Page:The Poetical Works of Thomas Parnell (1833).djvu/50

2 as I can give of the circumstances in his life which have come down to us, adding a few observations on the poems which he has left. I am afraid that it is now too late to supply by any diligence of inquiry, what the negligence of his contemporaries omitted to record. Had we been permitted to know more, we should certainly not have contemplated a life chequered by vicissitude, or variegated by incident; but we might have derived some information from tracing the line of his studies, and observing the progress of his knowledge; nor would it have been uninteresting to have watched the gradual refinement of his taste, and taken a nearer survey of those social virtues and captivating qualities of mind, which rendered his acquaintance desirable, and secured to him the cordial friendship of Harley and Pope. As it is, we must be content to know that Parnell added the pleasing qualities of a companion, to the elegant invention of the poet.

"When the poet's fame, as Goldsmith says, is increased by time, it is then too late to investigate the peculiarities of his disposition; the dews of the morning are past, and we vainly try to continue the chase by the meridian splendour."

Thomas Parnell was descended from an ancient family that for some centuries had been settled at