ties_, all I can presume to say is, I have done the best
I could to improve them.

"As to _Good manners_, I desire no favor, if any just objection lies
against them.

"As for _Service_, I have been near seven years in his Majesty's and
never omitted any duty in it, which few can say.

"As for _Age_, I am turned of fifty.

"As for _Want_, I have no manner of preferment.

"As for _Sufferings_, I have lost 300 pounds per ann. by being in his
Majesty's service; as I have shown in a _Representation_ which his
Majesty has been so good as to read and consider.

"As for _Zeal_, I have written nothing without showing my duty to
their Majesties, and some pieces are dedicated to them.

"This, madam, is the short and true state of my case. They that make
their court to the ministers, and not their Majesties, succeed
better. If my case deserves some consideration, and you can serve me
in it, I humbly hope and believe you will: I shall, therefore,
trouble you no farther; but beg leave to subscribe myself, with
truest respect and gratitude,

"Yours, etc.,
EDWARD YOUNG.

"P.S. I have some hope that my Lord Townshend is my friend; if
therefore soon, and before he leaves the court, you had an
opportunity of mentioning me, with that favor you have been so good
to show, I think it would not fail of success; and, if not, I shall
owe you more than any."--"Suffolk Letters," vol. i. p. 285.

Young's wife died in 1741, leaving him one son, born in 1733. That he
had attached himself strongly to her two daughters by her former
marriage, there is better evidence in the report, mentioned by Mrs.
Montagu, of his practical kindness and liberality to the younger, than in
his lamentations over the elder as the "Narcissa" of the "Night
Thoughts." "Narcissa" had died in 1735, shortly after marriage to Mr.
Temple, the son of Lord Palmerston; and Mr. Temple himself, after a
second marriage, died in 1740, a year before Lady Elizabeth Young.
These, then, are the three deaths supposed to have inspired "The
Complaint," which forms the three first books of the "Night Thoughts:"

"Insatiate archer, could not one suffice?
Thy shaft flew thrice: and thrice my peace was slain:
And thrice, ere thrice yon moon had fill'd her hor