to grow irksome, and the completing of the translation was referred to fome one lefs averfe to labour than himself.

Having thus got rid of an employment to which no perfuafions of his friends, nor profpects of future advantage, could reconcile him, he became, as it were, emancipated from the bondage of puritanical forms and modes of living. Mr. Dyer commenced a man of the world, and with a fober and temperate deliberation refolved on a participation of its pleasures and enjoyments. His company, though he was rather a filent than a talkative man, was courted by many, and he had frequent invitations to dinners, to fuppers, and card-parties. By thefe means he became infenfibly a votary of pleasure, and to juftify this choice, had reasoned himself into a persuasion that, not only in the moral government of the world, but in human manners, through all the changes and fluctuations of fashion and caprice, "whatever is, is right." With this and other opinions equally tending to corrupt his mind, it must be fuppofed that he began to grow indifferent to the ftrict practice of religion, and the event fhewed itself in a gradual declination from the exercises of it, and his eafy compliance with invitations to Sunday evening parties, in which mere converfation was not the chief amufement.

In his discourse he was exceedingly clofe and referved: it was nevertheless to be remarked of him, that he looked upon the reftraints on a life of pleasure with an unapproving eye. He had an exquifite palate, and had improved his relifh for meats and drinks up to fuch a degree of refinement, that he was once found in a fit of melancholy, occafioned by a discovery that he had loft his taste for olives. He was a man of deep reflection, and very able in conversation on moft topics; and after he had determined on his courfe of life, which was, to be of no profeffion, but to become a gentleman at large, living much at the houfes of his friends, he seemed to adopt the fentiments of a man of fashion. In a vifit that he made with a friend to France, he met with a book with the title of "Les Moeurs," with which he was greatly delighted, and at length became fo enamoured of it, and that free and liberal spirit which it manifefts, that, after a conflict with his natural indolence, in which he came off the victor, he formed a refolution to tranflate it into English; but after a small progrefs in the work, the enemy rallied, and defeated him. Cave was his printer, and had worked off only a few fheets when Mr. Dyer's ftock of copy was exhaufted, and his bookfeller found himself reduced to the neceffity of getting the tranflation finished by another hand, which he did, employing for the purpose a Mr. Collyer, the author of "Letters from Felicia to Charlotte," and other innocent and fome useful publications. The tranflation was completed, but upon its being fent abroad, met with a rival one that involved VOL. V.

D

Cave,

Cave, who was interested in the fuccefs of the book, in an advertisement-war, which he was left to conduct as he could.

Dyer's fupport, in the idle way of life he had made choice of, was the produce of a patrimony in the funds, that could not be great; his father, from whom he derived it, having left, befides himfelf, a widow, an elder fon, and a daughter. Johnfon and others, that he might be getting fomething, ftrongly pressed him to write the life of Erafmus; but he could not be induced to undertake it. A work of lefs labour, but lefs worthy of him, he was however prevailed on by Mr. Samuel Sharp, the furgeon, to engage in this was a revifion of the old tranflation of Plutarch's lives by feveral hands. He undertook, and, with heavy complaints of the labour of his task, completed it, and had for his reward from Mr. Draper, the partner of Mr. Tonfon, whom Mr. Sharp had folicited to find fome employment for him, the fum of two hundred pounds.

:

While he was a member of the club, Johnfon fufpected that his religious principles, for which at first he honoured him, were giving way, and it was whispered by one who feemed pleased that he was in the fecret, that Mr. Dyer's religion was that of Socrates. What further advances he made in Theifm are not known: he is faid to have denied, in the philofophical sense of the term, the freedom of the human will, and fettled in materialism and its confequent tenets.

As all his determinations were flow and deliberate, and seemed to be the refult of reafon and reflection, the change in his principles and conduct here noted was gradual. Of this the first fymptoms were an imbecility to refift any temptation abroad on a Sunday evening, that fhould eafe him of the trouble of fuch exercifes as he had been accustomed to perform in the family of his mother, and an eager curiofity in the perufal of books not merely of entertainment, but of fuch, as together with a knowledge of the world, furnished his mind with fuch palliatives of vice as made him half a convert to it.

