YOUNG YPRES. 



title it is more generally designated. Besides this 

 poem, doctor Young was the author of three tra- 

 gedies, Busiris, the Brothers, and the Revenge. 

 Some satires, under the title of Love of Fame, the 

 Universal Passion, with a poem entitled Resigna- 

 tion, written in 1759, conclude his poetical labours. 

 As a prose writer, he is chiefly known by his Cen- 

 taur not Fabulous, levelled against the prevailing 

 manners of the time : and a treatise entitled Con- 

 jectures on original Composition, written at the 

 age of eighty. Doctor Young, in his retirement at 

 Welwyn, maintained the situation of a man of easy 

 fortune. His latter years were, however, subject 

 to much discontent ; he had taken deep offence at 

 the youthful irregularities of his son, and he fell un- 

 der the sway of a housekeeper, by whom he was 

 entirely governed. On his death-bed, he declined 

 an interview with the former, but sent him his for- 

 giveness, and made him his heir. His death took 

 place in April, 1765, in his eighty-fourth year. The 

 fame of Dr Young rests altogether on his poetry, 

 comprising his satires.tragedies and Night Thoughts. 

 The first are built on the supposition of fame being 

 the universal passion of mankind. They abound 

 more in flashes of wit and caricature than in grave 

 exposures of vice and folly ; but they are lively and 

 epigrammatic. As a dramatic writer, with much 

 poetic conception and strong feeling, he is exagger- 

 ated and bombastic. The Revenge however, keeps 

 the stage ; and its hero, Zanga, stands pre-eminent 

 for theatric interest among the personages of mo- 

 dern tragedy. The Night Thoughts, on which the 

 fame of Young for originality is exclusively founded, 

 although occasionally tumid and extravagant, exhi- 

 bit great force of language, and occasional sublimity 

 of imagination. They are even more popular in 

 France and Germany, than at home, and have passed 

 through a great number of editions. An edition of 

 his entire works, in four volumes, octavo, was pub- 

 lished by himself. See his Life, by Herbert Croft, 

 in Johnson's Lives of the Poets. 



YOUNG, THOMAS, M. D., a distinguished scho- 

 lar born in June, 1773, was educated partly at 

 Gottingen and partly at Edinburgh. Having taken 

 his degrees at the latter place, he went to London, 

 and was sometime lecturer at the royal institution. 

 He was subsequently appointed physician to St 

 George's hospital, and, in 1794, was elected a fel- 

 low of the royal society. Doctor Young was 

 equally eminent in science and in letters. He was 

 particularly distinguished for his great knowledge 

 of the practical application of science to the useful 

 arts and the business of life ; and his opinion was 

 often called for by government, when these and 

 kindred subjects were made matters of legislation. 

 In this department, besides a great number of pa- 

 pers in the Transactions of the Royal Society, and 

 Nicholson's Journal, and a variety of articles in the 

 Quarterly Review, and the Supplement to the Ency- 

 ' clopadia Britannica, some of which were, however, 

 on literary subjects, Doctor Young left behind him 

 a Syllabus of a Course of Lectures on Natural and 

 Experimental Philosophy (8vo., 1802), which con- 

 tains the first publication of the general law of the 

 interference of light ; a Course of Lectures on Na- 

 tural Philosophy and the Mechanical Arts (2 vols., 

 4to., 1807) ; Elementary Illustration of the Celes- 

 tial Mechanics of Laplace (8vo., 1821), tvc. He 

 likewise edited the Nautical Almanac from the year 

 1819 to 1829. His productions in the department 

 of archaeology and criticism were also numerous, 

 and are principally to be found in the Imperial Re- 



view, the London Quarterly Review, and the Ar- 

 chseologia. In the eighteenth volume of the latter 

 work appeared his remarks on Egyptian papyri, 

 and the Rosetta inscription, containing an attempt 

 to interpret the Egyptian part of the inscription. In 

 the article Egypt, for the supplement to the En- 

 cyclopaedia, he treated the whole subject of Egyp- 

 tian mythology , early history, and hieroglyphics 

 with great learning ; but we have already given 

 our reasons, in the article Hieroglyphics, for deny- 

 ing him the honour claimed for him by his country- 

 men, of having discovered and explained the pho- 

 netic system, which the late ingenious and learned 

 Champollion so ably developed. The discove- 

 ries of Champollion were followed by two addi- 

 tional works of doctor Young on the subject, 

 under the titles, an Account of some recent Dis- 

 coveries in Hieroglyphical Literature and Egyp- 

 tian Antiquities (8vo., 1823), and Hieroglyphics 

 collected by the Egyptian Society (folio. 1823). 

 Doctor Young died in 1829. 



YPRES, OR YPERN ; a city of Belgium, in 

 West Flanders, capital of a district, on the rive. 

 Y-perlee, from whence it takes its name; twenty 

 miles south of Ostend, sixteen north-west of Lisle, 

 Ion. 2 53' east ; lat. 50 51' north ; population, 

 15,291. It is connected by a canal with Bruges, 

 Ostend, and Nieuport, is fortified, and tolerably 

 well built. The principal public buildings are a 

 very large Gothic town-house, an elegant cathedral, 

 an exchange, a chamber of commerce, and a col- 

 lege. The city of Ypres is more, interesting on 

 account of what it formerly was than for what it 

 now is. It still contains some manufactures of 

 cloth, serges, ribands, and thread ; but at one time 

 its inhabitants appear to have formed the greatest 

 manufacturing community in the world. A census 

 of the population, taken in 1342, made it amount 

 to above 200,000 souls. Soon after this, however, 

 its decline began. In a French edition of Ludo- 

 vico Guicciardini's " Description of the Low Coun- 

 tries," published at Antwerp, in 1609, it is remark- 

 ed, that whensoever, and in what quantity soever 

 the rain of adversity had in former days fallen upon 

 Ghent and Bruges, Ypres had always received some 

 drops of it ; and that this city, indeed, being the 

 weakest of the three, had often been severely pun- 

 ished, and obliged to pay the forfeit for misdeeds 

 which the other two had committed. All these 

 towns suffered both by the attacks of foreign 

 enemies and by their own internal dissensions. 

 The middle of the fourteenth century was in the 

 Netherlands, as in Fiance and in England, the age 

 of political convulsion of the first considerable 

 efforts, since the establishment of feudal institu- 

 tions, made by the body of the people to throw off 

 the oppressive yoke under which they were every- 

 where kept down. Some contemporary writers 

 attribute these tumults of the commonalty to the 

 improvement which had now taken place in their 

 condition, as compared with that of their forefa- 

 thers ; and there can be no doubt that there is 

 much truth in this representation. As long as 

 the condition of the people was one of almost bru- 

 tal destitution and misery, they submitted to be 

 treated like the inferior animals ; but as they gra- 

 dually outgrew this absolute penury and helpless- 

 ness, they became more indisposed to endure the 

 oppression to which they were subjected, and be- 

 gan first to murmur against it, and then attempt 

 to throw it off. The attempt, as was to be expect- 

 ed, was not skilfully directed in the first instance, 



