fented, and the author died. He lived to hear that it was well received; but paid no regard to the intelligence, being then wholly employed in the meditations of a departing Chriftian.

A man of his character was undoubtedly regretted; and Steele devoted an effay, in the paper called The Theatre, to the memory of his virtues. His Life is written in the Biographia with fome degree of favourable partiality; and an account of him is prefixed to his works, by his relation the late Mr. Duncombe, a man whofe blameless elegance deserved the fame refpect.

The character of his genius I fhall tranfcribe from the correfpondence of Swift and Pope.

cr

"A month ago," fays Swift, "was fent me over, by a friend of mine, the works "of John Hughes, Efquire. They are in profe "and verfe. I never heard of the man in my life, yet I find your name as a subscriber. "He is too great a poet for me; and I think among the mediocrifts, in profe as well as verfe.'

To this Pope returns: "To answer your "queftion as to Mr. Hughes; "wanted in genius, he made up "neft man; but he was of the

what he as an hoclafs you

"think him."

THE END.

his attendance in London, where he caught the small-pox, and died in 1703, in the thirtyfixth year of his age.

He published his poems in 1699; and has been always the favourite of that class of readers, who, without vanity or criticism, feek only their own amufement.

His Choice exhibits a fyftem of life adapted to common notions, and equal to common expectations; fuch a state as affords plenty and tranquility, without exclufion of intellectual pleasures. Perhaps no compofition in our language has been oftener perused than Pomfret's Choice.

In his other poems there is an easy volubility; the pleasure of fmooth metre is afforded to the ear, and the mind is not oppreffed with ponderous or entangled with intricate fentiment. He pleases many, and he who pleases many must have merit.

HUGHES.

HUGHES.

JOHN HUGHES, the fon of a ci

tizen of London, and of Anne Burgess, of an ancient family in Wiltshire, was born at Marlborough, July 29, 1677. He was educated at a private school; and though his advances in literature are in the Biographia very oftentatiously displayed, the name of his master is somewhat ungratefully concealed.

To

At nineteen he drew the plan of a tragedy; and paraphrased, rather too diffusely, the ode of Horace which begins Integer Vita. poetry he added the fcience of mufick, in which he feems to have attained confiderable fkill, together with the practice of defign, or rudiments of painting.

His ftudies did not withdraw him wholly from business, nor did business hinder him from study. He had a place in the office of ordnance, and was fecretary to several commiffions for purchafing lands necessary to secure the royal docks at Chatham and Portfmouth; yet found time to acquaint himself with modern languages.

In 1697 he published a poem on the Peace of Ryfwick; and in 1699 another piece, called the Court of Neptune, on the return of king William, which he addreffed to Mr. Montague, the general patron of the followers of the Mufes. The fame year he produced a fong on the duke of Gloucester's birth-day.

He did not confine himself to poetry, but cultivated other kinds of writing with great fuccefs; and about this time fhewed his knowledge of human nature by an Essay on the pleafure of being deceived. In 1702 he published, on the death of king William, a Pindarick ode called the Houfe of Nallau; and wrote another paraphrafe on the Otium Divos of Horace.

In 1703 his ode on Mufick was performed at Stationer's Hall; and he wrote afterwards fix cantatas, which were fet to mufick by the greatest master of that time, and feem intended to oppofe or exclude the Italian opera, an exotick and irrational entertainment, which has been always combated, and always has prevailed.

His reputation was now fo far advanced, that the publick began to pay reverence to his name; and he was folicited to prefix a preface to the tranflation of Boccalini, a writer whose fatirical vein coft him his life in Italy; but who never, I believe, found many readers in this country, even though introduced by fuch powerful recommendation.

He tranflated Fontanelle's Dialogues of the Dead; and his verfion was perhaps read at that time, but is now neglected; for by a book not neceffary,