POETICAL WORKS OF WILLIAM COLLINS. WITH THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. PHILADELPHIA: PRINTED FOR BENJAMIN JOHNSON, JACOB JOHNSON, AND ROBERT JOHNSON. LIFE OF COLLINS. AS the greater part of men of genius, who have borne no public character, have passed their lives in obscurity, it seldom happens that any memoirs can be collected respecting them of sufficient importance to claim the notice of the biographer. We therefore find few other accounts of the author of the following poems, than such as occur in the life of every man; yet these memoirs, simple as they are, respecting the man, will not be unacceptable to those who admire the poet; for if we derive intellectual pleasure from his productions, a kind of instinctive curiosity will be excited to become acquainted with the force from which it springs. William Collins was born at Chichester, about the year 1721. His father, who was a respectable tradesman in that city, intending him for the service of the church, with this view he was admitted scholar of Winchester College, under the tuition of the learned Dr. Burton. At the age of nineteen, he had acquired a sufficient degree of merit to entitle him to a distinguished rank in the list of those scholars who are elected upon the foundation of Winchester to New College, Oxford; But as there was then no vacancy in that society, he was admitted a commoner of Queen's, where he continued till July 1741, when he was elected a Demy of Magdalen College, in which he resided during his stay at the University. It is observed, that while a student, he evinced much genius and much indolence in his literary productions, as his exercises, in the opinion of the most impartial judges, bore evident characteristics of both. This remissness might probably arise in some measure from disappointment in the outset of life. He had no doubt entertained very high ideas of the academical mode of education; yet when he entered upon the more abstruse studies, his ardour in the pursuit seems to have been abated by the perplexities he had to encounter, and his genius was too volatile to pore over the intricate and puzzling problems of Euclid. While he was at Magdalen College, he became a votary to the Muses, and wrote the epistle to Sir Thomas Hanmer, and the Oriental Eclogues, which, in the year 1742, were first published, under the title of "Persian Eclogues." Having made these advances in his poetical career, he took the degree of Bachelor of Arts, in 1744, left the university, and came to London, a literary adventurer, with many projects in his head, and very little money in his pocket. To a man of a liberal mind, without fortune, without patronage, the metropolis is a very dangerous place, and our author had not long been in it, before the truth of this observation was fully verified. His pecuniary resources were soon exhausted; and though he wanted not the power of restoring them by the exertions of genius and learning, he had neither steadiness nor industry. His necessities indeed sometimes carried him as far as a plan or a title page. He de signed many works, but his want of resolution, or the frequent calls of immediate necessity, broke his schemes, and suffered him to pursue no settled pur. pose. "A man," as Dr. Johnson observes, " doubtful of his dinner, or trembling at a creditor, is not much disposed to abstracted meditation, or remote inquiries.' He published proposals for a history of the Revival of Learning, and made some observations to his friends on the subjects he intended to introduce; but it does not appear that a page of the history was ever written. He planned several tragedies, but he only planned them; in short, he became in idea an historian, a critic, and a dramatic poet, by turns; but it was only in idea, for whether it was the effect of dissipation, or the prevalence of indolence; he never carried one of these plans into execution. This want of resolution of course subjected him to the greatest distresses. He depended day by day for subsistence on the long repeated contributions of a friend, or the generosity of a casual acquaintance. In fact, neither want, shame, the anxieties of poverty, nor the servility of dependence could animate resolution to perseverance. At length, in 1746, he had spirit enough to exert himself so far as to publish his Ödes Descriptive and Allegorical; but as the sale was by no means equal to his expectations, he conceived an indignation for a tasteless age, and burnt the remaining copies with his own hands. About this time he became acquainted with Dr. Johnson, who speaks of him in very respectable terms. He says, ❝his appearance was decent and manly; his knowledge considerable; his views extensive; his conversation elegant, and his disposition cheerful." By degrees the doctor gained his confidence, and one day was admitted to him when he was immured by a bailiff that was prowling in the street. On this occasion recourse was had to the booksellers, who, on the credit of a translation of A |