are the productions of a mind not deficient in fire, nor unfurnished
with knowledge either of books or life, but somewhat obstructed in
its progress by deviation in quest of mistaken beauties.

"His morals were pure, and his opinions pious; in a long continuance
of poverty, and long habits of dissipation, it cannot be expected
that any character should be exactly uniform. There is a degree of
want by which the freedom of agency is almost destroyed; and long
association with fortuitous companions will at last relax the
strictness of truth, and abate the fervour of sincerity. That this
man, wise and virtuous as he was, passed always unentangled through
the snares of life, it would be prejudice and temerity to affirm;
but it may be said that at least he preserved the source of action
unpolluted, that his principles were never shaken, that his
distinctions of right and wrong were never confounded, and that his
faults had nothing of malignity or design, but proceeded from some
unexpected pressure, or casual temptation.

"The latter part of his life cannot be remembered but with pity and
sadness. He languished some years under that depression of mind
which enchains the faculties without destroying them, and leaves
reason the knowledge of right without the power of pursuing it.
These clouds which he perceived gathering on his intellect he
endeavoured to disperse by travel, and passed into France; but found
himself constrained to yield to his malady, and returned. He was
for some time confined in a house of lunatics, and afterwards
retired to the care of his sister in Chichester, where death, in
1756, came to his relief.

"After his return from France, the writer of this character paid him