s uncle's death; and, with the usual
weakness of men so diseased, eagerly snatched that temporary relief
with which the table and the bottle flatter and seduce. But his health
continually declined, and he grew more and more burthensome to himself.

To what I have formerly said of his writings may be added, that his
diction was often harsh, unskilfully laboured, and injudiciously
selected. He affected the obsolete when it was not worthy of revival:
and he puts his words out of the common order, seeming to think, with
some later candidates for fame, that not to write prose is certainly to
write poetry. His lines commonly are of slow motion, clogged and impeded
with clusters of consonants. As men are often esteemed who cannot be
loved, so the poetry of Collins may sometimes extort praise when it
gives little pleasure.

Mr. Collins's first production is added here from the Poetical
Calendar:--

TO MISS AURELIA C--R,

ON HER WEEPING AT HER SISTER'S WEDDING.

"Cease, fair Aurelia, cease to mourn;
Lament not Hannah's happy state;
You may be happy in your turn,
And seize the treasure you regret.
With Love united Hymen stands,
And softly whispers to your charms,
'Meet but your lover in my bands,
You'll find your sister in his arms.'"

DYER.

John Dyer, of whom I have no other account to give than his own letters,
published with Hughes's correspondence, and the notes added by the
editor, have afforded me, was born in 1700, the second son of Robert
Dyer of Aberglasney, in Caermarthenshire, a solicitor of great capacity
and note. He passed through Westminster school under the care of Dr.
Freind, and was then called home to be instructed in his father's
profession. But his father died soon, and he took no delight in the
study of the law; but, having always amused himself with drawing,
resolved to turn painter, and became pupil to Mr. Richardson, an artist
then of high reputation, but now better known by his books than by his
pictures.

Having studied a while under his master, he became, as he tells his
friend, an itinerant painter, and wandered about South Wales and the
parts adjacent; but he mingled poetry with painting, and about 1727
(1726) printed "Grongar Hill" in Lewis's Miscellany. Being, probably,
unsatisfied with his own proficiency, he, like other painters, travelled
to Italy; and coming back in 1740, published the "Ruins of Rome."