Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 1.djvu/220

 BROOKE. 20 his children, which, from seventeen, were now reduced to two, together with his pecuniary embarrassments, was followed by such a state of mental imbecility as to leave little hope of recovery. However, religion had early been planted in his mind; and though the blossoms for a time appeared to wither, the root lived; and, as he approached his last days, it revived, and like a medicinal balm shed its healing balsam on his wounded heart. He died, Oct. 10, 178s, leaving a son, since dead; and a daughter, the child of his old age. He was in possession of the place of barrack-master of Mullingar at his death. His poetical works were collected in 1778, in four vols. octavo, but printed very incorrectly, and with the addition of some pieces which were not his. In 1792 another edition was published, in Dublin, by his daughter; who procured some memoirs of her father, and prefixed them to the first volume. In this she observes, she found many difficulties, as the greater part of his friends and contem poraries had departed before him. It is to be regretted Miss Brooke could not obtain more correct information, since the narrative is in many points confused and con- tradictory; yet from all it is apparent that Brooke was a man of most amiable character, endowed with the kindest and best feelings of our nature; and, perhaps, few men have produced writings of equal variety, the tendency of all being so uniformly in favour of religious and moral principles; yet truth must admit that there are in these many inconsistencies, which it would be difficult to ex- plain. We cannot reconcile it to our feelings, and it is certainly repugnant to taste and propriety, the bringing together, as it were in the same page, the most awful doctrines of religion and the lighter incidents and humor- ous sketches of vulgar or fashionable life; yet this is fre- quently exhibited in his novels, and remains a sad memorial of the weakaess and frailty of the best minds. As a poet he delights his reader by occasional flights of a vivid imagination; and his first production, ",Uniyersal VOL, I