A K E 



faiJ, prcrumc not to an-ait^n or to fcnitinize tl>« various 

 works of Power divino." Vor tliis valuable communication, 

 we are indebted to Mr. Ormc ; Tragmcnts, notes, p. 97. 

 Trafer's Hill. Nadir Shah, p. II— iS. Mod. Un. Hiit. 

 vol. V. p. 365—375. Robtrtlou's Hill. Dilquilitiou con- 

 cerning India, p. 424. f X, 1- ■ 



AKBi:ns.-13ABA, in Gtssraphy, a town of Natolia, in 

 Afiatic Turkey, 12 leagues north of Kutaja. 



AKDASCH, a large and fluurilluiig market town ot 

 Schirwan, in the territory of the Chan of Scheki ; iituate 

 to the foulh of Nuchi, on the bank of the Knr, and con- 

 lilling of about 300 houfes. To tliis town all tlie neighbour- 

 ing nations refort for trade and the barter of their com- 

 modities. /~. 1 1 



AlvEARADI, a country of Africa, on the Gold 



AKF.rORD Bay, lies on the north fide of t!ie idand 

 Holmlly, to the weil of the North Cape. N. lat. 71" 10'. 

 E. long. 24 30'. 



AKEN, John Van, in Biography, an engraver, who, 

 from tiie ilyle of his etchings, is fuppofed to have lived in 

 the 1 6th ctntuiT. He is a difFeient perfon from Achan 

 the painter. 



AKENSIDE, Mark, M. D. more known as a poet 

 than as a phyiician, was born at Newcallle-upon-Tyne, in 

 1721, and intended by his parents for a minitler among the 

 IVotellant OilTenters ; and with this view he was feat to 

 Edaiburgh, in 1739, at the age of 18. Having here ac- 

 quired a llronger propcniity to the iUidy of phylic than to 

 that of divinity, he removed to Leyden in 1742, and took 

 his degree of doftor in that faculty in i 744. In that year, 

 belides'his thcfis, " De ortu et incremento foetus humani," 

 delivered on account of his degree, he publillied his cele- 

 brated poem " on the Pleafures of the Imagination," which 

 was received with great applaufe, and advanced tlie author 

 to poetical fame. It is faid, that when Pope was Ihcwn the 

 poem in manufcript by Doddey, to whom it had been of- 

 fered for a larger fum' than he was inclined to give, he ad- 

 vifed the bookfeller not to make a niggardly offer, for the 

 author of it was no every day writer. It has been alfo fur- 

 mifcd, that this poem and fome others were written before 

 lie went to Edinburgh. The poem, on its publication, was 

 ftverely attacked by Mr. (afterwards liilhop) Warburton, 

 not on account of its poetry, but for lome remarks which 

 t'ne author had introduced on the nature and objefts of ridi- 

 cule ; and vindicated by an anonymous friend, fince known 

 to be Mr. Jeremiah Dyfon. The next publication was 

 " an EpilUe to Curio," which contained a warm invcftive 

 iigainfl Pultcney, earl of Bath, on account of his political 

 conduft. In 1745, our author publiflied ten odes on dif- 

 ferent fubjects, and in different tlyles and manners. In his 

 fubfequent publications he was more (low. His ode to the 

 earl of Huntingdon appeared in 174.8; and in 1758, he 

 attempted to roufe the national Ipirit, by an ode to the 

 country gentlemen of England. Molt of his remaining 

 poetical eltufions appeared in Doddey's colieAion ; and ot 

 tliefe t'le moll conliderable is, a " Hymn to the Naiads." 

 His poems were collected and publiflied in a quarto volume, 

 in 1772, by Mr. Dyfon. 



