abated of his diligence, to feek her where the fearch was attended with artificial perplexities, and where, at last, the purfuer would grafp the shadow for the fubftance.

WHILE he was at Magdalen College, he applied himfelf chiefly to the cultivation of poetry, and wrote the epistle to Sir Thomas Hanmer, and the Oriental Eclogues, which, in the year 1742, were first published under the title of Perfian Eclogues.-The fuccefs of these poems was far from being equal to their merit; but to a novice in the pursuit of fame, the least encouragement is fufficient if he does not at once acquire that reputation to which his merit intitles him, he embraces the encomiums

of the few, forgives the many, and intends to open their eyes to the striking beauties of his next Publication.

WITH profpects fuch as thefe, probably, Mr. Collins indulged his fancy, when, in the year 1743, after having taken the degree of a batchelor of arts, he left the university, and removed to London.

To a man of fmall fortune, a liberal fpirit, and uncertain dependencies, the metropolis is a very dangerous place. Mr. Collins had not been long in town before he became an instance of the truth of this obfervation.-His pecuniary resources were exhausted, and to restore them by the exertion of ge

nius

nius and learning, though he wanted. not the power, he had neither steadinefs nor industry. His neceffities, indeed, fometimes carried him as far as a scheme, or a title page for a book; but, whether it were the power of diffipation, or the genius of repofe that interfered, he could proceed no farther.Several books were projected, which he was very able to execute; and he became, in idea, an historian, a critic, and a dramatick poet by turns. one time he determined to write an hiftory of the revival of Letters; at another to translate and comment upon Ariftotle's Poetics; then he turned his thoughts to the Drama, and proceeded fo far towards a tragedy- -as to become acquainted with the manager.

At

UNDER

UNDER this unaccountable diffipation, he fuffered the greatest inconveniences. Day fucceeded day, for the fupport of which he had made no provision, and in which he was to fubfift either by the long-repeated contributions of a friend, or the generofity of a cafual acquaintance. Yet indolence triumphed at once

over want and fhame; and neither the anxieties of poverty, nor the heart-burning of dependence had power to animate refolution to perfeverance.

As there is a degree of depravity into which if a man falls, he becomes incapable of attending to any of the ordinary means that recall men to virtue, fo there are fome circumftances of indigence fo extremely degrading, that

they

they destroy the influences of fhame itfelf; and most spirits are apt to fink, under their oppreffion, into a fullen and unambitious defpondence.

HOWEVER this might be with regard to Mr. Collins, we find that, in the year 1746, he had fpirit and refolution enough to publifh his Odes defcriptive and allegorical. Mr. MILLAR, a bookfeller in the strand, and a favourer of genius, when once it has made its way to fame, published them ON THE AUTHOR'S ACCOUNT.-He happened, indeed, to be in the right not to publish them on his own; for the fale was by no means fuccefsful; and hence it was that the author, conceiving a juft indignation against a blind and taftelefs age,

burnt