spirits, and a distempered excess of sensibility.

The peculiar circumstances under which " Day," or the Epistle by Mr. Wilkes, was published, have already been noticed; it still remains to relate some consequences which arose out of it, of a very disagreeable description, and which there is reason to believe, tended in no small degree to embitter the latter years of Dr. Armstrong's life. The poem contained a lively satire on the follies of "the day;" but of so general a nature, that the author had doubtless hoped to see

his taxing like a wild goose fly,

Unclaimed of any man.

In one unlucky line, however, he happened to hit off a character so suited to what Churchill, with whom he had been on habits of intimacy, either thought of himself, or conceived the public thought of him, that nothing would persuade him but that he was personally held out to ridicule. The offensive line occurs in the following passage:

"What news to day? I ask you not what rogue,
What paltry imp of fortune's now in vogue;
What forward blund'ring fool was last preferr'd,
By mere pretence distinguish'd from the herd;
With what new cheat the gaping town is smit;
What crazy scribbler reigns the present wit;
What stuff for winter the two Booths have mixt,
What bouncing mimic grows a Roscius next."

It is needless to say, how reasonable it was in Mr.
PART 3.]

M

Churchill to conclude, that there could be no other

crazy scribbler," except the author of the Rosciad, in the writer's eye; or to point out the modesty with which he so readily arrogated to himself the character of the reigning wit of the day; and still less is it necessary to dwell on the good grace with which an author, who required such large allowances for the deliberate licentiousness of his own pen, should be enraged at so mere a chance medley on the part of another. Churchill was resolved to be revenged, and in his poem, called "The Journey," thus repaid one accidental hit, by twenty mortal stabs at the reputation of a man whom he had once owned as his friend, and joined with all the world in admiring as a writer.

"Let them with Armstrong, taking leave of sense, Read musty lectures on Benevolence;

Or con the pages of his gaping Day,
Where all his former fame was thrown away,
Where all but barren labour was forgot,
And the vain stiffness of a letter'd Scot;
Let them with Armstrong pass the term of light,
But not one hour of darkness; when the night
Suspends this mortal coil, when mem'ry wakes,
When for our past misdoings conscience takes
A deep revenge, when by reflection led

She draws his curtains, and looks comfort dead,
Let ev'ry muse be gone; in vain he turns,
And tries to pray for sleep: an Etna burns,
A more than Etna, in his coward breast,
And guilt, with vengeance arm'd, forbids the rest;
Though soft as plumage from young Zephyr's wing,
His couch seems hard, and no relief can bring;