and though he often fuffered his friends to call him off from his retirements, and to lengthen out those jovial avocations, yet his return to his ftudies was fo much the more

paffionate, and his intention upon thofe refined pleasures of reading and thinking fo vehement (to which his facetious and unbended intervals bore no proportion) that the habit grew upon him, and the series of meditation and reflection being kept up whole weeks together, he could better fort his ideas, and take in the fundry parts of a science at one view,, without interruption or confufion. Some indeed of his acquaint→ ance, who were pleafed to diftinguish between the wit and the fcholar, extolled him altogether on the account of the first of thefe titles; but others, who knew him better, could not forbear doing him juftice as a prodigy in both kinds. He had signalized himself in the schools, as a philofopher and polemick of extensive knowledge and deep penetration; and went through all the courses with a wife regard to the dignity and importance of each fcience. I remember him in the Divinity-fcool refponding and difputing with a perfpicuous energy, a ready exactnefs, and commanding force

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of argument, when Dr. Jane worthily prefided in the chair whofe condefcending and difinterested commendation of him, gave him fuch a reputation as filenced the envious malice of his enemies, who durft not contradict the approbation of fo profound a master in theology. None of those self-sufficient creatures, who have either trifled with philofophy, by attempting to ridicule it, or have encumbered it with novel terms, and burdenfome explanations, underftod its real weight and purity half fo well as Mr. Smith. He was too difcerning to allow of the character of unprofitable, rugged, and abstruse, which fome fuperficial fciolifts (fo very fmooth and polite as to admit of no impreffion), either out of an unthinking indolence, or an ill-grounded prejudice, had affixed to this fort of ftudies. He knew the thorny terms of philofophy ferved well to fence-in the true doctrines of religion; and looked upon school-divinity as upon a rough but well-wrought armour, which might at once adorn and defend the Chriftian hero, and equip him for the combat.

Mr. Smith had a long and perfect intimacy with all the Greek and Latin Clafficks;

with whom he had carefully compared whatever was worth perusing in the French, Spanish, and Italian (to which languages he was no ftranger), and in all the celebrated writers of his own country. But then, according to the curious obfervation of the late earl of Shaftesbury, he kept the poet in awe by regular criticism, and as it were, married the two arts for their mutual fupport and improvement. There was not a tract of credit, upon that fubject, which he had not diligently examined, from Ariftotle down to Hedelin and Boffû; so that, having each rule conftantly before him, he could carry the art through every poem, and at once point out the graces and deformities. By this means he seemed to read with a design to correct, as well as imitate..

Being thus prepared, he could not but tafte every little delicacy that was fet before him; though it was impoffible for him at the fame time to be fed and nourished with any thing but what was fubftantial and lasting. He confidered the ancients and moderns not as parties or rivals for fame, but as architects upon one and the fame plan, the Art of Poetry; according to which he judged,

judged, approved, and blamed, without fattery or detraction. If he did not always commend the compofitions of others, it was not ill-nature (which was not in his temper) but ftrict juftice that would not let him call a few flowers fet in ranks, a glib measure, and fo many couplets by the name of poetry: he was of Ben Jonson's opinion, who could not admire,

-Verfes as fmooth and foft as cream,

In which there was neither depth nor stream.

And therefore, though his want of complaisance for some men's overbearing vanity made him enemies, yet the better part of mankind were obliged by the freedom of his reflections.

His Bodleian Speech, though taken from' a remote and imperfect copy, hath fhewn the world how great a master he was of the Ciceronian eloquence, mixed with the concifeness and force of Demofthenes, the elegant and moving turns of Pliny, and the acute and wife reflections of Tacitus.

Since Temple and Rofcommon, no man understood Horace better, efpecially as to VOL. II.

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his happy diction, rolling numbers, beautiful imagery, and alternate mixture of the foft and the fublime. This endeared Dr. Hannes's odes to him, the finest genius for Latin lyrick fince the Auguftan Age. His friend Mr. Philips's ode to Mr. St. John (late Lord. Bolingbroke) after the manner of Horace's Lufory or Amatorian Odes, is certainly a mafter-piece but Mr. Smith's Pocockius is of the fublimer kind, though, like Waller's writings upon Oliver Cromwell, it wants not the most delicate and furprising turns peculiar to the perfon praised. I do not remember to have feen any thing like it in Dr. Bathurst, who had made fome attempts this way with applaufe. He was an excellent judge of humanity; and fo good an hiftorian, that in familiar difcourfe he would talk over the most memorable facts in antiquity, the lives, actions, and characters of celebrated men, with amazing facility and accuracy. As he had thoroughly read and digested Thuanus's works, fo he was able to copy after him: and his talent in this kind was fo well known and allowed, that he had been fingled out by fome great men to write a hiftory, which it was for their interest to have done with the utmost art and dexterity.

I fhall