WILLIAM JULIUS MICKLE.

WILLIAM JULIUS MICKLE was born at Langholm, in Dumfrieshire, on the 29th of Sept. 1734. He was the third son of the Rev. Alex. Mickle, minister of Langholm, who had been previously a preacher among the dissenters in London; and superintended the translation of Bayle's Dictionary, to which he is said to have contributed the greater part of the additional notes. William Julius was educated along with his brothers at the grammar school of Langholm, and like almost all distinguished poets, is said to have early betrayed indications of his being born of the fraternity. He loved to read poetry, and like Pope was enchanted with Spenser ; nor could he resist a natural impulse to imitate the object of his admiration. Nothing is extant however to shew that he established any claim to rank with Windsor's bard, among les enfans celèbres; and it may be presumed, that the productions of Mickle's boyhood were in no respect superior to the common run of puerile compositions.

Mr. Mickle, the father, becoming aged and infirm, he obtained the permission of his presbytery to resign the active duties of his parish to an assistant; and removed to Edinburgh for the better education of his family, which was numerous. William, whose elementary education had not been completed, was sent to the high school of Edinburgh, where he attained

a competent proficiency in both the Latin and Greek languages.

Two years after the Rev. Mr. Mickle came to reside at Edinburgh, his brother-in-law, a brewer in the neighbourhood of that city, died; and Mr. Mickle embarked the chief part of his fortune in the purchase of the brewery, the business of which he continued in the name of his eldest son. William Julius, now in his fifteenth year, was also taken from school to be employed as a clerk in the establishment. He remained in this situation till his twenty-first year, when an arrangement was made by which the whole charge and property of the brewery were transferred to him, on condition of granting his father a share of the profits during his life, and paying a certain sum to his brothers and sisters, at stated periods, after his father's decease, which happened within three years after.

Family considerations, more than any inclination for trade, are said to have induced Mickle to fall in with this plan of life. Although he had left school, not for the university, but the counting-desk, he had continued in private to pursue his literary studies with the greatest ardour, and has been often heard to declare, that before he was eighteen, he had written two tragedies and half an epic poem; all of which he consigned to the flames. Nor did the weightier concerns which now devolved upon him, at all estrange him from his favorite studies. Several poetical pieces from his pen appeared from time to time in the Scot's Magazine; and two of these, one, "On passing through the Parliament Close at Midnight;", and the other, entitled "Knowledge, an Ode ;" were reprinted PART 4.]

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in the second volume of Donaldson's Collection of Original Poems, by Scottish Gentlemen. In 1762, he sent to London for publication, an ethic poem, which was brought out by Becket, under the title of "Providence, or Arandus and Emilée;" but without the author's name. The critics were divided in opinion as to its merits; and its success was extremely indifferent. Mickle, not disheartened, wrote a letter to Lord Lyttelton, esteemed the politest scholar of his time, in which, assuming the name of William More, he begged his lordship's candid opinion of the poem. "It is," he said, "the work of a young man, friendless and unknown; but were another edition to have the honour of Lord Lyttelton's name at the head of a dedication, such a pleasure would enable me to put it in a much better dress than what it now appears in." He concluded with requesting, that his lordship's answer might be left for him at a coffee-house in Holborn, where he had directed one of his brothers, then in London, to call for it.

While Mickle's visions of poetical renown were thus under a cloud for the moment, something much worse had happened to his worldly concerns. The poet, as may readily be imagined, proved but an indifferent brewer he left the business to servants, who are said to have abused his confidence, but whose only fault probably was, that they could not do both their master's duty and their own; and, in addition to the losses which his negligence thus brought upon him, his good nature induced him to become security to a considerable extent for others, who turned out insolvent. Embarrassments thickened, while expedients diminished: a bankruptcy became at last in

evitable; and, in order to avoid a threatened arrest, he was under the painful necessity of leaving his home in the month of April, 1763.

On the 8th of May following, Mickle arrived in London, less dejected in spirits, than strong in the hope so natural to a young and vigorous mind, that in this great mart for talent some new line of life would speedily open to him, by which he might yet repair all his losses, discharge his debts, and relieve his family from the distress in which his failure and the consequent dispersion of the family property must have involved them.

Nor did fortune seem to smile

adverse. He had the pleasure of finding an answer waiting for him, to the letter which he had sent to Lord Lyttelton. It was polite and encouraging. His lordship assured him, that he thought his genius in poetry deserved to be cultivated; but would not advise the republication of the poem without considerable alterations. He declined the offer of a dedication, as a thing likely to be of no use to the author "as nobody minded dedications;" but suggested that it might be of some use, if he were to come and read the poem with his lordship, when they might discourse together upon its merits. In the mean time, he exhorted Mickle to endeavour to acquire greater harmony of versification, and to take care that his diction did not loiter into prose, or become hard by new phrases or words unauthorised by the usage of good authors. In answer to this condescending, judicious, and truly friendly letter, Mickle informed his lordship of his real name, and enclosed another specimen of his poetry, entitled "Pollio, an Elegiac Ode, written in a wood near Roslin Castle, on к?

the death of one of his brothers." His Lordship replied, in terms still more flattering than before. He gave it as his opinion, that the Elegy, after a few corrections which he would point out, when he had the pleasure of seeing the author, would be as perfect as any thing of the kind in the English language. The interview here sought for took place in the month of February, 1764. His lordship received Mickle with the utmost politeness and affability, begged him not to be discouraged at such difficulties as every young author must expect to encounter, but to cultivate his very promising poetical powers; adding, with his habitual condescension, that he would become his schoolmaster.

Mickle, with Lord Lyttelton for his patron and preceptor, thought his fortune, as a man of letters, now made. After several other interviews and many excellent lessons in the poetic art from his lordship, Mickle hinted a wish to send forth a volume to the world; and he submitted, for his lordship's final approval, the pieces which he designed should compose the volume, namely, "Providence"greatly amended since its first appearance, "Pollio," and "An Elegy on Mary Queen of Scots."

Lord Lyttelton communicated his judgement on this projected volume, in a long letter to Mickle; in which, after much praise of the first two pieces, and pointing out some emendations of which they were susceptible, he declined criticising any part of the Elegy on Mary, because he wholly disapproved of the subject. He thought, that poetry should not consecrate what history must condemn; and, in the view which his lordship had taken of the history of Mary, he thought her entitled to pity, but not to praise.