The Portical Calendar. Tr Vol. XII. for December. 12mo, Is. 6d. Coote. O fuch of our Readers as were not difpleased with the criticisms on Mr. Collins's poems in our laft month's Review, the fhort account and character of his life and writings, in the poetical Calendar for December, will not be difagreeable; particularly as the character plainly appears, from its style, to be the work of a Writer defervedly celebrated for genius and erudition. Some Account of the LIFE and WRITINGS of Mr. WILLIAM COLLINS. MR. William Collins was born at Chichester in Suffex, in the year 1721 in which city his father was a reputable tradefman. He was admitted a fcholar of Winchester college, Feb. 23, 1733, where he spent feven years, under the care of the learned Dr. Burton. In the year 1740, in confideration of his merit, he was placed firft in the lift of those scholars who are elected from Winchester college to New college in Oxford: but no vacancy happening at the latter, he was entered, the fame year, a Commoner of Queen's college, Oxford; and July 29, 1741, was elected a demy, or fcholar, of Magdalen college in the fame univerfity. At fchool he began to ftudy poetry and criticism, particularly the latter. The following epigram, made by him while at Winchefter-school, discovers a genius, and turn of expreffion, very rarely to be met with in juvenile compofitions. To Mifs AURELIA C-R, on her weeping at her Sifter's Wedding. With Love united Hymen ftands, "You'll find your filter in his arms." His Latin exercifes were never fo much admired as his EngJifh.-At Oxford he wrote the Epiftle to Sir Thomas Hanmer, and Oriental Eclogues, which were firft publifhed in 1742, under the title of Perfian Eclogues. About the year 1743, he Jeft Oxford, having taken the degree of Batchelor of Arts, weary of the confinement and uniformity of an academical life;. fondly imagining, that a man of parts was fure of making his fortune in London; and ftruck with the name of Author and Po, without confulting his friends, he immediately removed to to town, and rafhly refolved to live by his pen, without undertaking the drudgery of any profeffion. Here he foon dissipated his finall fortune; to compenfate for which, he projected the Hiftory of the Revival of Learning in Italy, under the Pontificates of Julius II. and Leo X. His fubfcription for this work not answering his expectations, he engaged with a Bookfeller, to tranflate Ariftotle's Poetics, and to illuftrate it with a large and regular comment. This fcheme alfo being laid afide, he turned his thoughts to dramatic poetry; and being intimately acquainted with the Manager, refolved to write a tragedy, which, however, he never executed. In the year 1746 he publifhed his Odes; and fhortly after went abroad to our army in Flanders, to attend his uncle, Colonel Martin; who dying foon after his arrival, left him a confiderable fortune; which, however, he did not live long to enjoy, for he fell into a nervous diforder, which continued, with but fhort intervals, till his death, which happened in 1756, and with which disorder his head and intellects were at times affected. For a man of fuch an elevated genius, Mr. Collins has wrote but little: his time was chiefly taken up in laying extenfive projects, and vaft defigns, which he never even begun to put in execution. We have been favoured with the following account of Mr. Collins by a Gentleman defervedly eminent in the republic of letters, who knew him intimately well. 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 pass 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 golden palaces, to repofe by the waterfalls of Elyfian gardens. This was, however, the character rather of his inclination than his genius. The grandeur of wildness, and the novelty of extravagance, were always defired by him, but were not always attained. But 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 defcription, he did not fufficiently cultivate sen timent i timent: his poems are the productions of a mind not deficient in fire, nor unfurnished with knowlege either of books or life, but fomewhat obftructed in its progrefs by deviation in quest of miftaken beauties. • His morals were pure, and his opinions pious. In a long continuance of poverty, and long habits of diffipation, 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 association with fortuitous companions, will at last relax the strictness 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 said, 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 latter part of his life cannot be remembered but with pity and fadnefs. He languifhed fome years under that depreftion of mind which enchains the faculties without deftroying them, and leaves reafon the knowlege of right, without the power of purfuing it. These clouds, which he found gathering on his inteliccts, he endeavoured to