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1696 to the Electors of Mentz and Cologne, and the Congress at Francfort; in 1698 a second time to Brandenburgh; in 1699 to the King of Poland; in 1701 again to the Emperor; and in 1706 to the States General. In 1697 he was made one of the commiffioners of trade. His life was bufy, and not long. He died in 1707; and is buried in Westminster-Abbey, with this epitaph, which Jacob transcribed:

H. S. E.

GEORGIUS STEPNEIUS, Armiger,
Vir

Ob Ingenii acumen,
Literarum Scientiam,

Morum Suavitatem,
Rerum Ufum,

Virorum Ampliffimorum Confuetudinem
Linguæ, Styli, ac Vitæ Elegantiam,
Præclara Officia cum Britanniæ tum Europæ
præftita,

Sua ætate multum celebratus,
Apud pofteros femper celebrandus;
Plurimas Legationes obiit

Ea Fide, Diligentia, ac Felicitate,
Ut Auguftiffimorum Principum
Gulielmi & Annæ

Spem in illo repofitam
Nunquam fefellerit,

Haud raro fuperaverit.

Poft longum honorum Curfum

Brevî Temporis Spatio confectum,

Cum Naturæ parum, Famæ fatis vixerat,
Animam ad altiora afpirantem placide efflavit.

7

On

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 commiffa eft 1697.
Chelfeiæ mortuus, &, comitante
Magna Procerum

Frequentia, huc elatus, 1707.

It is reported that the juvenile compofitions of Stepney made grey authors blush. I know not whether his poems will appear fuch wonders to the prefent age. One cannot always eafily find the reason 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 profeffed himself a poet, and added his name to thofe of the other wits in the verfion 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. PHILIPS.

OHN PHILIPS was born on the 30th of De

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cember, 1676, at Bampton in Oxfordshire; 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 distinguished by the fuperiority of his exercises; 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 master 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 after hour, while his hair was combed by fomebody, whofe fervice he found means to procure

At

* Ifaac Voffius relates that he also 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 Christ-church; a college at that time in the highest reputation, by the tranfmiffion of Bufby's fcholars to the care firft of Fell, and afterwards of Aldrich. Here he was distinguished as a genius eminent 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 Phyfick; and he took much delight in natural history, of which botany was his favourite part.

His reputation was confined to his friends and to the university; 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,

skilled 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 these exercises would delight much more, if the fer

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vants at the baths, and of the barbers, were fo fkilful in this art, "that they could exprefs any measures 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 delight." See his Treatife De Poematum cantu & viribus Rythmi, Oxon. 1673, p. 62.

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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 greatest 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 presence 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 diseases, 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. Atterbury, though commonly given to Dr. Freind.

VOL. II.

His Epitaph at Hereford:

JOHANNES PHILIPS
die Feb. Anno Dom. 1708.

Obiit 15

Cujus

Ætat. fuæ 32.

Offa fi requiras, hanc Urnam infpice;
Si Ingenium nefcias, ipfius Opera confule;
Si Tumulum defideras,

Templum adi Westmonafteriense:
Qualis quantufque Vir fuerit,
Dicat elegans illa & preclara,
Quæ cenotaphium ibi decorat
Infcriptio.

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