SIMON HARCOURT Miles Viri benè de fe, de Litteris meriti bivsigns Quoad viveret Fautor, bA hig Poft Obitum piè memor, Hoc illi Saxum poni voluit.eri J. PHILIPS, STEPHANI, S. T. P Archidiaconi Salop, Filius, natus eft Bamptoniæ bobsin agro Oxon. Dec. 30, 1676. on Obiit Herefordiæ, Feb. 15, 1708. Philips has been always praised, without contradiction, as a man modeft, blameless, and pious; who bore narrowness of fortune without discontent, and tedious and painful maladies without impatience; beloved by thofe that knew him, but not ambitious to be known. He was probably not formed for a wide circle. His converfation is commended for its innocent gaiety, which feems to have flowed only among his intimates, for I have been told, that he was in company filent and barren, and employed only upon the pleasures of his pipe, His addiction to tobacco is mentioned by one of his biographers, who remarks that in all his writings, except Bienheim, he has found an opportunity of celebrating the fragrant fume. In common life he was probably one of those who please by 1 not offending, and whofe perfon was loved because his writings were admired. He He died honoured and lamented, before any part of his reputation had withered, and before his patron St. John had difgraced him. Ato adz 27 His works are few. The Splendid Shilling has the uncommon merit of an original defign, unless it may be thought precluded by the ancient Centos. To degrade the founding words and ftately conftruction of Milton, by an application to the lowest and most trivial things, gratifies the mind with a momentary triumph over that grandeur which hitherto held its captives in admiration; the words and things are prefented with a new 'appear ance, and novelty is always grateful where it gives no pain.mor But the merit of fuch performances begins and ends with the firft author. He that fhould again adapt Milton's phrafe to the grofs incidents of common life, and even adapt it with more art, which would not be difficult, muft yet expect but a fmall part of the praife which Philips has obtained; he can only hope to be confidered as the repeater beimbs sow again aid sturser of a jest. is soled balusonal bus batironor "The parody on Milton," fays Gildon, "is the only tolerable production of its au"thor." This is a cenfure too dogmatical and violent. The poem of Blenheim was never denied to be tolerable, even by those who do not allow its fupreme excellence. It is indeed the poem of a fcholar, all inexpert of war; of a man who writes books from books, and ftudies the world in a college. He feems to have formed his ideas of the field of Blenheim from the battles of the heroic ages, or the tales of chivalry, with very little comprehenfion of the qualities neceffary to the compofition of a modern hero, which Addison has difplayed with so much propriety. He makes Marlborough behold at a distance. the flaughter made by Tallard, then hafte to encounter and reftrain him, and mow his way through ranks made headlefs by his fword. ben ed-son blow doldw his stoor di He imitates Milton's numbers indeed, but imitates them very injudicioufly. Deformity is easily copied; and whatever there is in Milton which the reader wishes away, all that & that is obfolete, peculiar, or licentious, is accumulated with great care by Philips. Milton's verfe was harmonious, in proportion to the general state of our metre in Milton's age; and, if he had written after the improvements made by Dryden, it is reasonable to believe that he would have admitted a more pleafing modulation of numbers into his work; but Philips fits down with a refolution to make no more mufick than he found; to want all that his master wanted, though he is very far from having what his mafter had. Thofe afperities, therefore, that are veneras ble in the Paradife Loft, are contemptible in the Blenheim. bas gubuk There is a Latin ode written to his patron St. John, in return for a prefent of wine and tobacco, which cannot be paffed without not tice. It is gay and elegant, and exhibits feveral artful accommodations of claffick expreffions to new purposes. It feems better turned than the odes of Hannes *. *This ode I am willing to mention, because there seems to be an error in all the printed copies, which is, I find, retained in the laft. They all read ; Quam Gratiarum cura decentium The To the poem poem on Cider, written in imitation of the Georgicks, may be given this peculiar praife, that it is grounded in truth; that the precepts which it contains are exact and just; and that it is therefore, at once, a book of entertainment and of fcience. This I was told by Miller, the great gardener and botanift, whofe expreffion was, that there were many books written on the fame fubject in profe, which do not contain fo much truth as that poem. all agroits bstrear sofism and art In the difpofition of his matter, fo as to intersperse precepts relating to the culture of trees, with fentiments more generally alluring, and in eafy and graceful transitions from one fubject to another, he has very diligently imitated his mafter; but he unHappily pleafed himfelf with blank verfe, and fuppofed that the numbers of Milton, which imprefs the mind with veneration, combined. as they are with fubjects of inconceivable grandeur, could be fuftained by images which ald to pobo di it bonus The author probably wrote, Quam Gratiarum cura decentium Ornat; scort of Se fos 1 sbg aidT labellis cui Venus infidet, Dr. J. boting sa le foto ne ad m |