Then prompt no more the follies you decry, As tyrants doom their tools of guilt to die; 'T is yours, this night, to bid the reign commence Of rescued Nature and reviving Sense; To chase the charms of sound, the pomp of show, For useful mirth and salutary woe; Bid scenic Virtue form the rising age, And Truth diffuse her radiance from the stage. ON THE DEATH OF MR. ROBERT LEVET, A PRACTISER IN PHYSIC. CONDEMN'D to Hope's delusive mine, Well try'd through many a varying year, Of ev'ry friendless name the friend. Yet still he fills affection's eye, Obscurely wise, and coarsely kind; Nor, letter'd Arrogance, deny When fainting nature call'd for aid, And hov'ring death prepar'd the blow His vig'rous remedy display'd The pow'r of art without the show. In Misery's darkest cavern known, No summons mock'd by chill delay, His virtues walk'd their narrow round, The busy day-the peaceful night, His frame was firm. his powers were bright, Though now his eightieth year was nigh. Then with no fiery throbbing pain, And freed his soul the nearest way. JOHN ARMSTRONG. JOHN OHN ARMSTRONG, a physician and poet, was born about 1709 at Castleton in Roxburghshire, where his father was the parish minister. He was brought up to the medical profession, which he studied at the university of Edinburgh, where he took his degree. He settled in London in the double capacity of physician and man of letters, and he rendered himself known by writings in each. In 1744 his capital work, the didactic poem, entitled "The Art of preserving Health," made its appearance, and raised his literary reputation to a height which his subsequent publications scarcely sustained. It has therefore been selected for this work; and it may be affirmed, that of the class to which it belongs, scarcely any English performance can claim superiour merit. Its topics are judiciously chosen from all those which can add grace or beauty to a difficult subject; and as he was naturally gifted with a musical ear, his lines are scarcely ever harsh. In 1760 Dr. Armstrong had interest enough to obtain the appointment of physician to the army in Germany, which ho retained till its return. He then resumed his practice in London; but his habits and manners opposed an insurmountable bar against popular success. He possessed undoubted abilities, but a morbid sensibility preyed on his temper, and his intellectual efforts were damped by a languid listlessness. He died in September, 1779, leaving considerable savings from a very moderate income. THE ART OF PRESERVING HEALTH. Book I. AIR. DAUGHTER of Pæon, queen of every joy, Hygeia, the goddess of health, was, according to the genealogy of the heathen deities, the daughter of Esculapius; who, as well as Apollo, was dis tinguished by the name of Pæon, Of Pain and Sickness, squalid and deform'd, The damp waste forest, motionless and rank, No rapture swells the breast, no poet sings, |