While his mind was in this ftate of trepidation, a young gentleman who had been a fellow-fludent with him at Leyden, arrived in England, difordered in his health, of whom and whofe converfation he became fo enamoured, that to entertain him while he was feeking the recovery of it, Dyer was almoft loft to all the rest of his friends. To thofe with whom he was moft intimate, he would, notwithstanding the clofenefs of his nature, defcribe him and difplay his attractions, which as he reprefented them, were learning, wit, politenefs, elegance, particularly in the article of dress; free and open manners, a genteel figure, and other perfonal charms, that rendered him the delight of the female fex. It was a It was a queftion that fome of thofe with whom he was thus open would frequently afk him, "What are the most of thefe qualifications to you, Mr.

Dyer,

Dyer, who are a man of a different character? You who know the value of wifdom, and have a mind fraught with knowledge, which you are capable of applying to many beneficial purposes, can never be emulous of thofe diftinctions which difcriminate a man of pleasure from a philofopher:" his anfwers to which ferved only to fhew that his judgment was corrupted: the habitation of his friend, whom he thus vifited, was a brothel, and his difeafe fuch as thofe feldom efcape who frequent houfes of lewd refort. The folicitude which the females in that place fhewed for the recovery of his friend, their clofe attendance on him, and affiduity in administering to him his medicines, and fupplying all his wants, he attributed to genuine love; and feemed almoft to envy in him that power which could intereft fo many young perfons of the other fex in the restoration of his health.

What effect thefe vifits, and the blandifhments to which, as often as he made them, he was a witnefs, had upon Dyer, we know not, fave that to defeat the enchantments of these fyrens he practifed none of the arts of Ulyffes: on the contrary, they feemed to have wrought in him an opinion, that thofe miftook their intereft, and fhewed their ignorance of human life, who abflained from any pleasure that disturbed not the quiet of families or the order of fociety; that natural appetites required gratification, and were not to be difmiffed without it; that the indulgence of the irafcible paffions alone was vice; and that to live in peace with all mankind, and in a temper to do good offices, was the most effential part of our duty.

Having admitted thefe principles into his mind, he fettled into a fober fenfualift; in a perfect confiftency with which character he was content to eat the bread of idlenefs, laying himself open to the invitations of those that kept the best tables, and contracting intimacies with men not only of oppofite parties, but with fome who feemed to have abandoned all principle, whether religious, political, or moral. The houfes of many fuch in fucceffion were his home; and for the gratifications of a well-fpread table, choice wines, variety of company, card-parties, and a participation in all domestic amusements and recreations, the owners thought themfelves recompenfed by his converfation and the readiness with which he accommodated himself to all about him. Nor was he ever at a loss for reasons to justify this abuse of his parts or walte of his time he looked upon the practice of the world as the rule of life, and thought it did not become an individual to refift it.

By the death of his mother, his brother, and fifter, all of whom he furvived, he became poffelfed of about 8000l. in the funds, which, as he was an economist and inclined to no extravagance, it seemed highly improbable he would ever be tempted to diffipate; but he had contracted a fatal antimacy with fome perfons of defperate fortunes, who were dealers in India flock, at a time when the affairs

Ꭰ ?

of

of the company were in a state of fluctuation; and though, from his indolent and abstracted temper of mind and ignorance of bufinefs, the laft man to be fufpected of yielding to fuch delufions, he first invested all he had in that precarious fund, and next became a candidate for the office of a director of the company, but failed in that attempt. After this, he entered into engagements for the purchase or fale of ftock, and by violating them, made shipwreck of his honour. Laftly, he made other contracts of the like kind, to the performance whereof he was strictly bound: thefe turned out against him, and swallowed the whole of his fortune. About the time of this event, he was feized with a quinfey; which he was affured was mortal; but whether he refigned himfelf to the flow operation of that difeafe, or precipitated his end by an act of self-violence, was, and yet is, a question among his friends. He left not in money or effects fufficient to defray the expence of a decent funeral, and the laft office of humanity towards him was performed by one of thofe who had been acceffary to his ruin. portrait of him was painted by Sir Jothua Reynolds, and from it a mezzotinto was fcraped, the print whereof, as he was little known, fold only to his friends; a fingular ufe was made of it: Bell, the publisher of the English poets, caufed an engraving to be made from it, and prefixed it to the poems of Mr. John Dyer.

