Page:The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, Volume 4.djvu/393

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
YOUNG.
389

Such, my good friend, is the account which I have been able to collect of the great Young. That it may be long before any thing like what I have just transcribed be necessary for you, is the sincere wish of,

Dear Sir,
Your greatly obliged Friend,
Herbert Croft, Jun.

Lincoln's Inn,
Sept. 1780.

P. S. This account of Young was seen by you in mamuscript, you know, Sir; and, though I could not prevail on you to make any alterations, you insisted on striking out one passage, because it said, that, if I did not wish you to live long for your sake, I did for the sake of myself and of the world. But this postscript you will not see before the printing of it; and I will say here, in spite of you, how I feel myself honoured and bettered by your friendship: and that, if I do credit to the church, after which I always longed, and for which I am now going to give in exchange the bar, though not at so late a period of life as Young took orders, it will be owing, in no small measure, to my

having