difperfe by travel, and palled into France, but found himself constrained to yield to his malady, and returned: he was for fome time confined in a house of lunatics, and afterwards retired to the care of his fifter in Colchester, where death at laft 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 difcernable in his mind by any but himfelf; but he had then withdrawn from ftudy, and travelled with no other book than an English Teftament, fuch 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," fays Collins, but that is the best." The features of the above portrait are certainly very strong; but to us the character does not appear fufficiently explicit: of the genius of Collins, in particular, the picture is very imperfect; but the veil which is drawn over the unhappy circumstances of his life, is drawn by the hand of humanity, and there let it reft. To this account of the Life and Writings of Mr. Collins, we shall add two original pieces of poetry, written by the Au thor thor of THE VISIONS OF FANCY*; as they have a peculiar reference to the misfortunes of that moft ingenious Poet. FANCY AND WISDOM. To a Gentleman of College, Oxford. FANCY. SONNET I. **, the hope of all my ftudious care, The Mufes' love whofe blooming genius won; Oft has the bright on life's fair morning fhone, WIS DO M. SONNET II. Reclining in that old and honour'd shade, ! Where MAGDALEN's graceful tower informs the sky, WISDOM in form of ADDISON was laid; Who thus fair Truth's ingenuous lore convey'd With modeft grief reluctant, while he faid- • With powers whofe fineness wrought their own decay! 6 To Fancy's will, and chafe her meteor ray? Ah! why forgot thy own Hyblaan strain ? + Peace rules the breaft, where Reafon rules the day.' This last volume of the Poetical Calendar contains an ingenious poem, entitled, DEATH, by the late Charles Emily, Efq; and fome other agreeable pieces. • See Review, vol. XXVII. p. 394. + Oriental Eclogues. Some Obfervations on Dr. Brown's Differtation on the Rife, Union, &c. &c. &c. of Poetry and Mufic. In a Letter to Dr. B****. 4to. 2s. 6d. Johnston, P OSSIBLY the Reader may have feen a blind Minstrel, when, intoxicated with the gifts of Bacchus, he has fpurned the directions of his female guide, and, to the diverfion of the mischief 6 mifchief-loving mob, has plunged into a horfe-pond, or fhattered his four-ftringed lyre against a ruthless poft.-So fares it with the Writer, who, drunk with felf-opinion, and vain of establishing an hypothefis of his own, runs his fyftem through the fhadowy regions of conjecture, and wrefts every object that Fancy tarts, or History or Tradition furnishes, however foreign it may be, to his purpose. The unprejudiced By-ftander fimiles to fee him labouring through perplexities with the confidence of knowlege, and endeavouring to convince others, that he is right, only because, in his own opinion, he cannot be wrong. In our review of Dr. Brown's Differtation on the Rife, Union, &c. of Poetry and Mufic, we objected to feveral parts of his fyftem, and might have ftarted difficulties, with respect to many more, had the compafs of our work allowed us.-The Writer of the Letter before us has done this largely and effectually. He has controverted, with great fpirit and acuteness, feveral of the Doctor's favourite pofitions; he has fhewn where he has mistaken, or perverted, the fenfe of ancient Authors; what falle inferences he has drawn from groundless propofitions: and that the laboured system he has framed with fo much industry and invention, is nothing, in effect, but the fhadow of his own imagination. Before he enters upon a particular difcuffion of Dr. Brown's arguments, he lays down the following obfervations; which are fo very fenfible, candid, and juft, that they deferve the attention of all who have a tafte for literary enquiries. First, I obferve, in general, fays he, that of all arts or exertions of human faculty, thofe which Dr. B- has chofen for his fubject are most liable to be influenced by a variety of caufes, the most uncertain in their operation; feemingly moft remote and ninute, and moft difficult to be obferved. The tafte, the inclination, and the habits of mankind, or of any portion of them, fo much depending not only on temperature, climate, habitation, wants, employment, government, but on a thousand accidents, few of which are obfervable even at the time they happen, or can be afterward known, which introduce fuch a bewildering variety of paffions and affociations, from whence these arts proceed, or to which they apply, that to think by laying down one or a few principles, to deduce the progrefs of them fyftematically, is parallel to Almanack-makers foretelling the weather, and not equal to the modefty of that renowned Philofopher of our acquaintance, who owned he was not yet able to calculate earthquakes. Vol. XXIX, P. 1. S1. II. That |