Referring to this period of his life, in conversation with a friend, Mr. Drew said: “I once had a very great desire for the study of astronomy, for I thought it suitable to the genius of my mind, and I think so still; but then-- “Chill penury repressed the noble rage, And froze the genial current of the soul.” Dangers and difficulties I did not fear, while I could bring the powers of my mind to bear upon them, and force myself a passage. To metaphysics I then applied myself, and became what the world and my good friend Doctor Clarke call “a metaphysician.” As he could devote but little time to the acquisition of knowledge, every moment was fully occupied. “Drive thy business--do not let thy business drive thee,” was one of those maxims of Dr. Franklin, to which Mr. Drew adhered; and his example shows that literature may be cultivated, and piety pursued, without prejudice to our worldly interests. “During several years,” he observes, “all my leisure hours were devoted to reading or scribbling; but I do not recollect that it ever interrupted my business, though it frequently broke in upon my rest. On my labor depended my livelihood; literary pursuits were only my amusement. The man who _makes shoes_ is sure of his wages--the man who writes a book is never sure of anything.” Mr. Drew’s first attempts at composition, like those of most young essayists in the paths of literature, were metrical. The earliest known effort of his muse, was a poetical epistle to his sister, and the next an elegy on the death of his brother. These were followed by several short poetical pieces, none of which have been preserved. He left in manuscript a metrical piece containing about 1200 lines, entitled “Reflections on St. Austell Churchyard,” dated August, 1792. It is written in the heroic stanza, and has many excellent couplets, but is too defective in grammar and versification, to endure the test of criticism. The major part is argumentative--not unlike “Pope’s Essay on Man,” upon which, possibly, it was modelled: and several of the arguments tend to prove that the soul is immaterial, and therefore immortal. This poetical composition is apparently the embryo of Mr. Drew’s applauded “Treatise on the Human Soul.” From the year 1792, when this poem was written, until the commencement of his “Essay on the Soul,” in 1798, no particular circumstance of his literary life is on record.