hen satire becomes the unavoidable
expression of the irritated yet unsubdued spirit. In 1725 appeared the
first part of his "Universal Passion;" the rest came out in successive
satires between that and 1728, when they were collected and published,
along with a somewhat querulous preface, in which he hints that he had
not found poetry very favourable to preferment. He gained, however, L3000
by these poems, of which, according to Spence, L2000 was contributed by
the Duke of Grafton, who did not, however, regret the price. His
inscriptions of the several satires were, as usual at the time, stuffed
with fulsome praise of such men as Dorset, Dodington, Campton, and Sir
Robert Walpole, all of whom appreciated and rewarded the compliments. We
reserve our criticism on these remarkable productions till afterwards,
noticing only at present, that they were published _before_ the satires
of Pope, and that they became instantly popular.

As if to propitiate the Nemesis, who always stands behind the chariot of
the popular writer, Young next issued two of the poorest of all his
unequal productions. The first of these, entitled "The Instalment," was
addressed to Sir Robert Walpole, and is, perhaps, although the word be a
wide one, the most nonsensical and trashy _lie in verse_ ever addressed
to a prime minister. The second is an "Ode to Ocean," a compound of
doggrel and stilted dulness--which, indeed, any sailor of education might
have composed, if "half-seas-over."

At length, sick of dissipation, of the stage, of bad odes, and good
satires, Young determined to become wise, and enter into orders. An
irresistible current had long been carrying him on, with many a
convulsive recalcitration on his part, to this determination. That great
intellect and heart, over which, already, the shadow of the "Night
Thoughts" was beginning to gather, could not be satisfied with the
society of "peers, poets," and demireps; with the applause of sweltering
crowds collected in theatres; or with the ebullitions of its own giant
spleen, in the shape of epigrammatic satires. The world, which once
seemed to his eye so fresh and fair, had withered gradually to a
skeleton, with sockets for eyes, with eternal baldness for hair, with a
"stench instead of a sweet savour, and burning instead of beauty." He
resolved to proclaim the particulars of this painful yet blessed
disenchantment to the ends of the earth, and to all classes of mankind.
And for this purpose, h