t he and Young used to
"communicate to each other whatever verses they wrote, even to the least
things."

In 1719 appeared a "Paraphrase on Part of the Book of Job." Parker,
to whom it is dedicated, had not long, by means of the seals, been
qualified for a patron. Of this work the author's opinion may be known
from his letter to Curll: "You seem, in the Collection you propose, to
have omitted what I think may claim the first place in it; I mean 'a
Translation from part of Job,' printed by Mr. Tonson." The Dedication,
which was only suffered to appear in Mr. Tonson's edition, while it
speaks with satisfaction of his present retirement, seems to make an
unusual struggle to escape from retirement. But every one who sings in
the dark does not sing from joy. It is addressed, in no common strain
of flattery, to a chancellor, of whom he clearly appears to have had no
kind of knowledge.

Of his Satires it would not have been possible to fix the dates without
the assistance of first editions, which, as you had occasion to observe
in your account of Dryden, are with difficulty found. We must then have
referred to the poems, to discover when they were written. For these
internal notes of time we should not have referred in vain. The first
Satire laments, that "Guilt's chief foe in Addison is fled." The second,
addressing himself, asks:--

"Is thy ambition sweating for a rhyme,
Thou unambitious fool, at this late time?
A fool at FORTY is a fool indeed."

The Satires were originally published separately in folio, under the
title of "The Universal Passion." These passages fix the appearance of
the first to about 1725, the time at which it came out. As Young seldom
suffered his pen to dry after he had once dipped it in poetry, we
may conclude that he began his Satires soon after he had written the
"Paraphrase on Job." The last Satire was certainly finished in the
beginning of the year 1726. In December, 1725, the King, in his passage
from Helvoetsluys, escaped with great difficulty from a storm by
landing at Rye; and the conclusion of the Satire turns the escape into a
miracle, in such an encomiastic strain of compliment as poetry too often
seeks to pay to royalty. From the sixth of these poems we learn,

"'Midst empire's charms, how Carolina's heart
Glowed with the love of virtue and of art."

Since the grateful poet tells us, in the next couplet,

"Her favour is diffused to that degree,