eldest of nine children. He early showed a strong love for learning, and a considerable turn for versification. His education was finished at a dissenting academy in London, and from thence he proceeded to the house of Sir John Hastopp, at Stoke Newington, where he resided for five years, with great comfort, as tutor to Sir John's son. In 1698, he had completed his preparatory studies, and preached his first sermon, and in 1702 he became the minister of an Independent church in London, on the retirement of the Rev. Dr. Chauney from the pastoral charge. But failing health speedily compelled Watts to resign his charge, and having originally accepted an invitation only for a single week, the remainder of his days, including the long period of thirty-eight years, was passed in the family of Sir Thomas Abney, free from cares, and in the full enjoyment of whatever could contribute to the happiness of one singularly free alike from worldly desires and keen literary ambition. His remains were interred, at his own request, in the burial-ground of Bunhill-fields, London, where a monument was erected to his memory at the joint expense of his pupil, Sir John Hastopp, and of his kind hostess, Lady Abney. Dr. Watts' "Divine Songs for Children," have been justly characterized as "the most perfect examples in our language of the achievement of a writer's purpose." They are simple without weakness, and most happily adapt intelligent reasoning to the capacity of a child. EDWARD YOUNG. BORN, 1681; DIED, 1765. THE celebrated author of the "Night Thoughts" was born at the rectory of Upham, Hampshire, the living of his father, Dr. Edward Young. He received his early education at Winchester College, from which he proceeded to New College, Oxford, where he obtained a law-fellowship in 1708, and took the degree of doctor of civil laws in 1719. His intention had hitherto been to follow the legal profession, but after devoting some years chiefly to the composition of his earlier and least valued poems, which procured him the profitable notice of titled patrons, he took an active part in public life, and tried to obtain a seat in Parliament. In this however, he failed, and at length returning to an inclination of his earlier years, he took orders in his fiftieth year, and soon after obtained a living in Herts, along with a chaplaincy to George II. In 1731, Dr. Young married Lady Elizabeth Lee, the daughter of the Earl of Litchfield, by whom he had a son, who afterwards occasioned him much sorrow by his profligate conduct. The characteristics of Young's chief poem, the "Night Thoughts," are gloom and austerity, and his conduct to his son, whom he refused to see even on his deathbed, is fully consistent with this. His later life as a clergyman appears to have been consistent and exemplary; but the spirit of adulation to the great, and of courtly sycophancy to all whom favour or patronage could be hoped from, never forsook him; and it must be owned that there is a meanness apparent in the few most characteristic traits of his character which have been preserved by his biographers, little calculated to elevate him personally in the estimation of the most zealous admirers of his poems. ALLAN RAMSAY. BORN, 1686; DIED, 1758. A PECULIAR interest hangs around the names both of Allan Ramsay and of Robert Ferguson, as the two precursors of Robert Burns. Ramsay, the author of the fine, simple, pastoral drama, "The Gentle Shepherd," was the son of a labourer in the mines of Lord Hopetoun, at Leadhills, and the employment of his early years was to wash the lead ore for his father at the mines. His education was limited to the mere elements of reading, writing, and arithmetic, obtained at the parish school; and his most frequent occupation, till he was fifteen years of age, was that of a shepherd. By this means he learned the full character of rural life, and was thus unconsciously educated for the work on which his chief fame depends. The death of his father, and the subsequent marriage of his mother to a small farmer in Lanarkshire, led to his being sent to Edinburgh, and bound apprentice to a hairdresser. He afterwards set up in this humble business for himself, and his earliest poems were sold as penny broadsides, while he practised this vocation. Having established his reputation as a poet, and his credit as a careful and trustworthy tradesman, he exchanged the occupation of a barber for the more congenial one of a bookseller. Prosperity attended him in his new business; his speculations as an author and publisher were equally successful, and having married the daughter of a respectable legal practitioner in Edinburgh, he was able to build himself a neat villa on the Castlehill of Edinburgh, where he spent the latter years of his life in the enjoyment of ease and comfort, and the society of a select circle of friends, all secured by his own honest industry and native genius. His son became the well-known portrait painter, whose works are to be met with in family galleries of the period. He enjoyed the patronage and favour of George III. and his queen; and his son, the grandson of the poet, rose to the rank of a general in the British army. The house built by the poet on the Castle hill of Edinburgh is still the property of his descendants, and is known by the name of "Ramsay Garden." No poet's biography presents a more pleasing picture of honest industry, good humour, modest worth, and fortunate perseverance. It is truly, as Chambers has remarked, 66 'one of the green and sunny spots in literary biography." Along with Ramsay, may be mentioned in sad contrast, ROBERT FERGUSON, whom Burns characterizes with generous and too liberal modesty "My elder brother in misfortune, By far my elder brother in the muses, With better chances than Ramsay, he lacked all the practical virtues which mainly contributed to his success in life. After receiving a liberal education, including the advantages of studying at the universities of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, where he acquired considerable reputation, not being able to follow out any higher vocation, he obtained the post of a Sheriff's clerk. Unhappily his wit and love of music had only served as an introduction to a circle of thoughtless and dissipated youths of the Scottish metropolis, among whom he wasted health and means; and at length the wretched poet died in a pauper mad-house, on the 16th of October 1774, at the early age of twenty-four. From the "Farmer's Ingle” of Ferguson, Burns is believed to have derived the idea of his noble poem, "The Cottar's Saturday Night." ALEXANDER POPE, BORN, 1688; DIED, 1744. ALEXANDER POPE, the most distinguished poet, and one of the most brilliant wits of his age, was the son of a London draper, who retired to Binfield in Windsor Forest, to enjoy, in the evening of his days, the fruits of honest industry and perseverance. It has been justly objected to Pope as an unworthy weakness that he exposed himself to the taunts of some mean spirits of his age, who strangely enough deemed his humble birth a detraction from the greatness of the poet, by himself showing some vain longings for a titled pedigree. When, however, he was called upon to vindicate himself from the personal attack of Lord Harvey, he replied with becoming dignity, "I think it enough that my parents, such as they were, never cost me a blush; and their son, such as he is, never cost them a tear." Pope was, from his earliest years, extremely delicate, and though his fine features were frequently remarked in youth as strikingly beautiful, his stature was diminutive, and his figure deformed. His parents were Roman Catholics, and his education was, accordingly, committed to the care of Roman Catholic priests, until he reached his thirteenth year. But at this early age, the precocious boy |