!

How fome, whose parts a flight contexture fhow,
Sink hovering through the air, in fleecy fnow;
How part is spun in filken threads, and clings
Entangled in the grafs in glewy ftrings;
How others stamp to stones, with rushing found
Fall from their chryftal quarries to the ground;
How fome are laid in trains, that kindled fly,
In harmless fires by night, about the sky;
How fome in winds blow with impetuous force,
And carry ruin where they bend their course,
While fome conspire to form a gentle breeze,
To fan the air, and play among the trees;
How fome, enraged, grow turbulent and loud,
Pent in the bowels of a frowning cloud,
That cracks, as if the axis of the world

Was broke, and heaven's bright towers were downwards
hurl'd.

He fung how earth's wide ball, at Jove's command,
Did in the midst on airy columns ftand;

And how the foul of plants, in prison held,
And bound with fluggish fetters, lies conceal'd,
Till with the Spring's warm beams, almoft releas'd
From the dull weight, with which it lay oppreft,
Its vigour fpreads, and makes the teeming earth
Heave up, and labour with the sprouting birth:
The active, spirit freedom feeks in vain,
It only works and twifts a stronger chain;
Urging its prifon's fides to break away,
It makes that wider, where 'tis forc'd to stay :
Till, having form'd its living house, it rears
Its head, and in a tender plant appears.

Hence fprings the oak, the beauty of the grove,
Whose stately trunk fierce ftorms can scarcely move.
Hence grows the cedar, hence the fwelling vine
Does round the elm its purple clusters twine.
Hence painted flowers the fmiling gardens blefs,
Both with their fragrant fcent and gaudy dress.

Hence

Hence the white lily in full beauty grows,
Hence the blue violet, and blushing rofe.
He fung how fun-beams brood upon the earth,
And in the glebe hatch such a numerous birth ;
Which way the genial warmth in Summer ftorms
Turns putrid vapours to a bed of worms;
How rain, transform'd by this prolifick power,
Falls from the clouds an animated fhower.
He fung the embryo's growth within the womb,
And how the parts their various shapes affume;
With what rare art the wondrous structure's wrought,
From one crude mafs to fuch perfection brought;
That no part useless, none mifplac'd we fee,
None are forgot, and more would monstrous be.

VOL. II.

FEN

FENTO N.

THE brevity with which I am to write the account of ELIJAH FENTON, is not the effect of indifference or negligence. I have fought intelligence among his relations in his native country, but have not obtained it.

He was born near Newcastle in Stafford fhire, of an ancient family*, whofe eftate was very confiderable;

but

* He was born at Shelton, near Newcastle, May 20, 1683; and was the youngest of eleven children of John Fenton, an attorney at law, and one of the coroners for the county of Stafford. His father died in 1694; and his grave, in the church-yard of Stoke upon Trent, is distinguished by the following elegant Latin infcription from the pen of his fon :

H. S. E.
JOANNES FENTON

de Shelton

antiquâ ftirpe generofus ;

juxta reliquias conjugis

CATHARINE

formâ, moribus, pietate,
optimo viro digniffimæ :
Qui

intemeratâ in ecclefiam fide,

et virtutibus intaminatis enituit;

песнов

but he was the youngest of eleven children, and being therefore neceffarily deftined to fome lucrative employment was fent firft to fchool, and afterwards to Cambridge *, but, with many other wife and virtuous men, who at that time of difcord and debate confulted confcience, whether well or ill informed, more than intereft, he doubted the legality of the government, and refufing to qualify himself for publick employment by the oaths required, left the university without a degree; but I never heard that the enthufiafm of oppofition impelled him to feparation from the Church.

By this perverseness of integrity he was driven out a commoner of Nature, excluded from the regular modes of profit and profperity, and reduced to pick up a livelihood uncertain and fortuitous; but it must be remembered that he kept his name unfullied, and never suffered himself to be reduced, like too many of the fame fect, to mean arts and dif honourable fhifts. Whoever mentioned Fenton, mentioned him with honour.

necnon ingenii lepore

bonis artibus expoliti,

ac animo erga omnes benevolo, fibi fuifque jucundus vix.t. Decem annos uxori dile&tæ fuperftes magnum fui defiderium bonis omnibus reliquit,

Anno{falutatis fuæ 56.

falutis humanæ 1694,

See Gent. Mag. 1791, vol. LXI. p. 703. N.

* He was entered of Jefus College, and took a Bachelor's degree in 1704 but it appears by the lift of Cambridge graduates that he removed in 1726 to Trinity Hall. N.

The life that paffes in penury muft neceffarily pafs in obfcurity. It is impoffible to trace Fenton from year to year, or to discover what means he ufed for his fupport. He was awhile fecretary to Charles Earl of Orrery in Flanders, and tutor to his young fon, who afterwards mentioned him with great efteem and tenderness. He was at one time affistant in the school of Mr. Bonwicke in Surrey; and at another kept a fchool for himfelf at Sevenoaks in Kent, which he brought into reputation; but was perfuaded to leave it (1710) by Mr. St. John, with promifes of a more honourable employment.

His opinions, as he was a Nonjuror, feem not to have been remarkably rigid. He wrote with great zeal and affection the praises of Queen Anne, and very willingly and liberally extolled the Duke of Marlborough, when he was (1707) at the height of his glory.

He expreffed ftill more attention to Marlborough and his family by an elegiack Paftoral on the Marquis of Blandford, which could be prompted only by refpect or kindness; for neither the duke nor dutchets defired the praife, or liked the cost of patronage.

The elegance of his poetry entitled him to the company of the wits of his time, and the amiablenefs of his manners made him loved wherever he was known. Of his friendship to Southern and Pope there are lafting monuments.

He published in 1707 a collection of Poems.

By Pope he was once placed in a ftation that might have been of great advantage. Craggs, when he was advanced to be fecretary of ftate (about 1720),

feeling