s, and pointed in their ridicule; whose tragedies are the only
pathetic tragedies which have been written in our language upon the
severe Greek model. The Samson Agonistes bears marks of a stronger, but
also of an heavier hand, and is unquestionably less touching than the
sweet Elfrida, and the sublime Caractacus."

Mr. Mason, in 1756 published four Odes. "It would be difficult to say,
(says the biographer of the annual Necrology of 1797,) which is most to
be admired, the vividness of the conception, or the spirit of liberty,
and the ardent love of independance throughout. The address to Milton in
his Ode to Memory, and to Andrew Marvel, in that to Independance, cannot
be too much admired. At the period when the Middlesex election was so
much agitated, he united with those independant freeholders, who, by
their declarations and petitions, throughout the nation, opposed
corruption, and claimed a reform in parliament; and when the county of
York assembled in 1779, he was of the committee, and had a great share
in drawing up their spirited resolutions. The animated vindication of
the conduct of the freeholders, and other papers, though printed
anonimously in the newspapers, and so printed in Mr. Wyvill's collection
of political tracts, in 3 vols. are well known to be Mr. Mason's
production. This conduct rendered him obnoxious to the court party. He
was at this time one of the king's chaplains, but when it became his
turn to preach before the royal family, the queen appointed another
person to supply his place. It has been observed, that his sentiments in
a later period of his life, took a colour less favourable to liberty.
Whether alarmed at the march of the French revolution, or from the
timidity of age, we know not. His friend Horace Walpole, charges him
with flat apostacy:" The _Heroic Epistle_ to Sir W. Chambers, and the
_Heroic Postscript_, are now positively said to have been written by Mr.
Mason. Mr. Thomas Warton observed, "they may have been written by
Walpole, and buckramed by Mason."

The late Sir U. Price, in the generous and patriotic conclusion of his
letter to Mr. Repton, pays a delicate compliment to the genius of Mr.
Mason in whatever concerns rural scenery; and his respect for Mr. Mason,
and his high opinion of his talents, is farther shewn in pp. 295 and
371 of his first volume, and in p. 94 of vol. ii. Mr. Mathias, after
supposing Mr. Mason to have been the author of the Heroic Epistle, and
after payin