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with the following lines on her monument, written by her husband:

With Sappho's taste, with Arria's tender heart,
Lucretia's bonour, and Cecilia's art,

That such a woman died surprise can't give;
'Tis only strange that such a one should live.

He afterwards composed a more elegant, and pathetic tribute to her virtues, which may be found among his poems.

The allusion to the cause of her death is an original thought, introduced with great skill and tenderness. During her life, he produced one poem only, entitled Precepts of Conjugal Happiness, addressed to Mrs. Nelthorpe, a sister of his wife. In the Precepts of Conjugal Happiness, there is more good sense than poetry. It appears to have been a temporary effusion on which he bestowed no extraordinary pains. Not long after Mrs. Langhorne's death our author went to reside at Folkestone in Kent, where his brother, the Rev. William Langhorne, then officiated as minister, a man of a very amiable character. Between these brothers the closest affection subsisted; each was to other 'more the friend than brother of his heart.' During their residence together at Folkestone, they were employed in preparing a new translation of Plutarch's lives: and our poet, who became about this time intimate with Scott, the poet of Amwell (who likewise had just lost a beloved wife from a similar cause), paid him a visit at Amwell, where he wrote the Monody inscribed to Mr. Scott.

Amidst these engagements he found leisure to give to the world two productions strongly marked by the peculiarities of his style and turn of thinking the one entitled Frederick and Pharamond, or the Consolations of Human life, 8vo: the other, Letters supposed to have passed between M. de St. Evremond and Waller. Frederick and Phara

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mond was begun with a view to alleviate the afflictions of a friend, and pursued, perhaps, to alleviate his own. It attempts that by argument which is rarely accomplished but by time. The translation of Plutarch, by the brothers, appeared in 1770, and soon became very popular book. In 1771, Dr. Langhorne gave another proof of the variety on which he exercised his fancy, in a favourite little volume, entltied the Fables of Flora. In this,

although he claimed too hastily the merit of combining, for the first time, imagery, description, and sentiment, yet he has certainly enlarged the province of fable, and given proof of a wide range of imagination. It cannot, however, be denied, that the moral is not always sufficiently pointed, that the style is too much ornamented, and the general cast of sentiment too obscure, for the persons in whose hands fables are usually placed. In answer to the objection made to the language of flowers, his son very justly remarks that impersonation may certainly be applied with as much reason to the vegatable as to the animal creation, if the characteristic attributes of each plant or flower are faithfully marked, and the unity of the fable is maintained.'

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Towards the latter end of the year 1771, Dr. Langhorne went to reside for a few months at Potton, in Bedfordshire, where he wrote his Origin of the Veil, which, however, was not published for some time after. In 1772, he paid a visit to his native country, and married a second wife, the daughter of Thomson, Esq. near Brough, and soon after took her with him on a tour through part of France and Flanders, the scenery of which afforded new topics for his muse. Late in the spring he returned to Blagden, where he was put into the commission of the peace; and having considered the usual practice of the duties of that office, he imparted his sentiments on the subject in

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a species of didactic and satirical poem, entitled The Country Justice, in three parts, published in 1774, 1775, and 1777. This humane endeavour to plead the cause of the poor and wretched against oppression and neglect, does great honour to his feelings, which, indeed, in all his works, are on the side of benevolence and virtue. It is said to have been written in consequence of the suggestion, and, as to facts, probably with the assistance, of Dr. Burn, the well-known author of a Digest of the Laws relating to Justices of the Peace.-In 1773, Dr. Langhorne presented the public with a free translation of that part of Denina on the ancient Republics of Italy, which contains the author's reflections on the admission of the Italian states to the franchises of Rome.

In 1776, he lost his second wife, who died, like the former, in child-bed, five years after her marriage, and left a daughter. What impression this second interruption to domestic happiness produced on his mind, we are not told. In this year, however, we find him again employing the press, in a Translation of Milton's Italian Sonnets, and on two occasional sermons. In 1777, at the request of the Bouverie family (who highly respected Dr. Langhorne,) Dr. Moss, bishop of Bath and Wells, presented him with a prebend in the cathedral of Wells. His last production was the tale of Owen of Carron, which, with some beauties, has but little energy and vigour: it is uncertain whether this was owing to the nature of the poem, in which he conceived it necessary to imitate the ballad simplicity, or to a languor of body and mind. His biographer passes over his last days without notice of his situation or employments. We are merely told that he died April 1, 1779, in the forty-fifth year of his age. In 1804, his son published an edition of his poems, in two elegant volumes 12mo. with memoirs of the Author.

If we may judge from his writings, Dr. Langhorne was a man of an amiable disposition, a friend to religion and morals, and though a wit, he never descends to grossness or indelicacy. Incidental notice having been already taken of his pieces, it will not be necessary to enlarge on the subject. Ease, elegance, and tenderness, are the most striking features of his poetry: nor is he deficient in invention; an attentive perusal will enable the reader to discover many original sentiments, and spirited flights, which the critics of his day pointed out with high praise. He is very seldom a copyist: his style and his sentiments, whatever their merit, are his own. His prose works are various enough to convince us that he was either a laborious writer, or possessed of great fertility of imagination, and the latter will probably be the safest conjecture. But, although a scholar of high attainments, he has rarely brought learning to his aid. His mind was stored with remarks on men and manners, which he expressed in various and desultory modes, so as to give an air of novelty to every thing he wrote, but we find nothing very profound. He appeared so frequently before the public as to secure a considerable degree of fame; what he announced was expected with eagerness, and what he published was read with pleasure.

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