COLLINS, WILLIAM, an ingenious English poet, was born in 1720 at Chichester, where his father carried on business as a hatter. He was educated on the founda tion of Winchester, but missed the advantage annexed to that institution, of going off to a fellowship in New Col lege, Oxford, as no vacancy occurred while he continued within the limited age. Ile went notwithstanding to Oxford, where he was Borst entered of Queen's College, and afterwards of Magdalen's, but remained only till he took the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Like many other poets, Collins seems to have delayed his choice of a pro fession till the time for chusing was past. It unfortu nately happens, that the age at which this important decision should be made, is the same at which men of ge nius begin to discover their intellectual superiority, and in the triumph which this discovery creates, they think themselves entitled to a higher destiny than that of their companions, who content themselves with occupations requiring- no unusual portion of ability. They are thus tempted to cherish indistinct, though splendid, visions of ambition, without calculating exactly the steps by which it is to be gratified ; and they reject the employments for which they were intended, from no decided prefer ence of any other, but from a hope that, to make their genius known, \ vill be all that is necessary for advancing them to an eminence, which no success in an ordinary profession could confer. Such appears to have been the case with Shakspeare and Spenser, with Milton and Dry den, with Thomson and Gray, and with Chatterton and Cowper ; and of all our poets, none have been richer in that originality of genius, which distinguishes its pos sessor from the rest of his species, than those whom we have named. This seems likewise to have been the tase with Collins, whose success in college exercises se duced him into so early an application to poetry, that, before he quitted the university, he had published his Oriental Eclogues. Though the demand for these was not such as testified any extraordinary portion of public favour, yet, having acquainted their author with the de light of doing that which can be done by few, and pro bably given him sufficient confidence in his powers, he hastened from Oxford, before the usual period of attend ance was completed, to procure wealth and fame in Lon don by his pen. His scheme, however; seems not to have been arranged with much precision, and instead of engaging in any important work, he frittered away his time in desultory exertion, designing what he never executed, and executing what he had never designed. Literary adventurers have generally been destined to a life of dis comfort and perplexity ; nor was Collins an exception to the common lot. Having no regular employment, he had no regular income. When pressed by the prospect of want, he resolved on diligence ; but when the pressure was removed, his resolutions were forgot. Amid this fluctuation, instead of writing a history of the revival of letters, of which he frequently talked, or entering on va rious dramatic works, which were among the number of his projects, he contented himself with the produc ion of a few Odes, which he seems to have composed for recreation rather than emolument. These Odes, however, abound in excellencies, to which genius alone could give existence; and justify a belief, that the uni form tranquillity derived from easy circumstances, is 'ess propitious to the loftier flights of imagination., than the transient elasticity of spirits, which the sudden sus pension of disquiet has a natural tendency to produce. Professional writers, in a great city, are generally ad dicted to conviviality. Requiring a relaxation from la
nour, they prefer those evening clubs, where they meet .with persons who are in a condition similar to their own, .orid by whom that colloquial power which they derive from their endowments, their acquirements, and their mode of life, is both excited and admired. In these as semblies of contemporary wits, Collins became acquaint ed with Johnson, who, says the poet, was of " a decent and manly appearance, his knowledge considerable, his views extensive, his conversation elegant, and his dispo sition cheerful " It was natural that a sympathy should arise between such minds as those of Collins and John son, while both were equally depressed by pecuniary dif ficulties, and elevated by a consciousness of superiority to the wealthy crowd who permitted them to starve, but over all of whom they knew themselves destined to rise, by the interest they were to create, and the renown they were to obtain. They accordingly grew into habits of such confidential intimacy, that, when the poet was skulk ing from an officer on the watch to arrest him, Johnson, whom he knew to be in no great security from a similar humiliation, was readily admitted to his retreat. From this embarrassment, he was relieved by a small sum which the booksellers were persuaded to advance, on his promise of writing for them a translation of Ari: totle's Poetics, with a commentary. He then retired to the country, but soon after returned to town, on succeed• ing to a legacy of 20001., which had been left him by an uncle, and out of which he immediately relieved himself of his debt to the booksellers. This succession, to one who had been so long accustomed to indigence, appeared an inexhaustible fortune ; but Providence did not permit him to enjoy it, for as he improved in circumstances, he declined in health. The malady into which he sunk, is described by Johnson as a species of insanity ; but this description is afterwards qualified by a more minute detail of its symptoms, from which we are left to con clude, that it was rather nervous debility than mental derangement. 44 His disorder," says the biographer, 44 was not alienation of mind, but general laxity and feebleness, a deficiency rather of his vital than intellec tual powers. What he spoke wanted neither judgment nor spirit ; but a few minutes exhausted him, so that lie was forced to rest upon the couch, till a short cessation restored his powers, and he was again able to talk with his former vigour. The approaches of this dreadful malady he began to feel soon after his uncle's death ; and with the usual eagerness of men so diseased, eagerly snatched that temporary relief with which the table and the bottle flatter and seduce. But his health continually declined, and he grew more and more burthensome to himself." When Collins perceived this partial failure of his faculties, for a consciousness of his case seems to have been its most distressing effect, he was advised to travel, that he might divert his mind from pondering oh its own decay. He therefore went to France, but as the experiment did not succeed, he speedily returned, and was for some time confined in a madhouse. He after wards put himself under the care of a sister in Chiches ter, where he died at the early age of 36. It is pleasing to learn from his illustrious friend, that, amid all his afflictions, no fretfulness of spirit impelled him to abandon the endeavour of soothing them by religion. When Johnson visited him on his return from France, and found a New Testament in his hand, " I have only one book," said Collins, " but that is the best." He was buried in the cathedral of Chichester.