scriptures. with admiration and rapture. He was at the expence of large impressions of the Bible, and translations into several languages, for the use of the poor, both at home and abroad. Having employed his whole life in doing good, he extended his benevolence and charities to mankind after his death, and founded an annual lecture, with a handsome salary, for the proof of natural and revealed religion, against atheists, deists, and all other infidels whomsoever:

"The third was a most excellent metaphysician, who inquired particularly into the powers and limits of the human understand-, ing; an author, happy in a wonderfully clear vein of thinking and reasoning; drew his materials not so much from books as from his own thoughts and reflections, and knew how to dress those thoughts in easy and agreeable language; a friend to liberty, both civil and religious, but an advocate for revelation; wrote largely of the reasonableness of christianity; made a most excellent paraphrase and annotations on the principle of St. Paul's Epistles, wherein he hath done more towards clearing and explaining their sense and meaning than any commentator, I had almost said than all the commentators before him; and doubtless, would have obliged us with more such writings if he had lived longer, having dedicated the remainder of his days wholly and solely to these studies.

"The fourth was a prodigy indeed of mathematical knowledge There was none like him before him; and it may be questioned, whether after him there will any " arise like unto him." It is said by Dr. Keil, that if all philosophy and mathematics were consi dered as consisting of ten parts, nine of them are entirely of his discovery and invention. And his modesty, humility, and other virtues, were as great and conspicuous as his learning and knowledge. He spoke always of the supreme being in a manner becoming a philosopher; attempted to settle the chronology of ancient kingdoms conformable to scripture; and wrote observations on some of the most difficult parts of holy writ, the prophecies of Daniel, and St. John's Revelation; making thus the word of God the port and haven of all his labours, and doing as every wise man' should, beginning with philosophy, and ending in religion."

:

It is observable that bishop Newton, though a great stickler for what he thought orthodoxy, and extremely averse to any liberal toleration of the dissenters, was himself a dissenter from the established church respecting the doctrine of eternal punishments, which he did not believe, and expressly wrote against in one of the pieces published since his death.

**Authorities. Life and Works of bishop Newton, 6,vols,' Svo. Monthly Review: vol. LXVIII, &c.

MARK AKENSIDE was born at Newcastle upon Tyne on the 9th of November, 1721. He was the second son of Mark Akenside, a substantial butcher in that town, at the free-school of which he received the earliest part of his grammatical education. He was next put under the care of Mr. Wilson, a dissenting minister, who kept a private accademy at Newcastle. At about the age of eighteen he was sent to the university of Edinburgh, with a view of becoming a dissenting minister, his parents and relations in general being presbyterians. But it was only for one winter that he prosecuted his studies upon this plan; after which he applied himself to physic. His genius, and his taste for poetry,' were displayed while he was at the grammar-school at Newcastle, and during his continuance at Mr. Wilson's academy; and at Edinburgh he likewise distinguished himself by his poetical compositions. After staying three years at Edinburgh, he removed to Leyden, where he continued two years; and there, in 1744, he took the degree of doctor of physic; having previously, as Dr Johnson says, "according to the custom of the Dutch universities, published a thesis, or dissertation. The subject which he chose was, the Original and growth of the Human Fatus ; in which he is said to have departed, with great judgment, from the opini

on then established, and to have delivered that which has since been confirmed and received." On his leaving Holland, he wrote the following Ode:

I. 1.

"FAREWELL to Leyden's lonely bound,
The Belgian Muse's sober seat;
Where, dealing frugal gifts around
To all the favorites at her feet,
She trains the body's bulky frame
For passive, persevering toils;
And lest, from any prouder aim,

The daring mind should scorn her homely spoils,
She breathes maternal fogs to damp its restless flame.
1. 2.

Farewell the grave, pacific air,

Where never mountain zephyr blew:

The marshy levels lank and bare,

Which Pan, which Ceres, never knew:

The Naiads, with obscene attire

Urging in vein their urns to flow:

While around them chaunt the croaking choir,
And happ❜ly sooth some lover's prudent woe,
Or prompt some restive bard, and modulate his lyre.

That sleeps upon the reedy shore.
When shall I plough the azure tide?

When on thy hills the flocks admire,

Like mountain snows; till down their side I trace the village and the sacred spire,

While bow'rs and copses green the golden slope divide?

II. 2.

Ye nymphs who guard the pathless grove,
Ye blue-ey'd sisters of the streams,

With whom I wont at morn to rove,

With whom at noon I talk'd in dreams;
O! take me to your haunts again,
The rocky spring, the greenwood glade;
To guide my lonely footsteps deign,

To promp my slumbers in the murmuring shade,
And sooth my vacant ear with many an airy strain.

II. 3.

And thou, my faithful harp, no longer mourn
Thy drooping master's inauspicious hand:
Now brighter skies and fresher gales return,
Now fairer maids thy melody demand.
Daughters of Albion, listen to my lyre!
O Phœbus guardian of th' Aonian choir,
Why sounds not mine harmonious as thy own,
When all the virgin deities above

With Venus and with Juno move

in concert round th' Olympian father's throne?

III.

Thee too, protectress of my lays,
Elate with whose majestic call
Above degenerate Latium's praise,
Above the slavish boats, of Gaul,
I dare from impious thrones reclaim,
And wanton sloth's ignoble charms,

The honors of a poet's name

To Somers' counsels, or to Hamden's arms,

Thee, Freedom, I rejoin, and bless thy genuine flame.

III. 2.

Great citizen of Albion! Thee
Heroic valour still attends,
And useful science pleas'd to see
How art her studious toil extends,
While truth, diffusing from on high
A lusture unconfin'd as day,

Fills and commands the public eye,

Till, pierc'd and sinking by her powerful ray,

Tame faith, and monkish awe, like nightly demons, fly.

After his return to England, Dr. Akenside published the Pleasures of Imagination, a poem, in three books." This is his principal performance; and Mr. Cooper, in his letters concerning taste, styles it "the most beautiful didactic poem that ever adorned the English language." And Dr. Kippis, in the Biographia Britannica, after admitting that this poem has some defects, says, "Nevertheless, we cannot but regard it as a noble and beautiful poem, exhibiting many bright displays of genius and fancy, and holding out sublime views of nature, providence, and morality."

Dr. Akenside published shortly after, an "Epistle to Curio ;" containing a warm invective, under that name, against William Pulteney, earl of Bath, on account of his political conduct. About this time, he went to Northampton, in order to settle as a physician there; but Dr. Johnson says, that "Dr. Stonehouse then practised in that town with such reputation and success, that a stranger was not likely to gain ground upon him. Akenside