The critic obferves that this stanza is very little, if at all, inferior to Virgil's wifh in the like fituation. O quis me gelidis fub montibus Hami Such was the merit of this publication, that it was honoured with fome particular marks of approbation. It was publickly spoken of and recommended by the late Dr. Young, by Mrs. Talbot, Mrs. Carter, and other eminent characters. When the author of the Night Thoughts received a copy of the Elegies from his bookfeller, he returned his acknowledgment for the present in thefe words, "Sir, I thank you for your "prefent; I admire the poetry and piety "of the author, and shall do myself the "credit to recommend it to all my "friends." This praise was truly valuable, as it was not the voice of adulation to greatnefs, of ignorance to celebrity, or of of partiality to friendship; but the fanction of learning, tafte, and genius, given to modeft and retired merit. Had these Elegies appeared with the name of fome popular writer, the fale would probably have been proportionably rapid, and the reputation of a Pope, a Goldsmith, or a Gray, would have prepared the reader to receive the impreffion of their beauties. Perhaps it must be granted that this firft avowed production of Mr. Scott has not been excelled by any of his fubfequent works, whether we confider the liveliness of the painting, the harmony of the verfe, or the amiable ftrain of benevolence and piety that runs through the whole. Our author's acquaintance was now confiderably enlarged, he was introduced to feveral of the literati, with whom he had little or no connection before the pearance of his Elegies. But the praise ap which accrued to him, upon this occafion, did not in the least excite his vanity to claim again the attention of the public. He wrote little, and printed nothing till the year 1769. His natural caution and diffidence feemed to increase: he always expressed the strongest sense of the neceffity of frequent revifal before publication; and no writer ever adhered more ftrictly than himself to the well-known precept of Horace,-Nonum prematur in annum. In 1761, the small pox being prevalent in the town of Ware, and he being very fearful of that diftemper, removed, for fome time, to St. Margarets, a small hamlet, at the distance of about two miles from Amwell, where I was introduced to his acquaintance by Mr. Bennet, my once worthy and refpected tutor, then mafter of the grammar school at Hoddefdon, where we accidentally met. I shall always recollect, with pleasure, my firft conver converfation with Mr. Scott, at St. Margaret's, where he fhewed me the early fketch of his Poem of Amwell, which he then called, A PROSPECT OF WARE AND THE COUNTRY ADJACENT. It does not appear how long this had been written, but it is certain that he had, for fome years before, formed a defign of writing on the subject, for his friend Turner, in a letter to him, dated December 1755, tells him, that "he hopes, "when he comes next to Ware, he shall "have the pleasure of feeing the scenes "which had so often entertained him, "described in verfe, that would never decay." This sketch was afterwards greatly enlarged and improved before its appearance in the year 1776; and, in the courfe of our future converfations, he shewed me several manufcript pieces, fome of which were made part of his poetical volume. John John Scott was not only a lover and cultivator of polite literature, but, though not bred to any profeffion, was no idle member of the community; he bufied himself in many concerns that tended to the good of his neighbourhood: he knew how to blend the elegant with the useful; and fuch as had little predilection for the author of the Elegies, were forward enough to give their suffrages to those merits that promoted the good of general life. In a letter from him to a friend, in the year 1764, in answer to an inquiry why no more of his compofitions had appeared in print, he fays, that "a variety of avocations, very different from literary, had fo "engaged his attention, that he had fcarcely time to put pen to paper, but 66 upon occafions that could not be dif"pensed with." Having found the frequent difadvantages and inconveniences arifing from |