Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 1.djvu/106

 similar praises on this poem, which was indeed every where read and admired.

In 1741, Armstrong solicited the patronage of Dr Birch, to be appointed physician to the fleet, then about to sail for the West Indies; but he does not seem to have obtained the object of his desire. In 1746, when established in reputation by his Art of Preserving Health, he was appointed one of the physicians to the hospital for lame and sick soldiers behind Buckingham house. In 1751, he published his poem on "Benevolence," in folio, a production which seems to have come from the heart, and contains sentiments which could have been expressed with equal ardour only by one who felt them. His "Taste, an epistle to a young critic," 1753, 4to, is a lively and spirited imitation of Pope, and the first production in which Armstrong began to view men and manners with a splenetic eye.

His next work was less meritorious. It was entitled "Sketches or Essays on various subjects," and appeared under the fictitious name of Lancelot Temple, Esq. The critical examinators of Dr Armstrong's merits allow to this work the credit of exhibiting much humour and knowledge of the world, but find it deformed by a perpetual flow of affectation, a struggle to say smart things, and, above all, a disgusting repetition of vulgar oaths and exclamations forms of expression to which the poet, it seems, was also much addicted in conversation. In some of these sketches, Armstrong is said to have had assistance from the notorious John Wilkes, with whom he lived in habits of intimacy; but it is certain that the contributions of this gentleman cannot have been great, as the work is much inferior to the literary style of the demagogue of Aylesbury, who, whatever might be his moral failings, is allowed to have had a chaste classical taste, and a pure vein of humour.

Armstrong had sufficient professional interest in 1760, to obtain the appointment of physician to the army in Germany. From that country he wrote "Day, a poem," addressed as an Epistle to John Wilkes, Esq. This lively piece, which professes to embody an account of all the proper indulgences, moral and physical, of twenty-four hours, was, it is said, published in an imperfect shape, by some clandestine editor. It was never added to the collected works of Dr Armstrong, till Dr Anderson admitted it into his edition of the British Poets. After the peace of 1763, Dr Armstrong returned to London, and resumed his practice, but with no eager desire of increasing the moderate competency he now enjoyed. He continued after this period rather to amuse than to exert himself in literary productions, chiefly spending his time in the society of men of wit and taste like himself. In 1771, he made a tour into France and Italy, in company with the celebrated Fuseli, who survived him for nearly fifty years, and always spoke highly of Dr Armstrong's amiable character. In Italy he took a tender farewell of his friend Smollett, to whom he was much attached, and who died soon after. On returning home, he published an account of his travels, under the name of Lancelot Temple.

The latter years of Dr Armstrong's life were embittered by one of those quarrels which, arising between persons formerly much attached, are at once the most envenomed, and the most productive of uneasiness to the parties. In his poem of Day, he had asked, among other things,

"What crazy scribbler reigns the present wit?"

which the poet Churchill very properly took to himself, and resented in the following passage in his poem of "The Journey:"

Let them with Armstrong, taking leave of sense, Read musty lectures on Benevolence;