HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE. [231 



Then shall this scene, which now to human sight 



Seems so unworthy, wisdom infinite ; 



A system of consummate skill appear, 



And ev'ry cloud dispers'd, be beautiful and clear. 



From these two most unexceptionable passages of this over- 

 praised poem, selected from the translation of it by Soame Jeiiyns, 

 which is allowed to be the most accurate, the English reader will 

 be enabled to conceive an idea of its general merit. If a mere 

 author by profession had produced such a work, it would scarcely 

 have been mentioned, but as it was the production of a scholar, a 

 senator, and a gentleman of independent fortune, it was sure to 

 find admirers. Mr. Browne undoubtedly deserves the approba- 

 tion due to good intentions, and his own comparatively blameless 

 life afforded the best proof of his sincerity as a professing chris- 

 tian. In all the social duties too, of son, husband, father, friend, 

 and master, he was exemplary and amiable. His principal atten- 

 tion during the latter part of his life was directed to the education 

 of his only son, and some portion of his time was also devoted to a 

 correspondence with his friends, many of whom were men of high 

 character and influence as statesmen and literati. Towards the 

 close of his life Mr. Browne, whose constitution never was very vi- 

 gorous, felt the infirmities of premature old age stealing upon him, 

 and after languishing some time in a lingering illness, he expired 

 on the 14th of February 1760, in the 55th year of his age,, at his 

 house in Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury-square. 



The public as well as the private character of Mr. Browne was 

 unimpeachable. He was an unostentatious patriot, who ever 

 voted in the Senate according to the dictates of his consci- 

 ence. In private life he was both an estimable and an amusing 

 companion, possessing great cheerfulness and equanimity ; and 

 his conversation was occasionally enlivened by spontaneous sal- 

 lies of genuine but inoffensive humour. As a poet, his produc- 

 tions entitle him to no higher rank than that of a minor author; his 

 short and light pieces are playfully trivial, but his didactic 

 poems, especially his poem on the Immortality of the Soul, are 

 calculated to inspire the reader with elevated ideas of futurity, 

 and of the justice and philanthropy of the Deity. 



Since his death, " De Auimi Irnmortalitate" has been translated 

 by the Rev. Mr. Crawley, of Huntingdonshire ; and another, and 

 what is considered by most critics the best translation of that 

 poem, was published by Soame Jenyns, Esq. a poet who, like 



