the House of Lords the sons of the Earls of Northampton and
Aylesbury, and added, in one day, ten others to the number of Peers.
In order to reconcile the people to one, at least, of the new lords,
he published, in 1712, "An Epistle to the Right Honourable George
Lord Lansdowne." In this composition the poet pours out his
panegyric with the extravagance of a young man, who thinks his
present stock of wealth will never be exhausted. The poem seems
intended also to reconcile the public to the late peace. This is
endeavoured to be done by showing that men are slain in war, and
that in peace "harvests wave, and commerce swells her sail." If
this be humanity, for which he meant it, is it politics? Another
purpose of this epistle appears to have been to prepare the public
for the reception of some tragedy he might have in hand. His
lordship's patronage, he says, will not let him "repent his passion
for the stage;" and the particular praise bestowed on Othello and
Oroonoko looks as if some such character as Zanga was even then in
contemplation. The affectionate mention of the death of his friend
Harrison of New College, at the close of this poem, is an instance
of Young's art, which displayed itself so wonderfully some time
afterwards in the "Night Thoughts," of making the public a party in
his private sorrow. Should justice call upon you to censure this
poem, it ought at least to be remembered that he did not insert it
in his works; and that in the letter to Curll, as we have seen, he
advises its omission. The booksellers, in the late body of English
poetry, should have distinguished what was deliberately rejected by
the respective authors. This I shall be careful to do with regard
to Young. "I think," says he, "the following pieces in FOUR volumes
to be the most excusable of all that I have written; and I wish LESS
APOLOGY was less needful for these. As there is no recalling what
is got abroad, the pieces here republished I have revised and