Page:A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation v1.djvu/154

 5.,2 A 1 N S W O R T H,

Dum fns, mortalis, fapias, & refpice finem : -Hoc fuadViit Mane?, hoc canit Amramides. To thy refiedtion, mortal friend, Th' advice of Mofes I comrt':nd : Be wi!e and mtditate thy end. AKENSIDE (MARK), a phyfician, who hath publifned in Latin a treatife upon "theDyfentry," in 1764, and a few pieces in the firft volume of the 4i Medical Tranfaclions" of the College of Phyficians, printed in 1768 [A] ; but far better known, and to be diftinguifhed only hereafter, as a poet. He was born at Newcaltle upon T)ne, November 9, 1721; Advenife- educated at the grammar-fchcol in Newcaftle, then fent to poems' ' S the univerfities of Edinburgh and Leyden ; and took his de- gree of doctor in phylic at the latter. He was afterwards ad- mitted by mandamus to the fame degree at Cambridge ; elect- ed a fellow of the College of Phyficians, and one of the phy- fjcians at St. Thomas's Hofpital ; and, upr>n the eftablifii- ment of the Queen's houfehold, appointed one of the phyfi- cians to her Majefty. He died of a putrid fever, June 23, 1770; and is buried in the pariah church of St. James's, Weffminfter. His poems, pubiiihcd focn after his death in 410 and 8vo, confift of " The Pleafures of Im^in.irion," two books of " Odes," a " Hymn to the Naiads," and fome " Infcriptions." '* The Pleafures of Imagination," his capital work, was firft published in 1744; and a very ex- Ibid. traordinary production it was from a man who had not reached his 23d year. [J e was afterwaids fenlible, how- ever, that it wanted revifion and correction, and he went or; revifing and correcting it for lEver.il years; but finding this tafk to grow upon his hands, and defpairing of ever executing it to his own fatisfadlion, he abandoned the purpofe of cor- recting, and rciblvcd to write the p;x-:ti over anew upon 3 fomewhat different and enlarged phn. Ke finithed two books of his new poem, a few copies of which were printed for the ufe of the author and certain friends ; of the farft book in I 757t f tnc fecond in 1/65. He finiftied alfo a good pa;t of a third book, and an introduction to a fourth ; but his moft inuntf.oent and excellent friend, conceiving all that is exe- cuted of the new work, too inconfiderable to fupply the place, [A] Thefe pieces arr, I, " Obferva- alfo, when he commenced doflor of ' tions upon. Cancers." 2. " Of ihe ph)'. r .c, " DifTettatjonesi Inauguralem " life ot Ipecacnanha in Afthmas." " de ortu et incrcmcnto faetii; humani." 3. ' A method of treating white 1'weII- Leida?, 1744. " ings in the joints/' He fubiiflied aal