THE L IF E OF DR. PARNELL. THE life of a fcholar feldom abounds with adventure. His fame is acquired in folitude. And the hiftorian, who only views him at a distance, must be content with a dry detail of actions by which he is fcarcely diftinguished from the reft of mankind. But we are fond of talking of those who have given us pleasure, not that we have any thing important to fay, but because the fubject is pleafing. THOMAS PARNELL, D. D. was defcended from an ancient family, that had for fome centuries been fettled at Congleton in Chefhire. His father, Thomas Parnell, who had been attached to the commonwealth party, upon the restoration went over to Ireland; thither he carried a large perfonal fortune, which he laid out in lands in that kingdom. The eftatés he purchased there, as alfo that of which he was poffeffed in Cheshire, defcended to our poet, who was his eldest son, and still remain in the family. Thus want, which has compelled many of our greatest men into VOL. IV. B the the fervice of the mufes, had no influence upon Par nell; he was a poet by inclination. He was born in Dublin, in the year 1679, and received the first rudiments of his education at the school of Doctor Jones in that city. Surprifing things are told us of the greatnefs of his memory at that early period, as of his being able to repeat by heart forty lines of any book at the firft reading; of his getting the third book of the Iliad in one night's time, which was given in order to confine him for fome days. These ftories, which are told of almoft every celebrated wit, may perhaps be true. But for my own part, I never found any of those prodigies of parts, although I have known enow that were defirous, among the ignorant, of being thought fo. There is one prefumption, however, of the early maturity of his underftanding. He was admitted a member of the College of Dublin, at the age of thirteen, which is much fooner than ufual, as at that University they are a great deal ftricter in their examination for entrance, than either at Oxford or Cambridge. His progrefs through the college courfe of ftudy was probably marked with but little splendour ; his imagination might have been too warm to relish the cold logic of Burgerfdicius, or the dreary fubtleties of Smiglefius; but it is certain, that as a claffical fcholar few could equal him. His own compofitions fhew this, and the deference which the moft eminent men of his time paid him upon that head, put it beyond a doubt. He took the degree of Mafter of Arts the ninth of July, 1700; and in the fame year he was ordained a Deacon, by William bishop of Derry, having a difpenfation from the Primate, as being under twenty-three years of age. He was admitted into Prieft's Orders about three years after, by William archbishop of Dublin; and on the ninth of of February, 1705, he was collated by Sir George Afhe, bifhop of Clogher, to the archdeaconry of Clogher. About that time alfo he married Mifs Anne Minchin, a young lady of great merit and beauty, by whom he had two fons, who died young, and one daughter, who is ftill living. His wife died fome time before him; and her death is faid to have made fo great an impreffion on his fpirits, that it ferved to haften his own. On the thirty-first of May, 1716, he was prefented, by his friend and patron Archbishop King, to the vicarage of Finglafs, a benefice worth about four hundred pounds a year, in the diocese of Dublin, but he lived to enjoy his preferment a very fhort time. He died at Chefter, in July, 1717, on his way to Ireland, and was buried in Trinity church in that town, without any monument to mark the place of his interment. As he died-without male iffue, his eftate devolved to his only Nephew, Sir John Parnell, Baronet, whofe father was younger brother to the Archdeacon, and one of the Juftices of the King's Bench in Ireland. Such is the very unpoetical detail of the life of a poet. Some dates, and fome few facts scarcely more interefting than thofe that make the ornaments of a country tomb-ftone, are all that remain of one, whofe labours now begin to excite univerfal curiofity. A poet, while living, is feldom an object fufficiently great to attract much attention; his real merits are known but to a few, and thefe are generally fparing in their praises. When his fame is increafed by time, it is then too late to inveftigate the peculiarities of his difpofition; the dews of the morning are paft, and we vainly try to continue the chace by the meridian fplendour. There is fcarcely any man but might be made the fubject of a very interefting and amufing hiftory, if the writer, befides a thorough acquaintance with the |