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thors of the Biographia mention with more praife than the paffage quoted in their notes will fully justify. Garth, fpeaking of the mifchiefs done by quacks, has thefe expreffions Non tamen telis vulnerat ista agyrcarum coluvies, fed theriacâ quadam magis perniciofa, non pyrio, fed pulvere nescio "quo exotico certat, non globulis plumbeis,

fed pilulis æque lethalibus interficit." This was certainly thought fine by the author, and is ftill admired by his biographer. In October 1702 he became one of the cenfors of the College.

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-00 Garth, being an active and zealous Whig, was a member of the Kit-cat club, and by confequence familiarly known to all the great men of that denomination. In 1710, when the government fell into other hands, he writ to lord Godolphin, on his difmiffion, a fhort poem, which was criticifed in the Examiner, and fo fuccefsfully either defended or excused by Mr. Addison, that, for the fake of the vindication, it ought to be preferved.

At the acceffion of the prefent family his merits were acknowledged and rewarded. He

was

was knighted with the fword of his hero, Marlborough; and was made physician in ordinary to the king, and phyfician-general to the army.

He then undertook an edition of Ovid's Metamorphofes, tranflated by feveral hands; which he recommended by a Preface, written with more oftentation than ability: his notions are half-formed, and his materials immethodically confufed. This was his laft work. He died Jan. 18, 1717-18, and was buried at Harrow-on-the-Hill.

His perfonal character feems to have been focial and liberal. He communicated himfelf through a very wide extent of acquaintance; and though firm in a party, at a time when firmness included virulence, yet he im parted his kindnefs to thofe who were not fuppofed to favour his principles. He was an early encourager of Pope, and was at once the friend of Addifon and of Granville. He is accufed of voluptuoufnefs and irreligion; and Pope, who fays, that if ever "there was a good Chriftian, without know

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ing himself to be fo, it was Dr. Garth,'

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feems not able to deny what he is angry to hear and loth to confefs. I

Pope afterwards declared himself convinced that Garth died in the communion of the Church of Rome, having been privately reconciled. It is obferved by Lowth, that there is lefs diftance than is thought between fceptifm and popery; and that a mind, wearied with perpetual doubt, willingly feeks repofe in the bofom of an infallible church.

His poetry has been praifed at least equally to its merit. In the Dispensary there is a ftrain of fmooth and free verfification; but ucati few lines are eminently elegant. No paffages fall below mediocrity, and few rife much above it. The The plan feems formed without juft proportion to the fubje&t; the means and end have no neceffary connection. Refnel, in his Preface to Pope's Effay, remarks, that Garth exhibits no difcrimination of characters; and that what any one fays might with equal propriety have been faid by another. The general defign is perhaps open to criticism; but the compofition can can feldom be charged with inaccuracy or negligence. VOL. II. X

The

The author never flumbers in felf-indulgence; his full vigour is always exerted; fcarcely a line is left unfinished, nor is it easy to find an expreffion used by constraint, or a thought imperfectly expreffed. It was remarked by Pope, that the Difpenfary had been corrected in every edition, and that every change was an improvement. It appears, however, to want fomething of poetical ardour, and fomething of general delectation; and therefore, fince it has been no longer fupported by accidental and intrinfick popularity, it has been fcarcely able to fupport itself.

ROWE.

ROW E,

NICHOLAS ROWE was born at

Little Beckford, in Bedfordshire, in 1673. His family had long poffeffed a confiderable eftate, with a good house, at Lambertoun* in Devonshire. The ancestor from whom he defcended in a direct line received the arms borne by his defcendants for his bravery in the Holy War. His father, John Rowe, who was the first that quitted his paternal acres to, practise any art of profit, profeffed the law, and published Benlow's and Dallifon's Reports in the reign of James the Second, when, in oppofition to the notions, then dili

*In the Villare, Lamerton. Orig. Edit.

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