YOUNG, EDWARD, a celebrated English poet, was the son of a clergyman, and was born at the living of Upham in Hampshire, in June 1681. From Winchester school he went to New College, Oxford, in 1703, and afterwards to Corpus Christi College in 1708. In the year 1708, Archbishop Tenison obtained for him a law fellowship at All Soul's College.* In this situation he seems to have begun his poetical career by an epistle to Lord Lansdowne in 1712, which was followed in 1713 by his poem of the Last Day, dedicated to Queen Anne. His next productions were, "The Force of Religion, or Vanquished Love," published in 1714; his tragedy of " Busiris, King of Egypt," published in 1719; his tragedy of "The Revenge," published in 1721; his satires, entitled "The Love of Fame, or the Universal Passion," from 1725 to 1788; the " Instalment" in 1726, and his two Odes, one ad dressed to the king on his accession, and the other entitled " Ocean." Although he had taken the degree of LL.D in 1719, yet he now conceived the idea of entering into the church, and accordingly, in 1723, he tool orders, and in the same year was appointed one the royal chaplains. Owing to this circumstance, he withdrew from the stage his tragedy of the Brothers, which was then under rehearsal. His first theological work was his " True Estimate of human Life," which was followed by a sermon, preached before the House of Commons, entitled "An Apology for Princes, or the Reverence due to Government." His other works published about this time were his " Imperium Pelagi, a Naval Lyric;" " two Epistles to the Pope concerning the Authors of the Age;" and the Seapiece, in two odes, inscribed to Voltaire.
In the year 1730 he was presented by the college of All Souls to the rectory of \Vellwyn, in Herts: and in 1731 he married Elizabeth Lec, daughter of the Earl of Litchfield, and the widow of Colonel Lee. This lady had a son and two daughters, the eldest of whom, called by him Narcissa, died of a decline at Lyons in 1736. Her husband, Mr Tem ple, son of Lord Palmerston, supposed to be the Philander of the poet, died in 1740, and his own wife died in 1741, leaving him an only son.
These domestic afflictions preyed upon his spirit, and exaggerated that constitutional melancholy to which he was subject. This state of mind led him to the composition of his " Night Thoughts," begun in 1741, and completed in 1747. These noble poems, which he himself justly valued as the chief of his productions, are the work of a truly pious and gifted mind, which had studied and rightly estimated the condition of man. If they are tinged with a shade of what the world calls the gloom of his own mind, we must recollect, that all the objects of his earthly affections had been taken from him, and that he had thus learned to form a right esti mate of the highest pleasures of life. In reference to the vices and corruptions which surround it, the most pious mind may feel itself depressed, while, in reference to its own prospects, it is cheerful and serene. When more popular and more attractive poems shall be forgotten, the "Night Thoughts" will be esteemed and admired as the poetical manual of the Christian saint.
Notwithstanding his domestic sorrows, and his disappointments in relation to church preferment, Dr. Young was regarded as an agreeable and lively companion. After the publication of his " Night Thoughts," his productions were few and unimpor tant. his " Thoughts on the present Juncture," in 1745, in which he abuses the Scotch for their poverty and rebellious spirit; his " Centaur not Fa bulous, or Six. Letters to a Friend on the Life in Vogue ;" his " Sermon preached before their ma jesties," in 1758 ; and his last production, entitled " Resignation," appropriately terminating his lite rary career, were the rest of his productions. He died in April 1765, in the 84th year of his age, and was interred in the chancel of the church of Nelwyn, near the body of his wife. His only son, Frederick, erected a monument to his father, with the follow ing inscription :—