therefore, that are venerable in the Paradife Loft are contemptible in the Blenheim. 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 notice. It is gay, and elegant, and exhibits feveral artful accommodations of claffick expreffions to new purposes. It seems better turned than the odes of Hannes*. To the poem on Cider, written in imitation of the Georgicks, may be given this peculiar praise, 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 botanist, 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... In the difpofition of his matter fo as to interfperfe precepts relating to the culture of trees, with fentiments more generally pleafing, and in eafy and graceful tranfitions from one fubject to another, he has very diligently imitated his master; but he unhappily pleased himself 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 sustained by images which at most can rife * 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 this. They all read; Quam Quam Gratiarum cura decentium The author probably wrote, Quam Gratiarum cura decentium only only to elegance. Contending angels may shake the regions of heaven in blank verse; but the flow of equal meafures, and the embellishment of rhyme, muft recommend to our attention the art of engrafting, and decide the merit of the redftreak and pearmain. What study could confer, Philips had obtained; but natural deficience cannot be fupplied. He feems not born to greatness and elevation. He is never lofty, nor does he often surprise with unexpected excellence; but perhaps to his laft poem may be applied what Tully faid of the work of Lucretius, that it is written with much art, though with few blazes of genius. The following Fragment, written by Edmund Smith, upon the works of Philips, has been transcribed from the Bodleian manufcripts. "A prefatory Difcourfe to the Poem on Mr. Philips, with a character of his writings. "IT is altogether as equitable fome account should be given of those who have distinguifhed themselves by their writings, as of those who are renowned for great actions. It is but reasonable they, who contribute so much to the immortality of others, fhould have fome fhare in it themselves; and fince their genius only is discovered by their works, it is just that their virtues fhould be recorded by their friends. For no modeft men (as the perfon I write of was in perfection) will write their own panegyricks; and it is very hard that they should go without reputation, only because because they the more deserve it. The end of writing Lives is for the imitation of the readers. It will be in the power of very few to imitate the duke of Marlborough; we must be content with admiring his great qualities and actions, without hopes of following them. The private and focial virtues are more easily tranfcribed. The Life of Cowley is more inftructive, as well as more fine, than any we have in our language. And it is to be wished, fince Mr. Philips had fo many of the good qualities of that poet, that I had some of the abilities of his hiftorian. The Grecian philofophers have had their Lives written, their morals commended, and their fayings recorded. Mr. Philips had all the virtues to which most of them only pretended, and all their integrity without any of their affectation. The French are very juft to eminent men in this point; not a learned man nor a poet can die, but all Europe must be acquainted with his accomplishments. They give praise and expect it in their turns: they commend their Patru's and Moliere's as well as their Conde's and Turenne's; their Pellifons and Racines have their elogies as well as the prince whom they celebrate; and their poems, their mercuries, and orations, nay their very gazettes, are filled with the praises of the learned. I am fatisfied, had they a Philips among them, and known how to value him; had they had one of his learning, his temper, but above all of that particular turn of humour, that altogether new genius, he had been an example to their poets, and a fubject of of their panegyricks, and perhaps fet in competition with the ancients, to whom only he ought to fubmit. I shall therefore endeavour to do justice to his memory, fince nobody elfe undertakes it. And indeed I can affign no cause why so manyof his acquaintance (that are as willing and more able than myself to give an account of him), should forbear to celebrate the memory of one fo dear to them, but only that they look upon it as a work entirely belonging to me. I shall content myself with giving only a character of the perfon and his writings, without meddling with the transactions of his life, which was altogether private: I fhall only make this known obfervation of his family, that there was fcarce fo many extraordinary men in any one. I have been acquainted with five of his brothers (of which three are still living), all men of fine parts, yet all of a very unlike temper and genius. So that their fruitful mother, like the mother of the gods, feems to have produced a numerous offspring, all of different though uncommon faculties. Of the living, neither their modesty nor the humour of the prefent age permits me to speak: of the dead, I may fay fomething. One of them had made the greatest progress in the study of the law of nature and nations of any one I know. He had perfectly mastered, and even improved, the notions of Grotius, and the more refined ones of Puffendorf. He could refute Hobbes with as much folidity as fome of greater name, and expofe him with as much wit as Echard. That noble study, which requires the greatest reach of reafon and and nicety of distinction, was not at all difficult to him. 'Twas a national lofs to be deprived of one who understood a science so neceffary, and yet fo unknown in England. I fhall add only, he had the fame honesty and fincerity as the perfon I write of, but more heat the former was more inclined to argue, the latter to divert: one employed his reafon more; the other his imagination: the former had been well qualified for those posts, which the modesty of the latter made him refufe. His other dead brother would have been an ornament to the college of which he was a member. He had a genius either for poetry or oratory; and, though very young, compofed feveral very agreeable pieces. In all probability he would have wrote as finely, as his brother did nobly. He might have been the Waller, as the other was the Milton of his time. The one might celebrate Marlborough, the other his beautiful offspring. This had not been fo fit to defcribe the actions of heroes as the virtues of private men. In a word, he had been fitter for my place: and while his brother was writing upon the greatest men that any age ever produced, in a stile equal to them, he might have ferved as a panegyrift on him. This is all I think neceffary to fay of his family. I fhall proceed to himself and his writings; which I fhall first treat of, because I know they are cenfured by fome out of envy, and more out of ignorance. The Splendid Shilling, which is far the least confiderable, has the more general reputation, and perhaps hinders the character of the reft. The |