Men of mark 'twixt Tyne and Tweed . he numbers came. And now the time arrived when the hopes of his friends, and theyearnings of his own ambition, were to be gratified. He was in hiseighteenth year, and must go to college. Akenside the elder wasonly a small tradesman (a brother at Eachwick had paid youngMarks education hitherto), and the expense of a collegiate course was MARK AKENSIDE. 29 beyond his means. But some members of the dissenting congrega-tion (removed in the meantime from Close Gate to Hanover Square)were wealthy; there was a fund for training pious youths to beministers ; and, be
Men of mark 'twixt Tyne and Tweed . he numbers came. And now the time arrived when the hopes of his friends, and theyearnings of his own ambition, were to be gratified. He was in hiseighteenth year, and must go to college. Akenside the elder wasonly a small tradesman (a brother at Eachwick had paid youngMarks education hitherto), and the expense of a collegiate course was MARK AKENSIDE. 29 beyond his means. But some members of the dissenting congrega-tion (removed in the meantime from Close Gate to Hanover Square)were wealthy; there was a fund for training pious youths to beministers ; and, believing that Mark Akenside, junior, would be anornament to Nonconformity, they provided what his father lacked,and sent him to Edinburgh University to qualify himself for thePresbyterian ministry. Before he had been there many weeks hediscovered his mistake. The restraints of a pulpit were not for had begun to climb Parnassus, and could not encumber himselfwith the small-clothes of theology nor wear the fetters of the AKENSIDES BIRTHlLACE, NEWCASTLE, 1S20. For one term only did he pursue the course of study marked out forhim. Then he repaid his fathers friends their generous loan, andentered himself as a medical student. In the study of medicine, however, Akenside made less progressthan his friends desired. His ambition soared away beyond bothpoetry and physic. He looked forward to a political career and aseat in Parliament. With this object he took a leading part in thediscussions of the Edinburgh Medical Society, and in the opinionof Dugald Stewart, one of his fellow-students, was eminently 30 MARK AKENSIDE. distinguished by the eloquence which he displayed in the course ofthe debates. But, as he himself sung in later years— The figured brass, the choral song,The rescued peoples glad applause,The listening senate, and the lawsFixed by the counsels of Timoleons scenes too grand for fortunes private ways. And, as time went on, his ideas became more p
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