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/360

 ARMSTRONG. forces then going to the Weft Indies. The " Art of pre- " ferving Health," his beft performance, which was publifhed in 1744, and which will tranfmit his name to potterity as one of the firft Englifh writers, has been honoured with the follo'Aing teftimony of a refpe&able critic : " To defcribe fo " where he hath given us that pathetic account of the fweat- " ing ficknefs. There is a claflical corredtnefs and clofe- " nefs of ftyle in this poem that are truly admirable, and the <c fubjeft is raifed and adorned by numberlefs poetical of the phyficians to the Hofpital for Lame and Sick Soldiers, behind Buckingham Houfe. In 1751 he publifhed his poem " on Benevolence," in folio; and in 1753, " Tafte, an " Epiftle to a young Critic." In this year an elegant ode was addrefied to him by Dr. Theobald. In 1758 appeared " Sketches, or Eflas on various fubjets, by Launcelot ct Temple, efq; in two parts." In this production above- mentioned, which poflefies much humour and knowledge of the world, and which had a remarkably rapid fale, he is fup- pofed to have been aflifted by Mr. Wilkes. In 1760 he had the honour of being appointed phyfician to the army in Ger- many ; where, in 1761, he wrote a poem called *' Day, an " Epiftle to John Wilke?, of Aylefbury, efq." In this poem, which is not collected in his works, he wantonly ha- zarded a reflection en Churchill, which drew on him the ferpent-toothed vengeance of that fevereft of fatirifts. It may be here cbferved, that nothing appears fo fatal to the intercourfe of friends as attentions to politics. The cordiality which had fubfifted between Dr. Armftrong and Mr. Wilkes was certainly interrupted, if not diflblved, by thefe means. In 1770 Dr. Armftrong publifhed a collection of " Mifctl- " ferving Health ;" 2. " Of Benevolence, an Epiftle to " J 7S3" 4* " Imitations of Skakefpeare and Spenfcr ;" 5. " I he Univerfal Almanac, by Noureddin Ali " 6, [A] Dr. Warton's " Reflexions on Dr. James Mackenzie's " Hiftory of c Didaftic Poetry," annexed to hisedi- " Health, &c." third editior, Edin- tion of Virgil, ol. I. p. 329, See allb burgh, 1760, p. izj t azS. " The
 * difficult a thing, gracefully and poetically, as the effects of
 * a diftemper on the human body, was referved for Dr.
 * ' Armftrong, who accordingly hath nobly executed it at the
 * end of the third book of his Art of preferring Health,
 * ' images [A]." In ij.,6 Dr. Armftrong was appointed one
 * c lanies" in two volumes; containing, i. " The Art of pre-
 * ' Eumcnes " 3. " Tafte, an Epiftle to a young Critic,