On his return .from Leyden, he fettled as phyfician at 

 Northampton ; from thence he removed to Hampltead ; 

 where he continued about two years and an half ; and finally 

 fettled in London, where Ills friend, Mr. Dyfon, allowed 

 him 300I. a year, in order to enable him to maintain his 

 rank as a phyfician. His medical reputation and practice 

 {gradually increafcd, and he was chofen a fellow of the 

 Hoyal Society, appointed phyfician to St. Thomas's hof- 



7 



A K E 



pital, admitted by mandamus, to the degree of doctor ia 

 phyfic, in the univei-fity of Cambridge, elected a fellow of 

 the Royal College of Phylicians in London ; and, upon the 

 eltablilhment of the queen's houfhold, advanced to the rank 

 of one of her majelty's phyficians. Notwith Handing his 

 acknowledged abilities, and tlie lingular patronage by which 

 he was dillinguiflied, he never arrived at any vcr^- conlide- 

 rable eminence in his profefiion. It has been faid, that he 

 had a kind of haughtinefs and ofl:entation in his manners, 

 which were not calculated to ingratiate him with his brethren 

 of the faculty, or to render him generally acceptable. 



He died of a putrid fever in June 1770, in the 49t!i 

 year of his age, and was buried in the parilh-church of St. 

 James's, Weltniinlter. His books and prints, of which he 

 was a curious collector, came, after his death, into the pof- 

 feflion of Mr. 1)) fon. 



His medical writings were his " DilTertatio de Dyfcnte- 

 ria," written in Latin, and much admired for the elegance 

 of the language, publillied in 1764, and twice tranllated 

 into Englilh ; " Obfcrvations on the origin and ufe of the 

 Lymphatic veflTels in animals," printed in the Phil. Tranf. 

 for 1757 ; and vindicated againlt the remarks of Dr. Alex. 

 Monro, in a fmall pamphlet, publillied in 1 758 ; " An 

 account of a Blow on the Heait and its effects," piiblilhed 

 in the Phil. Tranf. for J 763 ; " Oratio Anniverfaria, ex in- 

 ftituto Harvcii, &c." read in 1759, and publiflied in 4to 

 in 1760; "Obfcrvations oif Cancers;" "Of the ufe of 

 Ipecacuanha in Aithnias :" " A method of treating AVhite 

 Swellings of the Joints," all publillied in the liril volume 

 of the Medical Tranfactions. 



In Dr. Akenlide's poems, and the notes annexed to them, 

 we may difcover his extenlive acquaintance with ancient 

 literature, and his ardent attachment to the caufe of civil 

 and religious liberty. His politics were thought to incline 

 to republicanifm, but no evidence to this purpofe is dedu- 

 cible from his poems ; and liis theology is luppofed to have 

 verged towards deifni : and yet, in his ode to Hoadly, and 

 to tlie author of the Memoirs of the Houfe of Brandcn- 

 burgh, he has tellilied his regard for pure Chriltlanity, and 

 his dillike of attempts for letting men free from the re- 

 Itraints of religion. Our readers may be gratified with the 

 following extract from the fii It of thefc odes. 



" To him the teacher blefs'd, 



Who lent religion from the palmy field 



By Jordan, like the morn to cheer — the weft. 



And lifted iiptlie veil which heav'n from earth conceai'd, 



To Hoadly thus his mandate he addrefs'd : 



Go, then, and refcue my diflionoured law 



From hands rapacious, and from tongues impure ; 



I>ct not my peaceful name be made a lure, 



Fell perfecutlon's mortal Inares to aid : 



I>et not my words be impious chains, to draw 



The fi'ce-born foul in more than brutal awe. 



To faith without affent, allegiance unrepald." 



Dr. Akenfidc's rank among the Englilh poets is alTigncd 

 to him in confequence of his " Pleafures of the Imagina- 

 tion," founded on Addifon's well known papers on the 

 fame fubject, in the Spectator : — " the moft beautiful di- 

 dactic poem," fays Mr. Cooper, in his letters concerning 

 talle, " that ever adorned the Englilh language ;" and 

 though abltrafted in its nature, fo popular, tliat when It 

 firll appeared, it palfed through feveral editions, and " is 

 llill read," fays an excellent judge (Dr. Aikin), " with 

 enthufialm by thofe who have acquired a rclllli for the lolty 

 conceptions of pure poetry, and the llrains of numerous 

 blank vcrfe." The merit of this poem, and of the wnter, 



is 



