THIS eccentric poet and physician was a native of Elton, near Newark, in Nottinghamshire, in December 1731. After going through a school education, under the Rev. Mr. Burrows, at Chesterfield, he was sent to St. John's college, Cambridge, and continued there till he took his bachelor's degree in medicine, when he went to Edinburgh. Having obtained that of doctor, he began his practice at Litchfield. Succeeding in this, he married Miss Howard, the daughter of a respectable inhabitant, and by this lady had three sons, who lived to the age of manhood. In 1781, having married a second wife, he removed to Derby, where he continued to reside till the period of his death, in April 1802, in the seventieth year of his age. His second lady, with six children, were left to lament his loss. To his greatest praise, one of his biographers observes, "The doctor was not famous for holding religious subjects in veneration; but, however sceptical he might have been in his belief, he exhibited in his conduct, what is more beneficial to the world than the tenacious adherence to any speculative opinions-firm integrity and a benevolent heart. Professional generosity distinguished his medical practice. Diligently did he attend to the health of the poor at Litchfield and Derby, supplied their necessities by food and every kind of charitable assistance. In each of these places his was the cheerful board of almost open-housed hospitality, without extravagance or parade, ever deeming the first unjust, the latter unmanly; generosity, wit, and science, were his household gods." The doctor was of an athletic make, much pitted with the small-pox, and stammered considerably in speaking. The uninterrupted state of health which he enjoyed until towards the conclusion of his life, he attributed to his temperate mode of living, particularly to his moderation in the use of fermented liquors. Miss Seward gives him the credit of having introduced habits of sobriety among the trading part of Litchfield: his faculties also remained unimpaired to the last.

Though a votary to the muses, and a contributor to one or the other of the monthly publications, his Botanic Garden, in which he celebrates what he calls Loves of the Plaats, published in 1781, was the first of his poems to which he put his name. This poem was so amply furnished with notes, containing the natural history and property of plants, that it did not seem very inconsistent with his profession, and was for some years extremely popular: but an ingenious little poem, called The Loves of the Triangles, published in a monthly journal, being a happy imitation of the doctor's manner, is thought to have contributed to its parent's decline.

In 1798, Dr. Darwin published the first volume of Zoonomia, or the Laws of Organic Life; and, in 1796, the second. As the eccentric genius of the author was known, great expectations were formed of this work, the labour as it was said of twenty years. Its object was to reform the whole system of medicine, professing to account for the physical constitution of man, animals, and vegetables. In 1804, he published Phytologia, or the Philosophy of Agriculture and Gardening, which excited but little interest; but still less attention was paid to a small tract on Female Education, according to Miss Seward, a meagre work of little general interest, those rules excepted which are laid down for the preservation of health.

Mr. Charles Darwin, who died at Edinburgh in May 1778, had a gold medal assigned to him for discovering a test to distinguish pus from mucus. Mr. Darwin left an unfinished Essay on the retrograde motion of the absorbent vessels of animal bodies; which his father published some time after, with the Dissertation, for which his son had obtained the prize-medal before mentioned.

THE celebrated author of "The Constitution of England," JOHN LOUIS DE LOLME, was born at Geneva, about the year 1745, of respectable parents. He received a liberal education, and embraced the profession of the law; but did not practise long, before he formed the resolution of quitting his country. The English government, in particular, excited his curiosity, and he was anxious to witness its operations, in order to become acquainted with its principles. About 1772, he first appeared as an author here, having published a tract under the title of "A Parallel between the English Constitution and the former Government of Sweden; containing some Observations on the late Revolution in that Kingdom, and an Examination of the Causes that secure us against both Aristocracy and absolute Monarchy."

He soon after commenced his celebrated work on the English Constitution, which established his literary and political fame; and, making its first appearance in the French language, was applauded as a very ingenious and spirited performance, combining originality of thought with a justness of remark and perspicuity of expression. A translation of it being earnestly desired, the author enlarged and improved it, and published the first English edition of it in June 1775. As to the merits of this work, it is sufficient to say, that its authority has been frequently quoted by some of the first characters in this country both in and out of the senate.

Being an enemy to superstition, he ridiculed its absurdities in his "History of the Flagellants; or, Memorials of Human Superstition," partly borrowed from the Abbé Boileau. It being in agitation to republish "De Foe's History of the Legislative Union between England and Scotland," in 1787, Mr. De Lolme wrote a judicious Essay, calculated for an introduction to that work. In the following year, he published "Observations relative to the Tax upon Window-Lights, the Shop-Tax, and the Impost upon Hawkers and Pedlars." He condemned the first in toto, reprobated the second as a tax upon the very reverse of property, and the third he disapproved of as injurious and oppressive. Upon the Question of the Regency, in 1789, he presented to the public some "Observations upon the National Embarrassment, and the Proceedings in Parliament relative to the same."

