Previous to leaving Leyden he bade farewell to a country "Which Pan, which Ceres never knew, Nor ever mountain zephyr blew," in an ode, the best stanzas of which are those, in which he celebrates his native country. Having completed the relative objects of their voyage to Holland, the two friends, Dyson and Akenside, embarked in the same vessel at Rotterdam, and arrived safely in London, after an agreeable but protracted voyage. On their arrival, the one took to the bar, and became a constitutional lawyer; the other, of course, resorted to physic. This contrast of occupation is elegantly touched upon in the second poem on the Pleasures of Imagination. "Now the Fates Have other tasks imposed. To thee, my friend! Of popular decrees in early youth, Not vainly they committed. Me they sent If some distinguish'd hours the bounteous Muse The breath of envy or malignant tongues, P. I. Second Poem, i. 68. The Pleasures of Imagination being completed, Akenside sought the earliest opportunity of publishing it. It was sent, in consequence, to Dodsley, with a demand of one hundred and twenty pounds for the copyright. This demand, we are told, being higher than Dodsley chose to give hastily, he carried the manuscript to Pope, and requested advice. Pope looked into it, says Johnson (who had his information from Dodsley himself), and perceiving its merit, told him " to make no niggardly offer," since "this was no every day writer." Dodsley immediately closed with the author; and the manuscript was placed in the hands of Richardson, the celebrated author of Pamela, Sir Charles Grandison, and Clarissa Harlowe, to print; and here, though written some years after, we may introduce one of the few letters, which remain of this elegant poet. It is still preserved in manuscript, among the papers of Dr. Birch, at the British Museum; and though containing no information of importance, yet to those, not accustomed to matters, relative to errors of the press, it may serve to show the anxiety of an author, when he discovers any error, too late to be rectified. "To Mr. Richardson, in Salisbury-court, Fleet-street. “SIR-I return you many thanks for sending me the sheet, about which I wrote to you. I find in it an erratum, and of that unlucky sort, which does not make absolute nonsense, but only conveys a false and absurd idea. The sheet is marked Tt; and in page 328 and line ninth from the bottom, stream is printed instead of steam. If you can, without much trouble, print this as an erratum, or rather let some one with a stroke of a pen blot out the r, as the sheets are dried, I should be greatly obliged. "I am, Sir, with true respect, "Your most humble servant, "Bloomsbury Square, Jan. 25." "M. AKENSIDE. The poem being suited chiefly for the highest order of readers, it is not a little surprising, that it should have arrived, at once, at the zenith of a fame, from which, like most other works popular in their day, it has never declined. All readers, however, were not satisfied; and, among the rest, GRAY. For when Dr. Wharton, of Old Park, near Durham, wrote to him, a few weeks after the publication, in what manner it was esteemed at Cambridge, Gray, in a hasty reply*, told him, that he wondered, he should ask an opinion, as to what the Cambridge men thought, since many of them, who pretended to judge things, did not judge at all; and those, who were wiser, gave no judgment, till they heard those pronounced by the frequenters of Dick's and the Rainbow Coffee-houses. "However," continued he, "to show you, that I am a judge, as well as my countrymen, I will tell you; though I have rather turned it over than read it (but no matter; no more have they), that it seems to me above the middling; and now and then, for a little while, rises even to the best, particularly in description. It is often obscure, and even unintelligible; and too much infected with the Hutchinsonian jargon. In short, its great fault is, that it was published at least nine years too early; * Dated April 26, 1744. and so, methinks, in a few words, à la mode du Temple, I have very pertly dispatched what, perhaps, may for several years have employed a very ingenious man, worthy fifty of myself." That Akenside occupied a rank, below Gray as a lyric poet, (though his ode to the Earl of Huntingdon would place him on the same elevation in the opinion of many), is, I think, not safely to be doubted: but that he had a more brilliant imagination, a truer impulse, a finer touch of musical expression, and a more exquisite sense of nature on the lofty impulses of mind is, I think, as little to be denied; since the poetical merit of Gray (always excepting his unequalled Elegy), seems to have consisted chiefly in a mature wisdom of selection, and a masterly arrangement of other men's ideas; that is, he knew diamonds, when he saw them in the quarry; he knew equally well how to polish them; and he had an equal judgment in setting them to the best advantage. No one of his age, therefore, had a mind, more capable of appreciating Akenside, than he had. I, therefore, think it more than probable, that when he read the Pleasures of Imagination with greater attention, than merely "turning over the leaves" (since Akenside is not to be appreciated but after a third reading), this accomplished critic, as |