A

DYER (Sir JAMES), an eminent English lawyer, and chief juftice of the Common-Pleas, in the reign of queen Elizabeth, was defcended from a gentleman's family in Somerfetshire, and born at Roundhill in that county about 1511. He received part of his education at Broadgate-Hall in Oxford, where he was entered a gentleman-commoner; and removed from thence without taking a degree, as being intended for the ftudy of the law, to the Middle Temple, London. In that fociety he foon diftinguished himself, as well by the quickness of his parts, as by his extreme diligence in his profeffion; and, after having continued for fome time in the degree of barrifter, he was elected fummer-reader of that house in the 6th of Edward VI. By the king's writ in May 1552, he was called to the degree of a ferjeant at law; and was fpeaker of the House of Commons in the parliament which met in March the fame year. Oct. 1553, he was made one of the queen's ferjeants at law; in which station he affifted at the trial of Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, for high-treafon, at Guildhall, in April 1554; but it is faid that he took little or no fhare in the affair. May 1556, being then a knight and recorder of Cambridge, as well as a queen's ferjeant, he was made one of the juftices of the Common-Pleas. April 1557, he was removed to the King's Bench, and fat as a puifne judge there during the remainder of Mary's reign. Nov. 1559, when Elizabeth had afcended the throne, he was again made one of the judges of the Common-Pleas; and,

Jan.

DYER-(John).

Jan. following, became chief juftice thereof.

29

He continued in

it without the least diminution either of his own reputation or of the queen's favour twenty-four years, which is longer than any have fat in that poft either before or fince. He died at Stanton in Huntingdonshire, where he had purchased an eftate, March 24, 1581, in his 70th year. He married a daughter of Sir Maurice Abarrow, of Hampshire, who died twelve years before him, without having any children; fo that his eftate went to a nephew, whose descendant was raised to the degree of a baronet in 1627: but this title is now extinct.

He was the author of a large book of Reports, which were published about twenty years after his decease, and have been highly esteemed for their fuccinctnefs and folidity. He left behind him alfo other writings relative to his profeffion, as, "A Reading upon the ftatute of 32 Hen. VIII. cap. 1. of wills; and upon the 34th and 35th Hen. VIII. cap. 5. for the explanation of the ftatute," printed at London in 1648, 4to.

DYER (JOHN), an English poet, was born in 1700, the second fon of Robert Dyer, of Aberglafney in Caermarthenshire, a folicitor of great capacity and note. He paffed through WestminsterSchool under the care of Dr. Freind, and was then called home to be inftructed in his father's profeffion. His genius, however, led him a different way: for, befides his early tafte for poetry, having a paffion no lefs ftrong for the arts of defign, he determined to make painting his profeffion. With this view, having ftudied awhile under his matter, he became, as he tells his friend, an itinerant painter, and wandered about South Wales and the parts adjacent; and about 1727 printed "Grongar Hill." Being, probably, unfatisfied with his own proficiency, he made the tour of Italy; and spent whole days in the country about Rome and Florence, fketching thofe picturesque profpects with facility and fpirit. On his return to England, he publifhed the "Ruins of Rome," 1740; and being rather ferious, and his conduct and behaviour always irreproachable, he was ordained by the bishop of Lincoln; and had a law degree conferred on him.

About the fame time he married a lady of Coleshill, named Enfor; "whofe grandmother," fays he, "was a Shakspeare, defcended from a brother of every body's Shakspeare." His first patron, Mr. Harper, gave him, in 1741, Calthorp in LeicesterThire, of eighty pounds a year, on which he lived ten years; and, in April 1757, exchanged it for Belchford in Lincolnthire, of feventy-five, which was given him by lord-chancellor Hardwicke, on the recommendation of a friend to Virtue and the Mufes. In 1752, Sir John Heathcote gave him Coningby, of one hundred and forty pounds a year; and in 1756, when he was L. L. B. without any folicitation of his own, obtained for him from the chan

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