a 
1805. ] 
‘ggree with me in confidering as very 
great. The objects which his genius 
has achieved, without the aid of ancient 
literature or the improvement of modern 
education, will, I truft, entitle him to the 
credit, of an indulgent public. Having 
been favoured with a letter froma literary 
friend on this fubjcé&t, I beg leave to 
tranfcribe it as follows : 
‘* Dear Sir, 
‘© T thank you for the volume of poems 
by the bard of Lidlington, whofe name was 
to me, before your mention of it, wholly un- 
known. They indicate a genius truly pafio- 
ral and poetic, and may be read with plea- 
fure by the moft refined critic. [f they do 
not afpire to be claffed in the general eftimate 
with the lilies, jeflamines, and carnations, of 
Parnaflus, they exhibit at leaft a variety of 
field-flowers and wild-rofes. The public at 
large have candour enough to make very libe- 
ral allowance for the defe&s and imperfec- 
tions of productions compofed under circum- 
ftances of fuch difadvantage 5 and curiofity 
will, for atime, at leaft, be more ftrongly 
excited and gratified by attempts of this na- 
ture, which do not rife above a certain ftand- 
ard of excellence, than by others equal or 
fuperior in merit, written beneath the fhade 
of academic bowers. I hope, therefore, they 
snay meet with that degree of encouragément 
beyond which the author very properly does 
not feem to have raifed his expeétations, and 
that they may be the means of procuring 
him, if not fame and fortune, at leaft of ob- 
taining fome facility to his favourite purfuits, 
and fome addition to his literary gratifications. 
Among the many pleafing paflages with 
which the firft, and principal, of his poems, 
entitled Village Scenes, abounds, that which 
exprefles the feeling of the writer on revifit- 
ing the place of his nativity, after an abfence 
of many years, may be felected borh as a fpe- 
cimen and proof of his poetic powers :— 
pp. 8—11.— 
* New open all my native walks-to view, 
Whofe foft attra&tions fire my foul anew, 
Fond o’er the vale I take a wide furvey 
Of all [ low’d in life’s calm opening day. 
Wide were the fpangled fields, a beauteous 
fcene ; 
Farms, verdant lawns, and copfes, fpread be- 
tween: 
Dark leans yon wood againf& the weftern 
hill, 
Adown his fhade defcends a murmuring rill: 
Here, rows of hawthorn filver’d o’er with 
dloom 3 
There, heaths 
broom. 
Where yon fair grove of-evergreen extends, 
In curling clouds the village fmoke afcends ; 
Gay bloom the meads around in all their 
pride; ; 
Long rows of poplars bend o’er Oufe’s fide. 
of prickly furze and golden 
Account of Mr. Batchelor, by Dr. Yeats. re] 
But thou, Iov’d manfion! where thefe infant 
eyes 
Firt drank the luftre of autumnal fkies ; 
Where every want a mother’s care redrefs'd, 
Prefs'd to her cheek or pillow’d on her 
breaft 5 
Whiere life’s calm pleafures knew their ear- 
lieft {pring, 
And Hope, exulting, rofe on cheerful wing: 
Ah ! if to thee my weary fteps 1 tend, 
No parent welcomes, or confoling friend ; 
Each kindred fcene is vanith’d from thy floor, 
And love maternal foothes my breaft no 
more.’ 
«* In his poem on the Progrefs of Agricul- 
ture, an happy and appropriate compliment 
is paid to the memory of the late Duke of 
Bedford, 
Wreck” 
In apart of Mr. Batchelor’s commu- 
nications to me, I find the following cu- 
rious fact relateg. As you are a pro- 
feflor of medicine, I fhall juft mention a 
trivial circumftance, and leave you to ac- 
count for its caufes. When recovering 
from my illnefs, having juft got free from 
delirium, I formed the plans of feveral 
new poetical works, which are fice for- 
gotten. JI cou'd make verfes, when 
barely fenfible, and unable to walk, with 
the greatett facility. The imagination 
was at that time very much increaled, but 
the judgment was very deficient. At other 
periods a flight illnefs has caufed a lan- 
suor little fhort of ftupidity.”’ It is re- 
markable how frequently we meet with 
great powers of intelleét, and increafed 
vigour of imagination, under great de- 
rangement and debility of the corporeal 
frame; the receptacle of that mighty 
fomething, that invifible agent, which di- 
rects all our operations, 
s¢ That form, the labour of Almighty skill, 
Fram’d for the purpofe of a free-born will, 
Afferts precedence and befpeaks controul, 
But borrows all its grandeur from the foul.” 
CowPeEr’s Tirocinium. 
Tremain, &c. 
Some beautiful Latin lines were written 
by the elegant and claffical Mr. Weit on his 
own cough, when haraffed and diftrefled 
by it during the violence of a hectic pa- 
roxy{m ; which caufed Mr. Gray to ob- 
ferve, that he was the fir who had made 
a mufe of his cough. The reader will 
probably recollect, that the beautiful 
poem of the Maniac was compoled by 
Mrs. Robinfon during the delirious ftupor 
induced by eighty drops of laudanum.— 
She diétated to her daughter much fatter 
than fhe could commit to paper. ‘* Sue 
Jay, while diétating, with her eyes cloted, . 
apparently in the flupor which opium fre- 
quently 
a 
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