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 BOYSE 185 charity, without having any one to participate the regale with him, and while his wife and children were starving at home." If this anecdote be fact, it is altogether so disgusting and of so hearless a nature, that we rejoice while we write that we believe it to be unequalled in the annals of depravity About the year 1738 he published a second volume of poems, but with what success is not known; and, as he did not put his name to this volume, his biographer has not been able to find any mention of it. In the year 1740 he was reduced to the lowest state of poverty, having no clothes left in which he could appear abroad; and what bare subsistence he procured was by writing occasional poems for the magazines. Of the disposition of his appa- rel, Mr. Nichols received from Dr, Johnson, who knevw him well, the following account: He used to pawn what he had of this, sort, and it was no sooner redeemed by his friends, than pawned again. On one occasion Dr. John- son collected a sum of money for this purpose, (" the sum, (said Johnson) was collected by sixpences, at a time when to me sixpence was a serious consideration;") and in two days the clothes were pawned again. In this state he remained in bed, with no other covering than a blanket, with two holes, through which he passed his arms when he sat up to write. The author of his life, in Cibber, adds, that when his distresses were so pressing as to induce him to dispose of his shirt, he used to cut some white paper in slips, which he tied round his wrists, and in the same manner supplied his neck. In this plight he frequently appeared abroad, while his other apparel was scarcely sufficient for the purposes of decency While in this wretched state, he published "The Deity," a poem, which was highly praised by some of the best eritics of the age. Among those whose praise was of con- siderable value, Hervey introduced the mention of it in his Meditations, "as a beautiful and instructive poem;" and Fielding, in his Tom Jones, after extracting a few lines,