After settling in London, he wrote little poetry, but engaged with indefatigable vigour in his medical duties ; and used every exertion to force himself into notice as a physician. lie placed himself in view by all the com mon methods, and attained to most of the honours con nected with his profession. lie became a Fellow of the Royal Society ; he obtained irons the university of Cam bridge the degree of Doctor in Physic, and was admit ted into the College of Physicians; he was appointed Reader of the Gulstonian and Croonian Lectures; be came Physician of St Thomas's Ifospital; and, on the establishment of the Queen's Household, was made one of the Physicians to her Majesty. But while he was advancing rapidly in affluence and in fame, he was seized with a putrid fever, which put an end to his existence on the 23d of June 1770, in the 49th year of his age.
Sir John Hawkins, in his " Lile of 1)r Johnson," has delineated the character of Akensidc in terms at once so elegant, and so favourable, that we shall make no apology for presenting it to our readers in his own words.
" The value of that precept, which exhorts us to live peaceably with all men, or, in other words, to avoid cre ating enemies, can only be estimated by reflecting on those many amiable qualities against which the want of it will preponderate. Akenside was a man of religion, and strict virtue ; a philosopher, a scholar, and a fine poet. His conversation was of the most delightful kind, learned, instructive, and, without any affectation of wit, cheerful and entertaining. One of the pleasant est days in my life I passed with him, Mr Dyson, and another friend, at Putney bowling-green house, where a neat and elegant dinner, the enlivening sunshine of a summer day, and the view of an unclouded sky, were the least of our gratifications. In perfect good humour with himself and all around him, he seemed to feel a joy that he lived, and poured out his gratulations to the great Disposer of all felicity, in expressions that Plato himself might hare uttered on such an occasion. In conversation with select friends, and those whose course of study had been nearly the same with his own, it was an usual thing with him, in libations to the me mory of eminent men among the ancients, to bring their characters into view, and thereby give occasion to ex patiate on those particulars of their lives that had ren dered them famous. His method was to arrange them in three classes, philosophers, poets, and legislators.
"That a character thus formed should fail of recom mending itself, and of procuring to its possessor those benefits which it is in the power of mankind to bestow, is a wonder; hut it is often seen that negative qualities are more conducive to this end than positive, and that, with no higher a character than is attainable by any one who, with a studious taciturnity, will keep his opinions to himself, conform to the practice of others, and enter tain neither friendship for, nor enmity against any one, a competition for the good opinion of the world tiny, for emoluments and cv, il dinities, stand a Letter' le rice of success than one of the most t staldishtd reputation for learning and ingenuity. The truth of this olstrvatiot.
Akenside himself li%ed to experience, who, in a tom, petition for the place of physician to the Chum r-hou,e. was unable to prevail against au obscure man, (1( void of every quality that might serve to recommend him, and whose sole merit was that of being distantly related to lord Holland." The author of "The Pleasures of Imagination" must undoubtedly have possessed many excellent qualities. The long and uninterrupted attachnient which existed between him and Mr Dyson, sufficiently Inoue s that his heart was formed for friendship; not were the generous and exalted sentiments which distinguish his writings much at variance with the general tenor of his life. But his overweening vanity threw a deep shade over all his excellencies. No superiority of talents could justify that arrogant contempt which he invariably expressed for those whom he supposed his inferiors in mental en dowments; nor can there be a more mortifying specta cle, than that of a man, w hops Nature has blessed with every pleasing quality, sacrificing to literary pride the finest feelings or his heart, and the clearest friendships of his life. Surely that genius is little to be envied, which, while it raises us above " life's weakness," raises us at the same time above its must endearing charities; and, directing all our estimation to the endowments of the head, renders us totally insensible to the of the heart.
The accomplishments of Akenside were splendid and numerous. I lis taste was refined by an intimate acquaint ance with the ancient classics, and his mind was well stored with the treasures of philosophy. Of the ancient philosophers, he chiefly admired Plato and Cicero; Shaftesbury and Hutchison were his favourites among the moderns. A high and settled veneration for the Supreme Being, and enlarged ideas of Divine wisdom and benevolence, gave a noble elevation to his sentiments, and inspired him with al dent zeal in the cause of virtue. A sacred enthusiasm for liberty forms the characteristic excellence of his poetry, and entitled him in a peculiar degree to the epithet of " Poet of the Community." His Epistle to Curio, his Odes to the earl of Hunting don, and to the bishop of Winchester, would have done honour to the best days of Greek or Roman indepen dence. So strenuously, indeed, did lie advocate the cause of freedom, that he was even suspected of en tertaining republican principles ; but nothing appears in his writings to justify such a suspicion. The freedom for which he contends in reference to his own comstry, was that established by the Revolution; for the magna nimous promoters of which he professed the highest veneration.