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SPR A T

THOMAS SPRAT was born in 1636,

at Tallaton in Devonshire, the fon of a clergymen; and having been educated, as he tells of himself, not at Westminster or Eaton, but at a little school by the churchyard fide, became a commoner of Wadham College in Oxford in 1651; and, being chosen fcholar next year, proceeded through the ufual academical courfe; and in 1657 became mafter of arts. He obtained a fellowship, and commenced poet.

In 1659, his poem on the death of Oliver was published, with thofe of Dryden and Waller. In his dedication to Dr. Wilkins he appears a very willing and liberal encomiast, both of the living and the dead. He implores his patron's excufe of his verfes, both as falling "fo infinitely below the full and "fublime

VOL. II.

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fublime genius of that excellent poet who "made this way of writing free of our nation," and being "fo little equal and propor"tioned to the renown of a prince on whom

they were written; fuch great actions and "lives deferving to be the fubject of the "nobleft pens and most divine phanfies." He proceeds: "Having fo long experienced your "care and indulgence, and been formed, as "it were, by your own hands, not to entitle

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you to any thing which my meannefs produces would be not only injuftice, but facrilege."

He published the fame year a poem on the Plague of Athens; a fubject of which it is not eafy to say what could recommend it. To thefe he added afterwards a poem on Mr. Cowley's death.

After the Restoration he took orders, and by Cowley's recommendation was made chaplain to the duke of

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fill, whom is faid to have helped in writing the Rehearfal. He was likewife chaplain to the

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As he was the favourite of Wilkins, at whofe house began thofe philofophical conferences andenquiries, which in time produced the Royal Society, he was confequently engaged in the fame ftudies, and of the fellows; e one and when, after their incorporation, fomething feemed neceffary to reconcile the publick to the new inftitution, he undertook to write its hiftory, which he published in 1667. This is one of the few books which felection of fentiment and elegance of diction have been able to preferve, though written upon a subject flux and tranfitory. The Hiftory of the Royal Society is now read, not with the wish to know what they were then doing, but how their Tranfactions are exhibited by Sprat.

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In the next year he published Obfervations on Sorbiere's Voyage into England, in a Letter bo Mr. Wren. This is a work not ill-per-formed, but perhaps but perhaps rewarded with at leaft its full proportion of praife. bro

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In 1668 he published Cowley's Latin poems, and prefixed in Latin the Life of the

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Author; which he afterwards amplified, and placed before Cowley's English works, which were by will committed to his care. d

Ecclefiaftical benefices now fell faft upon him. In 1668 he became a prebendary of Weftminster, and had afterwards the church of St. He was Margaret, adjoining to the Abbey. in 1680 made canon of Windfor, in 1683 dean of Westminster, and in 1684 bishop of Rochester.

The Court having thus a claim to his diligence and gratitude, he was required to write the Hiftory of the Ryehouse Plot; and in 1685 published A true Account and Declaration of the horrid Confpiracy against the late King, his prefent Majefty, and the present Go vernment: a performance which he thought convenient, after the Revolution, to extenuate and excufe.

The fame year, being clerk of the closet to the king, he was made dean of the chapel royal; and the year afterwards received the laft proof of his mafter's confidence, by being appointed one of the commiffioners for ecclefiaftical

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fiaftical affairs. On the critical day, when the Declaration diftinguished the true fons of the church of England, he ftood neuter, and permitted it to be read at Weftminster; but preffed none to violate his confcience; and, when the bishop of London was brought before them, gave his voice in his favour.

Thus far he fuffered intereft or obedience to carry him; but further he refused to go. When he found that the powers of the ecclefiaftical commiffion were to be exercised against thofe who had refufed the Declaration, he wrote to the lords, and other commiffioners, a formal profeffion of his unwillingness to exercise that authoriry any longer, and withdrew himself from them. After they had read his letter, they adjourned for fix months, and fcarcely ever met afterwards.

When king James was frighted away, and a new government was to be fettled, Sprat was one of thofe who confidered, in a conerence, the great question, w great question, whether the crown was vacant; and manfully spoke in favour of his old master. o oogge

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