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OF

DR. DARWIN,

CHIEFLY DURING HIS RESIDENCE AT LICHFIELD,

WITH

ANECDOTES OF HIS FRIENDS,

AND

CRITICISMS ON HIS WRITINGS.

BY ANNA SEWARD.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR J. JOHNSON, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD,

BY T. BENSLEY, BOLT COURT.

1804.

GENERAL

TO THE

RIGHT HONORABLE

THE EARL OF CARLISLE.

MY LORD,

WHERE hereditary honors, fplendid fortune, and perfonal graces, have fecured, from the firft dawn of youth, the external respect and gratifying attention of the world, it is feldom found that their poffeffor has emulously and fedulously diftilled the fweetness from the claffic fountains. There is no flattery in obServing, that of those rare inftances your LordShip is confpicuously one. Such energetic induftry involves a fuperior claim to eftimation than where it has appeared the only means by which native talent and laudable ambition could have pierced the mists of obfcurity.

You, Sir, have nobly chofen to adorn your rank, inftead of indolently leaning upon it's inherent diftinction, or even fatisfying yourself

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with the acquirement of fenatorial eloquence. Profeffedly a difciple of the Mufes, and on public proof an highly-favored difciple, you must be interested in the life and character of one of the most eminent of your poetic contemporaries.

Hence, my Lord, do I prefume to lay these Memoirs of Dr. Darwin at your feet. From all I hear of Lord Carlifle's virtues, as from all I know of his genius, it is one of my firft wishes for this little Tract, that it may intereft and amufe a tranfient hour of his leifure, and obtain that approbation from him which muft reward biographic integrity, while literary reputation brightens in his fmile.

I have the honor to be, with the moft perfect respect and esteem,

My Lord,

Your Lordship's faithful

and obedient fervant,

ANNA SEWARD.

PREFACE.

IN publishing thefe Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Dr. Darwin, I am conscious of their defects; that they do not form a regular detail of biographical circumstances, even in that moiety of his profeffional existence formed by his residence at Lichfield; while of that which passed at Derby I am qualified to present no more than a merely general view.

My work confifts of the following particulars: the person, the mind, the temper of Dr. Darwin; his powers as a Physician, Philofopher, and Poet; the peculiar traits of his manners; his excellencies and faults; the Petrarchan attachment of his middle life, more happy in it's refult than was that of the Bard of Vauclufe; the beautiful poetic teftimonies of it's fervor, while yet

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