a
play superior to "Busiris," but very much inferior to "The Revenge." Full
of passion and poetry, of startling scenes, and vivid images, its subject
is unpleasing, and the various perplexities of the plot are not skilfully
disentangled.

In the same year he published "A True Estimate of Human Life," written
with force and ingenuity; and a long and very loyal sermon, preached
before the House of Commons, on the Martyrdom of Charles I. It was
entitled, "An Apology for Princes; or, the Reverence due to Governments."

Hitherto Young had lived on the proceeds of his fellowship, and on
presents from Wharton, who, at his death, too, left him a pension. He
became now, however, very naturally anxious for promotion in that new
sphere on which he had entered, and was compelled, _proh pudor_! to lay
his case before Mrs Howard, the favourite mistress of George II.--that
identical "good Howard," who figures so curiously in the famous scene
between Jeanie Deans and Queen Caroline. The fact of the application, as
well as the terms of the letter he wrote her, renders this the most
humiliating incident in all Young's history. In 1730, he published
"Imperium Pelagi," another naval lyric, as bad and much longer than his
"Ode to Ocean." In the same year he wrote an epistle to Pope, which
resembles a coarser and more careless production of the little man of
Twickenham.

In July 1730, Young was presented by his college to the rectory of Welwyn
in Hertfordshire. We refer our readers, for various delightful
speculations and anecdotes about his residence and labours there, to
Bulwer's _Student_. He was a powerful preacher. His sermons seem to have
been striking in thought, rich in image, intensely practical in tendency,
and were delivered with great animation and effect. It is told, that on
one occasion, while preaching at St James's before the Court and His
Majesty, on some subject of transcendent importance, and not being able
to command the attention or awaken the feelings of his audience, he at
length threw himself back into the pulpit, and burst into tears. That was
itself a sermon! The figure of this weeping Titan, who could have rent
rocks and severed mountains, but who had failed in breaking the hearts of
any of his courtly hearers, is one of the most affecting in the annals of
pulpit oratory. Alas! what preacher who has ever aimed at Young's object,
has not been at times tempted to assume Young's attitude, and to shed
Young's bitte