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The first volume was printed at London in 1724, and the second in 1734, in folio. To the first volume is prefixed an advertisement, acquainting the reader, "That the editors intended for the satisfaction of the public, to deposit the copy from which his history is prisited (corrected, and interlined in many places with the author's own hand), in some public library, as soon as the econd volume should be published:"

There are two French translations of the first volume of this history; the one by M. de la Pilloniere, the other by an anonymous translator. The first was printed at the Hague in three volumes; 12mo: 1725; the other, with cuts, at the same place in the same year, in two volumes; 4to: This last version was reprinted at Trevoux in four vols. 12mo.

The bishop was an author of deserved repute; but every historian who discovers an attachment to party must expect severe censures; and accordingly many critical and historical remarks have been published to lessen the reputation of his "History of his own Times ;” yet, if read with a proper allowance for the writer's situation and connexions, a more valuable performance cannot be recommended to the historical student:

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He was likewise the author of "Reflections on Varillas's History of the Revolutions that have happened in Europe in matters of Religion; more particularly in his 9th book relating to England.” The reflections were published at Amsterdam in 1686. Varillas published a reply, upon which Burnet printed a defence of his reflections in 1687. His other works are, The History of the Reformation "The Life of William Bedél, bishop of Kilmore, in Ireland;" "A relation of the Death of the primitive Persecutors; translated from the Latin of Lactantius: with a large Preface, in which the Principles, the Spirit; and the Practice of Persecution, are freely censured and condemned;"" A Collection of Sermons and Tracts," 3 vols. 4to.

The character of this éminent prelate, written while he was living by his contemporary, the celebrated marquis of Hallifax, has been much adinired; and it has been annexed to his life by most biographers, whose example we shall follow, and close this account of him in the words of that noble writer: "Dr. Burnet is, like all men who are above the ordinary level, seldom spoken of in a mean;

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he must either be railed at, or admired. He has a swiftness of imagination that no other man comes up to; and as our nature hardly allows us to have enough of any thing, without having too much, he cannot at all times so hold-in his thoughts, but that at some time they may run away with him; as it is hard for a vessel, that is brim-full, when, in motion, not to run over; and therefore, the variety of matter that he ever carries about him may throw out more than an unkind critic would allow of. His first thoughts may sometimes require more digestion, not from a defect in his judgment, but from the abundance of his fancy, which furnishes too fast for him. His friends love him too well to see small faults; or if they do, think that his greater talents give him a privilege of straying from the strict rules of caution, and exempt him from the ordinary rules of censure. He produces so fast, that what is well in his writings calls for admiration, and what is incorrect deserves an excuse; he may in some things, require grains of allowance, which those onl ycan deny him, who are unknown or unjust to him.

He is not quicker in discerning other men's faults, than he is in forgiving them; so ready, or rather glad to acknowlege his own, that from blemishes they become ornaments. All the repeated provocations of his indecent adversaries have had no other effect, than the setting his good-nature in so much a better light, since his anger never yet went farther than to pity them. That heat, which in most other men raises sharpness and satire, în him glows inte warmth for his friends, and compassion for those in want and misery. As dull men have quick eyes, in discerning the smaller faults of those that nature has made superior to them, they do not miss one blot he makes; and being beholden only to their barrenness for their discretion, they fall upon the errors which arise out of his abundance; and by a mistake into which their malice betrays them, they think, that by finding a mote in his eye, they hide the beams that are in their own. His quickness makes writing so easy to him, that his spirits are neither wasted nor soured by it: the oil is not forced; every thing grows and brings forth without pangs; which destinguishes as much what he does, from that which smells of the lamp, as a good palate will discern between fruit which comes from-a -a rich mould, and that which tastes of the uncleanly pains that have been bestowed upon it. He makes many enemies

by setting an illnatured example of living, which they are not inclin. ed to follow. His indifference for preferment; his contempt, not only of splendour, but of all unnecessary plenty; his degrading himself into the lowest and most painful duties of his calling; are such unprelatical qualities, that let him be never so orthodox in other things, in these he must be a dissenter. Virtues of such a stamp are so many heresies, in the opinion of those divines who have softened the primitive injunctions, so as to make them suit better with the present frailty of mankind. No wonder then if they are angry, since it is their own defence, or that, from a principle of self-preservation, they should endeavour to suppress a man, whose parts are a shame, and whose life is a scandal to them."

