Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/92

82 of York. While he was at the univerſity, before he went into orders, he wrote the Anatomy of Atheiſm, a Poem, dedicated to Sir George Darcy Bart, printed in the year 1701, 8 vo.

The deſign of this piece, as his lordſhip declares in the preface, ‘is to expoſe the folly of thoſe men, who are arrived at that pitch of impudence and prophaneneſs, that they think it a piece of wit to deny the Being of a God, and to laugh at that which they cannot argue againſt.’ Such characters are well deſcribed in the following lines,

This prelate is ſaid to have united the gentleman, and the divine, which both ſhone out with equal luſtre in him. He was eſteemed in his time a very popular preacher; his piety was great, and conſpicuous; his charity and benevolence equalled by few, and his good nature, and humanity the moſt extenſive.

Our author died in the 53d year of his age, April 30, 1724. We have no account of any other of his grace’s poetical works, probably the buſineſs