ssel
which is sailing from the shore, it only appears that the shore also
recedes; in life it is truly thus. He who retires from the world will
find himself, in reality, deserted as fast, if not faster, by the world.
The public is not to be treated as the coxcomb treats his mistress; to
be threatened with desertion, in order to increase fondness.

Young seems to have been taken at his word. Notwithstanding his frequent
complaints of being neglected, no hand was reached out to pull him
from that retirement of which he declared himself enamoured. Alexander
assigned no palace for the residence of Diogenes, who boasted his surly
satisfaction with his tub. Of the domestic manners and petty habits of
the author of the "Night Thoughts," I hoped to have given you an account
from the best authority; but who shall dare to say, To-morrow I will
be wise or virtuous, or to-morrow I will do a particular thing? Upon
inquiring for his housekeeper, I learned that she was buried two days
before I reached the town of her abode.

In a letter from Tscharner, a noble foreigner, to Count Haller,
Tscharner says, he has lately spent four days with Young at Welwyn,
where the author tastes all the ease and pleasure mankind can desire.
"Everything about him shows the man, each individual being placed by
rule. All is neat without art. He is very pleasant in conversation, and
extremely polite." This, and more, may possibly be true; but Tscharner's
was a first visit, a visit of curiosity and admiration, and a visit
which the author expected.

Of Edward Young an anecdote which wanders among readers is not true,
that he was Fielding's Parson Adams. The original of that famous
painting was William Young, who was a clergyman. He supported an
uncomfortable existence by translating for the booksellers from Greek,
and, if he did not seem to be his own friend, was at least no man's
enemy. Yet the facility with which this report has gained belief in
the world argues, were it not sufficiently known that the author of the
"Night Thoughts" bore some resemblance to Adams. The attention which
Young bestowed upon the perusal of books is not unworthy imitation.
When any passage pleased him he appears to have folded down the leaf. On
these passages he bestowed a second reading. But the labours of man
are too frequently vain. Before he returned to much of what he had once
approved he died. Many of his books, which I have seen, are by those
notes of approbation so s