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On the Left Hand.

G. S.

Ex Equeftri Familia Stepneiorum,
De Pendegraft, in Comitatu
Pembrochienfi oriundus,
Weftmonafterii natus eft, A. D. 1663,
Electus in Collegium

Sancti Petri Weftmonaft. A. 1676.
San&ti Trinitatis Cantab. 1682.
Confiliariorum quibus Commercii
Cura commilla eft 1697.
Chelfeia mortuus, &, comitantę
Magna Procerum

Frequentia, huc elatus, 1707.

It is reported that the juvenile compofitions of Stepney made grey authors blufh. I know not whether his poems will appear fuch wonders to the prefent agc. One cannot always eafily find the reafon for which the world has fometimes confpired to fquander praife. It is not very unlikely that he wrote very early as well as he ever wrote; and the performances of youth have many favourers, because the authors yet lay no claim to publick honours, and are therefore not confidered as rivals by the diftributors of fame.

He apparently profelfed himself a poet, and added his name to thofe of the other wits in the version of Juvenal; but he is a very licentious tranflator, and does not recompenfe his neglect of the author by beauties of his own. In his original poems, now and then, a happy line

may perhaps

be found, and now and then a fhort composition may give pleasure. But there is, in the whole, little either of the grace of wit, or the vigour of na

ture.

J. PHI

J. PHILIP S

J

OHN PHILIPS was born on the 30th of December, 1676, at Bampton in Oxfordfhire; of which place his father Dr. Stephen Philips, archdeacon of Salop, was minifter. The first part of his education was domeftick, after which he was fent to Winchester, where, as we are told by Dr. Sewel, his biographer, he was foon diftinguished by the fuperiority of his exercifes; and, what is lefs eafily to be credited, fo much endeared himself to his fchoolfellows, by his civility and good-nature, that they, without murmur or ill-will, faw him indulged by the mafter with particular immunities. It is related, that when he was at fchool, he feldom mingled in play with the other boys, but retired to his chamber; where his fovereign pleafure was to fit, hour afterhour, while his hair was combed by fomebody, whose fervice he found means to procure *.

At

Ifaac Voffius relates that he alfo delighted in having his hair combed when he could have it done by barbers or other perfons

fkilled

At fchool he became acquainted with the poets ancient and modern, and fixed his attention particularly on Milton.

In 1694 he entered himself at Chrift-church; a college at that time in the highest reputation, by the tranfmiffion of Buíby's fcholars to the care first of Fell, and afterwards of Aldrich. Here he was diftinguished as a genius cininent among the eminent, and for friendfhip particularly intimate with Mr. Smith, the author of Phedra and Hippolytus. The profeffion which he intended to follow was that of Parfick; and he took much delight in natural hiftory, which botany was his favourite part.

His reputation was confined to 1.1s friends and to the univerfity; till about 1703 he extended it to a wider circle by the Splendid Shilling, which ftruck the publick attention with a mode of writing new and unexpected.

This performance raised him fo high, that when Europe refounded with the victory of Blenheim, he was, probably with an occult oppofition to Addison, employed to deliver the acclamation of the Tories. It is faid that he would willingly have declined the task,

filled in the rules of profody. Of the paffage that contains this ridiculous fancy, the following is a tranflation: "Many people take delight in the rubbing of their limbs, and the combing of "their hair, but thefe exercifes would delight much more, if the fervants at the baths, and of the barbers, were so skilful in this art, "that they could exprefs any meafures with their fingers. I re"member that more than once I have fallen into the hands of men "of this fort, who could imitate any measure of fongs in combing "the hair, fo as fometimes to exprefs very intelligibly Iambics, Tro "chees, Dactyls, &c. from whence there arose to me no small de"light." See his Treatife De Poematum cantu & viribus Rythmi, Oxon. 1673, p. 62.

but

but that his friends urged it upon him. It appears that he wrote this poem at the house of Mr. St. John.

Blenheim was published in 1705. The next year produced his greateft work, the poem upon Cider, in two books; which was received with loud praises, and continued long to be read, as an imitation of Virgil's Georgic, which needed not fhun the prefence of the original.

He then grew probably more confident of his own abilities, and began to meditate a poem on the Last day; a fubject on which no mind can hope to equal expectation.

This work he did not live to finish; his difeafes, a flow confumption and an asthma, put a stop to his. studies; and on Feb. 15, 1708, at the beginning of his thirty-third year, put an end to his life. He was buried in the cathedral of Hereford; and Sir Simon' Harcourt, afterwards Lord Chancellor, gave him a monument in Westminster Abbey. The infcription at Westminster was written, as I have heard, by Dr. Aiterbury, though commonly given to Dr. Freind. His Epitaph at Hereford:

Voz. IL

JOHANNES PHILIPS
Obiit 15 die Feb. Anno Dom. 1708.

Cujus

Etat, fuæ 32.

Offa fi requiras, hanc Urnam infpice;
Si Ingenium nefcias, ipfius Opera confule;'
Si Tumulum defideras,
Templum adi Westmonafterienfe:
Qualis quantufque Vir fuerit,
Dicat elegans illa & preclara,
Que cenotaphium ibi decorat
Infcriptio.
U

Quem

Quàm interim erga Cognatos pius & officiofus,

Teftetur hoc faxum

A MARIA PHILIPS Matre ipfius pientiffimâ,
Dilecti Filii Memoriæ non fine Lacrymis dicatum.
His Epitaph at Westminster:

Herefordiæ conduntur Offa,
Hoc in Delubro ftatuitur Imago,
Britanniam omnem pervagatur Fama
JOHANNIS PHILIPS:
Qui Viris bonis doctifque juxta clarus,
Immortale fuum Ingenium,

Eruditione multiplici excultum,
Miro animi candore,
Eximia morum fimplicitate,

Honeftavit.

Litterarum Amoniorum fitim,
Quam Wintonia Puer fentire cœperat,
Inter Edis Chrifti Alumnos jugiter explevit,
In illo Mefarum Domicilio

Præclaris Emulorum ftudiis excitatus,
Optimis fcribendi Magiftris femper intentus,
Carmina fermone Patrio compofuit
A Græcis Latinifque fontibus feliciter deducta,
Atticis Romanifque auribus omnino digna,
Verfuum quippe Harmoniam
Rythmo didicerat.

Antiquo illo, libero multiformi

Ad res ipfas apto prorfus, & attemperato, Non numeris in eundem ferè orbem redeuntibus, Non Claufularum fimiliter cadentium fono

Metiri:

Uni in hoe laudis genere Miltono fecundus,
Primoque pone Par.

Res feu Tenues, feu Grandes, feu Mediocres
Ornandas fumferat,

Nufquam, non quod decuit,

Et

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