'Tis done-and now he's happy! the glad soul Make up the full account; not the least atom And every joint possess its proper place, To its first state. Nor shall the conscious soul Shall rush with all the impatience of a man In pain to see the whole. Thrice-happy meeting! Then claps his well-fledged wings, and bears away. JOHN DYER, a moral and picturesque poet, was born at Aberglasslyn, in Wales, in 1700. His father was a solicitor; and intending his son for the same profession, sent him to Westminster school to become qualified for the studies of the office. His taste for the fine arts was, however, much stronger than for legal studies; and to gratify it, he rambled over his own romantic country, filling his mind with a love of nature, and his portfolio with sketches of her most beautiful and striking objects. The sister art of poetry also claimed his regard; and during his excursions, he wrote Grongar Hill, the production on which his poetic fame rests, but rests securely. In 1727, immediately after the publication of 'Grongar Hill,' Dyer set out for Italy, to delineate the antiquities of that celebrated country, and spent much of his time amongst the enchanting prospects near Rome and Florence. Though an able sketcher, he does not seem to have excelled as a painter. On his return home, in 1740, Dyer published another poem, The Ruins of Rome, in blank verse, soon after which he entered the church, and obtained, successively, the livings of Calthrop, in Leicestershire, of Conningsby, in Huntingdonshire, and of Belchford and Kirkby, in Lincolnshire. He published The Fleece, his longest poetical work, in 1757, and died on the twentyfourth of July in the following year. The poetical pictures of Dyer are happy miniatures of nature, correctly drawn, beautifully colored, and grouped with the taste of an artist. His moral reflections arise naturally out of his subject, and are never intrusive. All bear the evidence of a kind and gentle heart, and a true poetical fancy. 'Grongar Hill' is so very beautiful a performance that we can not refrain from introducing the entire poem. GRONGAR HILL. Silent nymph, with curious eye, Draw the landscape bright and strong; Sat upon a flowery bed, With my hand beneath my head; While strayed my eyes o'er Towy's flood, Over mead, and over wood, From house to house, from hill to hill, Till contemplation had her fill. About his chequered sides I wind, And leave his brooks and meads behind, Wide and wider spreads the vale, As circles on a smooth canal: The mountains round, unhappy fate, Withdraw their summits from the skies, And lessen as the others rise: Still the prospect wider spreads Old castles on the cliff's arise, The gloomy pine, the poplar blue, The sturdy oak, with broad-spread boughs. Haunt of Phillis, queen of love! Gaudy as the opening dawn, Lies a long and level lawn, On which a dark hill, steep and high, His sides are clothed with waving wood, And with her arms from falling keeps: So both a safety from the wind On mutual dependence find. 'Tis now the raven's bleak abode; 'Tis now the apartment of the toad; And level lays the lofty brow, Has seen this broken pile complete, Big with the vanity of state; But transient is the smile of fate! A little rule, a little sway, A sunbeam in a winter's day, Is all the proud and mighty have And see the rivers, how they run Through woods, and meads, in shade and sun, Ever charming, ever new, When will the landscape tire the view! See on the mountain's southern side, 'Tis thus the busy beat the air, And misers gather wealth and care. Now, even now, my joys run high, As on the mountain turf I lie; And with music fill the sky, Now, even now, my joys run high. Be full, ye courts; be great who will; Seek her on the marble floor: In vain you search, she is not there; Within the groves of Grongar Hill. DAVID MALLET, or MALLOCK, was the son of an innkeeper, at Crieff, in Perthshire, and was born in 1700. He was educated at Aberdeen College, and was afterwards received as tutor, without salary, in the family of Mr. Home, of Dreghorn, near Edinburgh. He next obtained a similar situation, with a salary of thirty pounds a year, in the family of the Duke of Montrose. In 1723, he went to London with the duke's family, and the next year his ballad of William and Margaret appeared in 'The Plain Dealer,' a periodical of the day. He soon became intimate with Young, Pope, and other eminent men of that period, to whom his assiduous attentions, his winning manners, and literary taste, rendered his society agreeable. He was, however, a man without principle; and when Dr. Johnson, therefore, said that Mallet was the only Scot whom Scotchmen did not commend, he paid a just compliment to the virtue and integrity of the natives of that country. In 1733, he published a satire on Bentley, inscribed to Pope, entitled Verbal Criticism, in which he characterizes the venerable scholar as In error obstinate, in wrangling loud, Mallet was soon after appointed secretary to the Prince of Wales, and in 1740, produced, in conjunction with Thomson, the Masque of Alfred, in honor of the birthday of the Princess Augusta. A fortunate marriage, about this time, with the daughter of the steward of Lord Carlisle, placed him in possession of a fortune of ten thousand pounds. To gratify Lord Bolingbroke, he, in his preface to the 'Patriot King,' shamefully abused the memory of Pope, and Bolingbroke rewarded his baseness by bequeathing to him the whole of his works in manuscript. When the English Government became unpopular, in consequence of the defeat they sustained at Minorca, Mallet was employed to defend them; and under the signature of a Plain Man, he published an address imputing cowardice to Byng, the admiral of the fleet. The result was that the admiral was shot, and Mallet was penVOL. II.-U |