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 occafion recourse was had to the bookfellers, who, on the credit of a tranflation of Ariftotle's Poeticks, which he engaged to write with a large commentary, advanced as much money as enabled him to escape into the country. He fhewed me the guineas fafe in his hand. Soon afterwards his uncle, Mr. Martin, a lieutenantcolonel, left him about two thousand pounds; a fum which Collins could fcarcely think exhaustible, and which he did not live to exhauft. The guineas were then repaid, and the tranflation neglected. But man is not born for happinefs. Collins, who, while he ftudied to live, felt no evil but poverty, no fooner lived to ftudy than his life was affailed by more dreadful calamities, difeafe and infanity. Having formerly written his character, while perhaps it was yet more diftinctly impreffed upon my memory, I thall infert it here. "Mr. Collins was a man of extenfive literature, and of vigorous faculties. He was acquainted not only with the learned tongues, but with the Italian, French, and Spanish languages. He had employed his mind chiefly upon works of fiction, and fubjects of fancy; and, by indulging fome peculiar habits of thought, was eminently delighted with thofe flights of imagination which pafs the bounds of nature, and to which the mind is reconciled only by a paffive acquiefcence in popular traditions. He loved fairies, genii, giants, and monsters; he delighted to rove through the meanders of inchantment, to gaze on the magnificence of of golden palaces, to repofe by the water-falls of Elysian gardens. "This was however the character rather of his inclination than his genius; the grandeur of wildnefs, and the novelty of extravagance, were always defired by him, but were not always attained. Yet, as diligence is never wholly loft, if his efforts fometimes caufed harfhnefs and obfcurity, they likewife produced in happier moments fublimity and fplendour. This idea which he had formed of excellence, led him to oriental fictions and allegorical imagery; and perhaps, while he was intent upon description, he did not fufficiently cultivate fentiment. His poems are the productions of a mind not deficient in fire, nor unfurnished with knowledge either of books or life, but fomewhat obftructed in its progrefs by deviation in queft of miftaken beauties.. "His morals were pure, and his opinions pious; in a long continuance of poverty, and long habits of dissipation, it cannot be expected that any character fhould be exactly uniform. There is a degree of want by which the freedom of agency is almost destroyed; and long affociation with fortaitous companions will at laft relax the ftrictness. of truth, and abate the fervour of fincerity. That this man, wife and virtuous as he was, paffed always unentangled through the fnares of life, it would be prejudice and temerity to affirm; but it may be faid that at least he preferved the fource of action unpolluted, that his principles were never fhaken, that his diftinctions of right and wrong were never confounded, and that his faults had nothing of malignity or defign, but proceeded from fome unexpected preffure, or cafual temptation. "The "The latter part of his life cannot be remembered but with pity and fadnefs. He lan guifhed fome years under that depreffion of mind which enchains the faculties without deftroying. them, and leaves reafon the knowledge of right without the power of pursuing it. These clouds which he perceived gathering on his intellects, he endeavoured to difperfe by travel, and paffed into France; but found himself constrained to yield to his malady, and returned. He was for some time confined in a house of lunaticks, and afterwards retired to the care of his fifter. in Chichester, where death in 1756 came to his relief. "After his return from France, the writer of this character paid him a vifit at Iflington, where he was waiting for his fifter, whom he had directed to meet him: there was then nothing of diforder difcernible in his mind by any but himfelf; but he had withdrawn from study, and travelled with no other book than an English Teftament, such as children carry to the school: when his friend took it into his hand, out of curiofity to fee what companion a Man of Letters had chofen,' I have but one book,' faid Collins, but that is the 'best." 6 Such was the fate of Collins, with whom I once delighted to converfe, and whom I yet remember with tenderness. He was visited at Chichester in his last illness, by his learned friends Dr. Warton and his brother; to whom he fpoke with difapprobation of his Oriental Eclogues, as not fufficiently expreffive of Afiatick manners, and called them his Irish Eclogues. He fhewed them, at the fame time, An an ode infcribed to Mr. John Hume, on the fuperftitions of the Highlands; which they thought fuperior to his other works, but which no fearch has yet found *. His diforder was not alienation of mind, but general laxity and feeblenefs, a deficiency rather of his vital than intellectual powers. What he spoke wanted neither judgment nor fpirit; but a few minutes exhaufted him, fo that he was forced to reft upon the couch, till a fhort ceffation restored his powers, and he was again able to talk with his former vigour. The approaches of this dreadful malady he began to feel foon after his uncle's death; and with the ufual weakness of men so diseased, eagerly fnatched that temporary relief with which the table and the bottle flatter and feduce. But his health continually declined, and he grew more and more burthenfome to himself. To what I have formerly faid of his writings. may be added, that his diction was often harsh, unfkilfully laboured, and injudiciously felected. He affected the obfolete when it was not worthy of revival; and he puts his words out of the common order, feeming to think, with fome later candi-dates for fame, that not to write profe is certainly to write poetry. His lines commonly are of flow motion, clogged and impeded with clufters of confonants. As men are often esteemed who cannot be loved, fo the poetry of Collins may fometimes extort praise when it gives little pleafure. It is printed in the late Collection. R. Mr. Mr. Collins's first production is added here from the Poetical Calendar." To Mifs AURELIA CR, On her weeping at her Sifter's Wedding, Ceafe fair Aurelia, cease to mourn ; DYER. JOHN DYER, of whom I have no other ac count to give than his own Letters, published with Hughes's correfpondence, and the notes added by the editor, have afforded me, was born in 1700, the second fon of Robert Dyer of Aberglafney, in Caermarthenshire, a folicitor of great capacity and note. He paffed through Westminster school under the care of Dr. Freind, and was then called home to be inftructed in his father's profeffion. But his father died foon, and he took no delight in the |