In 1700 he became fellow of the college; and next year, entering into Orders, was prefented by the fociety with a living in Warwickshire*, confiftent with the fellowship, and chofen lecturer of moral philosophy, a very honourable office. On the acceffion of queen Anne he wrote another poem; and is faid, by the author of the Biographia, to have declared himself of the party who had the honourable diftinction of High-churchmen. In 1706 he was duke of Beaufort. received into the family of the Next year he became doctor in divinity, and foon after refigned his fellowship and lecture; and, as a token of his gratitude, gave the college a picture of their founder. He was made rector of Chalton and Cleanville, two adjoining towns and benefices in Hertfordshire; and had the prebends, or finecures, of Deans, Hains, and Pendles, in Devonshire. He had before been chofen, in 1698, preacher of Bridewell Hospital, upon the refignation of Dr. Atterbury § From this time he feems to have led a quiet and inoffenfive life, till the clamour was raised about Atterbury's plot. Every loyal eye was on the watch for abettors or partakers of the horrid conspiracy; and Dr. Yalden, having fome acquaintance with the bishop, and being familiarly converfant with Kelly his fecretary, fell under fufpicion, and was taken into cuftody. * The vicarage of Willoughby, which he refigned in 1708. N. This preferment was given him by the duke of Beaufort. N. * Not long after. † Dr. Atterbury retained the office of preacher at Bridewell till his promotion to the Bishoprick of Rochefter. Dr. Yalden fucceeded him as preacher in June, 1713. N. Upon his examination he was charged with a dangerous correspondence with Kelly. The correfpondence he acknowledged; but maintained that it had no treasonable tendency. His papers were feized; but nothing was found that could fix a crime upon him, except two words in his pocket-book, thoroughpaced doctrine. This expreffion the imagination of his examiners had impregnated with treafon, and the doctor was enjoined to explain. Thus preffed, he told them that the words had lain unheeded in his pocket-book from the time of queen Anne, and that he was afhamed to give an account of them; but the truth was, that he had gratified his curiofity one day, by hearing Daniel Burgess in the pulpit, and those words were a memorial hint of a remarkable fentence by which he warned his congregation to "beware of" thorough-paced doctrine," that doctrine which, coming in at one ear, paces through the head, and goes out at the other." Nothing worse than this appearing in his papers and no evidence arifing against him, he was fet at liberty. It will not be fuppofed that a man of his character attained high dignities in the Church; but he ftill retained the friendship, and frequented the converfation, of a very numerous and fplendid fet of acquaintance. He died July 16, 1736, in the 66th year of his age. Of his poems, many are of that irregular kind, which, when he formed his poetical character, was supposed to be Pindarick. Having fixed his attention on Cowley as a model, he has attempted in fome fort to rival him, and has written a Hymn to Dark nefs, nefs, evidently as a counter-part to Cowley's Hymn to Light. This hymn feems to be his best performance, and is, for the most part, imagined with great vigour, and expreffed with great propriety. I will not tranfcribe it. The feven firft ftanzas are good; but the third, fourth, and seventh, are the beft; the eighth seems to involve a contradiction; the tenth is exquifitely beautiful; the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth, are partly mythological, and partly reli gious, and therefore not fuitable to each other; he might better have made the whole merely philofophical. There are two ftanzas in this poem where Yalden may be fufpected, though hardly convicted, of having confulted the Hymnus ad Umbram of Wowerus, in the fixth stanza, which answers in fome fort to thefe lines: Illa fuo præeft nocturnis numine facris- And again, at the conclufion : Illa fuo fenium fecludit corpore toto His Hymn to Light is not equal to the other. He feems to think that there is an Eaft abfolute and pofitive where the Morning rifes. In the laft ftanza, having mentioned the fudden eruption of new-created Light, he says, A while th' Almighty wond'ring ftood. He ought to have remembered that Infinite Knowledge can never wonder. All wonder is the effect of novelty upon ignorance. Of his other poems it is fufficient to say, that they deserve perufal, though they are not always exactly polished, though the rhymes are fometimes very ill forted, and though his faults feem rather the omiffions of idleness than the negligences of enthusiasm, TICKELL. TICKEL L THOMAS TICKELL, the fon of the reverend Richard Tickell, was born in 1686 at Bridekirk, in Cumberland; and in 1701 became a member of Queen's college in Oxford; in April 1708 he was made Mafter of Arts; and, two years afterwards, was chofen Fellow; for which, as he did not comply with the ftatutes by taking Orders, he obtained a difpenfation from the Crown. He held his Fellowship till 1726, and then vacated it, by marrying, in that year, at Dublin. Tickell was not one of those scholars who wear away their lives in closets; he entered early into the world, and was long bufy in publick affairs; in which he was initiated under the patronage of Addifon, whofe notice he is faid to have gained by his verfes in praise of Rofamond. To thofe verfes it would not have been just to deny regard; for they contain fome of the most elegant encomiaftick ftrains; and, among the innumerable poems of the fame kind, it will be hard to find one |