is censure I do not indiscriminately involve
all his relations; for he has mentioned with gratitude the humanity
of one lady, whose name I am now unable to recollect, and to whom,
therefore, I cannot pay the praises which she deserves for having acted
well in opposition to influence, precept, and example.

The punishment which our laws inflict upon those parents who murder
their infants is well known, nor has its justice ever been contested;
but, if they deserve death who destroy a child in its birth, what pain
can be severe enough for her who forbears to destroy him only to inflict
sharper miseries upon him; who prolongs his life only to make him
miserable; and who exposes him, without care and without pity, to the
malice of oppression, the caprices of chance, and the temptations of
poverty; who rejoices to see him overwhelmed with calamities; and, when
his own industry, or the charity of others, has enabled him to rise
for a short time above his miseries, plunges him again into his former
distress?

The kindness of his friends not affording him any constant supply, and
the prospect of improving his fortune by enlarging his acquaintance
necessarily leading him to places of expense, he found it necessary
to endeavour once more at dramatic poetry; for which he was now better
qualified by a more extensive knowledge and longer observation.
But having been unsuccessful in comedy, though rather for want of
opportunities than genius, he resolved to try whether he should not be
more fortunate in exhibiting a tragedy. The story which he chose for
the subject was that of Sir Thomas Overbury, a story well adapted to
the stage, though perhaps not far enough removed from the present age
to admit properly the fictions necessary to complete the plan; for the
mind, which naturally loves truth, is always most offended with the
violation of those truths of which we are most certain; and we of course
conceive those facts most certain which approach nearer to our own time.
Out of this story he formed a tragedy, which, if the circumstances in
which he wrote it be considered, will afford at once an uncommon proof
of strength of genius and evenness of mind, of a serenity not to be
ruffled and an imagination not to be suppressed.

During a considerable part of the time in which he was employed upon
this performance, he was without lodging, and often without meat; nor
had he any other conveniences for study than the fields or the streets
al