in his hand, to inquire for him, and to bid
him welcome; and, as may be inferred from Pope's dedication, admitted
him as a favourite companion to his convivial hours, but, as it seems
often to have happened in those times to the favourites of the great,
without attention to his fortune, which, however, was in no great need
of improvement.

Parnell, who did not want ambition or vanity, was desirous to make
himself conspicuous, and to show how worthy he was of high preferment.
As he thought himself qualified to become a popular preacher, he
displayed his elocution with great success in the pulpits of London;
but the Queen's death putting an end to his expectations, abated his
diligence; and Pope represents him as falling from that time into
intemperance of wine. That in his latter life he was too much a lover of
the bottle, is not denied; but I have heard it imputed to a cause more
likely to obtain forgiveness from mankind, the untimely death of a
darling son; or, as others tell, the loss of his wife, who died (1712)
in the midst of his expectations.

He was now to derive every future addition to his preferments from
his personal interest with his private friends, and he was not long
unregarded. He was warmly recommended by Swift to Archbishop King,
who gave him a prebend in 1713; and in May, 1716, presented him to the
vicarage of Finglass, in the diocese of Dublin, worth 400 pounds a year.
Such notice from such a man inclines me to believe that the vice of
which he has been accused was not gross or not notorious.

But his prosperity did not last long. His end, whatever was its cause,
was now approaching. He enjoyed his preferment little more than a year;
for in July, 1717, in his thirty-eighth year, he died at Chester on his
way to Ireland.

He seems to have been one of those poets who take delight in writing. He
contributed to the papers of that time, and probably published more than
he owned. He left many compositions behind him, of which Pope selected
those which he thought best, and dedicated them to the Earl of Oxford.
Of these Goldsmith has given an opinion, and his criticism it is seldom
safe to contradict. He bestows just praise upon "The Rise of Woman,"
"The Fairy Tale," and "The Pervigilium Veneris;" but has very properly
remarked that in "The Battle of Mice and Frogs" the Greek names have
not in English their original effect. He tells us that "The Bookworm" is
borrowed from Beza; but he should have added w