Bishop Burnet had no children by his first wife; but his second, Mrs. Mary Scot, of the Hague, bore him seven children, three sons and four daughters. He had two children by his last wife, but they both died in their infancy. His second son William, who was a clergyman, pulisbed an abridgement of the third volume of the bishop's "History of the Reformation." He also wrote an answer to Mr. William Law's "Second Letter to the Bishop of Bangor," which was allowed to be among the best pieces in that controversy. The bishop's youngest son, Thomas, was bred to the law, and became one of the judges of the court of common. pleas, in the reign of George II.

Authorities. Life of bishop Burnet, by his son, Judge Burnet. Biog. Britan. Rapin's Hist. of England.

THE LIFE OF

MATTHEW PRIOR.

A. D. 1664, to 1721.]

MR. PRIOR is generally ranked amongst the celebrated English poets of the present age; but as his talents in public affairs intro. duced him to employments under the government, in which he

made so conspicious a figure, that his name is preserved in the an nals of Britain as a statesman, he finds a place in this work, in chronological order, with the great men of his time; who had a share in the administration of government. He was the son of Mr. George Prior, citizen of London, and joiner, and was born in the year 1664. His father dying when he was very young, left him to the care of an uncle, a vintner, near Charing-cross, who discharged the trust that was reposed in him with a tenderness truly paternal, as Mr. Prior always acknowledged with the highest professions of gratitude.

He received part of his education at Westminster school, where he distinguished himself to great advantage, but was afterwards taken home by his uncle, in order to be bred up to his trade.

Notwithstanding the mean employment to which Mr. Prior seemed now doomed, yet, at his leisure-hours, he prosecuted his study of the classics, and especially his favourite, Horace; by which means he was soon taken notice of by the polite company who resorted to his uncle's house.

It happened one day, that the earl of Dorset, being at this tavern, which he often frequented, with several gentlemen of rank, the discourse turned upon the Odes of Horace; and the company being divided in their sentiments about a passage in that poet, one of the gentlemen said, "I find we are not likely to agree in our criticisms; but if I am not mistaken, there is a young fellow in the house, who is able to set us all right:" upon which he named Prior, who was immediately sent for, and desired to give his opinion of Horace's meaning in the ode under consideration. This he did with great modesty, and so much to the satisfaction of the company, that the earl of Dorset, from that moment, determined to remove him from that disgraceful station, to one more suited to his genuis; and accordingly sent him, at his own expence, to St. John's-college in Cambridge, where he took his degree of batche lor-of-arts in 1686; and afterwards became a fellow of the college,

During his residence in the university, he contracted an intimate friendship with Charles Montague, esq. afterwards earl of Halifax; in conjunction with whom he wrot ea very humourous piece, entitled,

The Hind and the Panther transversed, to the story of the Coun try House and the City Mouse," printed in 1687, in 4to. in an

swer to Mr. Dryden's Hind and Panther, published in the year before.

Upon the revolution, Mr. Prior was brought to court by his great patron, the earl of Dorset, by whose interest he was introduced to public employment; and in the year 1690, was made secretary to the earl of Berkeley, plenipotentiary to king William and queen Mary, at the congress at the Hague.

In this station he acquitted himself so well, that king William, desirous at this time to keep him near his person, made him one of the gentlemen of his bed-chamber. He was afterwards appointed secretary to the earls of Pembroke and Jersey, and sir Joseph Williamson, ambassadors and plenipotentaries at the treaty of Ryswick, in 1697; and the same year, he was nominated principal secretary of state for Ireland. In 1698, he was appointed secretary to the embassy to the court of France.

While he was in that kingdom, one of the officers of the French king's house-hold, shewing him the royal apartments, and curiosities at Versailles; especially the paintings of Le Brun, wherein the victories of Lewis XIV. are described, asked him," Whether king William's actions were to be seen in his palace?" "No, Sir," replied Mr. Prior, "The monuments of my master's actions are to be seen every where, but in his own house." He continued in this station during the two embassies of the earls of Portland and Jersey.

In 1699, king William sent for him from England, to hold a private conference with him at his palace, at Loo, in Holland; and upon his return, he was made under-secretary of state, in the earl of Jersey's office, who was principal secretary of state for the northern provinces; and he afterwards went to Paris, where he had a principal share in negociating the partition treaty.

In 1700, he was created master-of-arts by mandamus; and appointed one of the lords-commissioners of trade and plantations, upon the resignation of Mr. Locke. He was also chosen member of parliament for East-Grinstead, in Sussex.

Upon the success of the war with France, after the accession of queen Anne, Mr. Prior exerted his poetical talents, in honor of his country; first in his letter to Boileau, the celebrated French poet, on the victory at Blenheim, in 1704; and again, in an ode on the glorious success of her majesty's arms in 1706.

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