There cannot be the least doubt, that Mr. De Lolme deserved a greater degree of patronage than he appeared to have received; and, if a pension had been conferred upon him, the giver and the receiver would have been equally honoured. The works above mentioned are all to which the name of De Lolme has been appended; but, as he remained in England till within five years of his death, and as his appearance and mode of living, though retired, were always respectable, there is no doubt that literature formed a part of his employment. Though never perfectly divested of a foreign accent, his conversation was not only pleasing, but generally instructive; and, if the graces did not appear in his manners or deportment, he had a turn for pleasantry and humour, and has been compared with Burke for the felicity of his illustrations. Whether he really felt the pressure of absolute penury whilst in England, may be doubted; however, in his mode of living he could imitate the temperance and self-denial of a philosopher. His perception was acute, and his mind vigorous; and he bore the character of a man of probity and of an independent mind. He died in Switzerland, in 1806, in the neighbourhood of the Richterberg, in one of the houses which about six weeks after was swept away by the fall of part of that mountain.

DRYDEN.

JOHN DRYDEN, universally esteemed one of our chief poets, was born on the 9th of August 1631, at Aldwincle, in Northamptonshire. His father, Erasmus, was third son of sir Erasmus Dryden, bart. of Canons Ashby, in the same county. He was brought up at Westminster, under the celebrated Dr. Busby; and, in 1650, became a student of Trinity college, Cambridge. He had, at school, distinguished himself by some promising verses; and, on the death of Cromwell, in 1658, he ventured to publish his Heroic Stanzas on the occasion. Two years afterwards he celebrated the happy Restoration of Charles II. This was changing sides, it is true; but the poet's inconstancy was sanctioned by that of the nation. In 1663, he commenced dramatic writer; and kept possession of the stage for many years. The number of his plays is twenty-seven, of which few are ever performed. It is not, in these productions, that we must look for the genius of Dryden. Yet, from the multifarious mass may the patient refiner extract much of the most precious metal. His prefaces comprehend a fine system of dramatic criticism. Absalom and Achitophel, which appeared in 1681, has been esteemed the best political satire ever written. In 1682, he produced his Religio Laici; a curious poem, against deists, papists, and presbyterians. On the death of Charles II. to whom he had been appointed poet-laureat, he wrote his Threnodia Augustalis; and, to the astonishment of every body, at the accession of James II. turned Roman catholic. Some apology was necessary; and, in 1687, he published his Hind and Panther, which represents the Romish church as the pure, and the church of England as the spotted animal. At the Revolution, in 1688, he was accordingly dismissed from the laureatship; but the earl of Dorset, greatly to his honour, continued to pay him the usual pension.

There are, perhaps, few great poets wholly untinctured with what is called superstition; Dryden, in particular, is well known to have believed even in judicial astrology, and to have cast the nativities of his children. All this, by the philosopher, is deemed imbecility of mind; yet the faculties of Dryden by no means appeared wanting in vigour. He produced, at the age of sixty-six, his celebrated translation of Virgil; which was followed, the next year, by what are denominated his Fables, including that charming Ode for St. Cecilia's Day, "which has always been considered," says Dr. Johnson, "as exhibiting the highest flight of fancy, and the exactest nicety of art."

In March and April 1700, he was confined by a fit of the gout, with which disease, as well as the gravel, he had for years been occasionally tormented; and, near the close of the latter month, having neglected an inflammation caused by the growing of his toe nail under the flesh, a mortification took place, for which immediate amputation of the limb was recommended. He observed, however, that as he had, by the course of nature, few years to live, he would not attempt to prolong an uncomfortable existence by a painful and uncertain experiment, but patiently, submit to death; which he did, with an astonishing and pious composure, Wednesday morning, May 1, 1700. He was interred in Westminster-abbey; where a monument was erected over his remains, by Sheffield, duke of Buckingham. He was survived by his widow, lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter of the earl of Berkshire: as well as by their three sons; Charles, John, and Erasmus Henry. The latter succeeded to the title of baronet, on the death of sir John Dryden.

Congreve, who knew Dryden well, represents his moral character as in all respects not only blameless, but amiable; and as to his writings, he says, "no man hath written, in our language, so much, and so various matter, and in so various manners, so well."