In 1763, he published "A Song to David," in which there are some passages greatly to be admired, and which, Mr. Editor, as a man of taste, you have introduced to your readers; but there are some to be found of even more majestic animation; and it will surprise the reader when he is told that this piece was composed by him during his confinement; when he was debarred the use of pen, ink, and paper, and was obliged to indent his lines, with the end of a key, upon the wainscot. In the same year he published "Poems," and at the conclusion betrays that irritability and self-conceit which are frequently observed to precede, and generally to accompany, derangement of mind.
In all these poems his imagination, although occasionally fine, went often into wild excesses, and evinced that his mind had never recovered its sober tone. In his intervals of health and regularity, he still continued to write. His "Translation of the Psalms of David" afford a melancholy proof of want of judgment and decay of powers. We find him at length an inmate of the King's Bench prison. Here he died after a short illness, occasioned by a disorder in his liver, May 18th, 1770, leaving two daughters, who, with his widow, were long settled at Reading, and by their prudent management of the bookselling trade, transferred to them by Mr. John Newbery, were enabled to maintain a very respectable rank in life.
Of his personal character, the following particulars yet remain to be added from the memoirs: "His piety was exemplary and fervent; it may not be uninteresting to the reader to be told, that Mr. Smart, in composing the religious poems, was frequently so impressed with the sentiment of devotion, as to write particular passages on his knees. He was friendly, affectionate, and liberal to excess; so as often to give that to others of which he was in the utmost want himself."
In his religious poems on the Supreme Deity, written for the Seatonian prize, the fault was perhaps in the expectation that such subjects can be treated with advantage. In the preface to Pope's Ode to St. Cecilia, he allows that, "the choosing too high subjects has been the ruin of many a tolerable genius;" and Dr. Johnson, with majestic energy, remarks, that "whatever is great, desirable, or tremendous, is comprised in the name of the Supreme Being. Omnipotence cannot be exalted; infinity cannot be amplified; perfection cannot be improved."
Leumas.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] The subjects of these poems were: "The Eternity—the Immensity—the Omniscience—the Power—and the Goodness of the Supreme Being." They were severally published from the year 1750 to 1756.
[B] Mr. Henry Gardner, whom the writer of this note knew well, lived at the corner of Melford Lane, in the Strand. He was a shrewd man, and probably made the contract for ninety-nine years to bind the services of two irregular men.
A CANDID APPEAL TO CONGREGATIONAL CHRISTIANS.
To the Editor of the Baptist Magazine.