After remaining three years at Edinburgh, lie went to complete his medical studies at Leyden, where Mr Dyson was at the same time engaged in the study of civil law'. With this gentleman Akenside contracted a friendship which was of the most essential service to him through the remainder of life. When lie had pass ed three years at that celebrated university, he took the degree of Doctor in Medicine ; and as it was necessary to publish an inaugural dissertation, he chose for his subject, De ortu ri meremento fat us human/. In this trea tise he displayed much ingenuity, in refuting the opinions of Lewenhoek, which then generally prevailed ; and in proposing an hypothesis, which has since been adopted by the most eminent physicians.
Alter having graduated, he returned to England with Mr Dyson, and, during the same year, published The Pleasures of Imagination ; a work which raised him very high in the estimation of men of taste and learning. Akenside himself seems to have been conscious of its value ; for he demanded for the copyright a price• which was then accounted high, and which was seldom given for a work of that nature, particularly front an author yet unknown to fame. Dodsley, to whom he offered it, being inclined to hesitate on his demand, carried the poem to Pope, who, having looked into it, advised hint not to make a niggardly offer, for " this was no every day poet." A note in the third hook, in which the au thor adopts Shaftesbury's assertion of the efficacy of ridi cule as a test of truth, excited the displeasure of War burton, who, in a preface to one of his publications, at tacked him with great severity ; not, however, as a poet, but as a philosopher. Mr Dyson, in defence of his friend, wrote an anonymous " Epistle to Mr Warburton, occa sioned by his treatment of the Author of the Pleasures of Imagination ; but Warburton's strictures were after wards repainted, without any notice of what had been said in Akenside's defence.
Soon after the publication of this poem, he wrote a vul y spirited Epistle to Pultency, who had recently de serted the cause of independence, which lie had vindicated with such ability while out of place, and who was there fore justly stigmatized by our author under the name of Curio, as the betrayer of his country. This Epistle, Lich is distinguished by the most vigorous and poign ant satire, he afterwards into a very pal try Ode.
1Ie was now to live by his profession ; and, with that view', fixed his residence at Northampton, where Dt Stonehouse then practised with such success and repu tation, as to defy all competition. Akenside tried the Contest for a while, hut finding it in saiu, lie removed to flampstead, where he resided more than two years, ported ( hielly by the generosity of Mr Dyson. At Hamp stead he had the fairest prospects of success. H is re putation had guile before hint ; amid his generous patron took every method of bringing hint forward into notice. Ile not only introduced him to the long-room, and to every place of public resort, but recommended him, in the strongest terms, as a physician, to all the inhabit ants with whom he could take such liberty. But the im prudence and vanity of Akcnside counteracted all his friend's exertions. He had conceived such a lofty idea
of his own talents and acquirements, that lie affected to disdain all ordinary men as beings of a lower rank in the scale of intelligence. In the clubs and assemblies which lie frequented, he perpetually involved himself in disputes ; and expected such unreasonable deference to his assertions or arguments, that though he took the wrong side for the purpose of displaying his abilities, he treated with the most contemptuous rude ness all who dared to contradict him. His insolence naturally created many enemies. They discovered that lie was a man of low birth, and a dependent ;—and, as they scrupled not to reproach him with these circum stances, he was reduced to the necessity of asserting that he was a gentleman. After matters had proceeded to this extremity, lie could not expect to succeed in practice at Ifampstead, or to reside there with any com fort. Mr Dyson, therefore, parted with his villa at North-End, settled his friend in a small house in Blooms bury Square, and, with a generosity that has few exam ples, assigned him 300/. a-year, to enable him to make a proper appearance in the world.—" A physician in a great city," says Dr Johnson, " seems to be the mere plaything of Fortune ; his degree of reputation is, for the most part, totally casual ; they that employ him know not his excellence ; they that reject him know not his deficience."—Akenside was known in London as a poet, and gradually advanced in medical reputation; but never attained much popularity, or any great extent of practice. His pride, his insolence, and impatience of opposition, exposed him to general dislike, and drew him sometimes into very awkward and disagreeable situ ations. In the winter evenings, he frequented Tom's Coffee-house in Devereux Court, at that time the resort of men of learning and ingenuity, with some of whom he became entangled in disputes and altercations, chiefly on subjects of literature and politics. A dispute, which one evening took place between him and counsellor Ballow, a man of learning, but violent in his temper, and vulgar in his manners, rose to such a height, that Ballow uttered some expressions for which Akenside thought himself obliged to demand an apology, and, when that was refused, he sent his adversary a challenge. An answer, however, was declined ; and though Aken side more than once attempted to see Ballow at his lodgings, the counsellor kept close till the quarrel was adjusted. It has been said, that an accommodation was effected, not by any mutual concessions, but by a reso lution from which neither of them would depart,•the ene would not light in the morning, nor the other in the el using. Akenside became so notorious for his irasci bility, that even those who most admired his genius and accomplishments, were shy of becoming intimate with bins ;—yet it is only justice to say, the his irascibility was seldom excited, except when he thought his literary reputation was concerned. On other occasions he was an easy and agreeable companion, and could even tole rate rudeness which any other person would have re sented.