and nothing was wanting to his happiness, but that he should be sure of its continuance.

The work which had procured him the first notice from the public was his Six Pastorals, which, flattering the imagination with Arcadian scenes, probably found many readers, and might have long passed as a pleasing amusement, had they not been unhappily too much commended. Not long afterwards, Pope made the first display of his powers in four Pastorals, written in a very different form. Philips had taken Spenser, and Pope took Virgil for his pattern. Philips endeavoured to be natural, Pope laboured to be elegant.

Philips was now favoured by Addison, and by Addison's companions, who were ever willing to push him into reputation. The "Guardian" gave an account of Pastoral, partly critical, and partly historical; in which, when the merit of the moderns is compared, Tasso and Guarini are censured for remote thoughts and unnatural refinements; and, upon the whole, the Italians and French are all excluded from rural poetry; and the pipe of the pastoral muse is transmitted by lawful inheritance from Theocritus to Virgil, from Virgil to Spenser, and from Spenser to Philips.

With this inauguration of Philips, his rival Pope was not much delighted; he therefore drew a comparison of Philips's performance with his own, in which, with an unexampled and unequalled artifice of irony, though he has himself always the advantage, he gives the preference to Philips. The design of aggrandizing himself he disguised with such dexterity, that, though Addison discovered it, Steele was deceived, and was afraid of displeasing Pope by publishing his paper. Published however it was ("Guard. 40."): and from that time Pope and Philips lived in a perpetual reciprocation of malevolence.

In poetical powers, of either praise or satire, there was no proportion between the combatants; but Philips, though he could not prevail by wit, hoped to hurt Pope with another weapon, and charged him, as Pope thought, with Addison's approbation, as disaffected to the govern

ment.

Even with this he was not satisfied; for, indeed, there is no appearance that any regard was paid to his clamours. He proceeded to grosser insults, and hung up a rod at

Button's, with which he threatened to chastise Pope, who appears to have been extremely exasperated; for in the first edition of his Letters he calls Philips "rascal," and in the last still charges him with detaining in his hands the subscriptions for Homer delivered to him by the Hanover Club.

It was never suspected, we suppose, that he meant to appropriate the money; he only delayed, and with sufficient meanness, the gratification of him by whose prosperity he was pained.

Men sometimes suffer by injudicious kindness: Philips became ridiculous, without his own fault, by the absurd admiration of his friends, who decorated him with honorary garlands, which the first breath of contradiction blasted.

When upon the succession of the House of Hanover every whig expected to be happy, Philips seems to have obtained too little notice; he caught few drops of the golden shower, though he did not omit what flattery could perform. He was only made a Commissioner of the Lottery (1717), and, what did not much elevate his character, a justice of the peace.

The success of his first play must naturally dispose him to turn his hopes towards the stage: he did not however soon commit himself to the mercy of an audience, but contented himself with the fame already acquired, till after nine years he produced (1722) "The Briton," a tragedy which, whatever was its reception, is now neglected; though one of the scenes, between Vanoc the British prince, and Valens the Roman general, is confessed to be written with great dramatic skill, animated by spirit truly poetical.

He had not been idle, though he had been silent; for he exhibited another tragedy the same year, on the story of Humphry duke of Gloucester." This tragedy is only remembered by its title.

66

His happiest undertaking was of a paper called "The Freethinker," in conjunction with associates, of whom one was Dr. Boulter, who, then only minister of a parish in Southwark, was of so much consequence to the government, that he was made first bishop of Bristol, and afterwards primate of Ireland, where his piety and his charity will be long honoured.

It may easily be imagined that what was printed under

the direction of Boulter would have nothing in it indecent or licentious; its title is to be understood as implying only freedom from unreasonable prejudice. It has been reprinted in volumes, but is little read; nor can impartial criticism recommend it as worthy of revival.

Boulter was not well qualified to write diurnal essays; but he knew how to practise the liberality of greatness and the fidelity of friendship. When he was advanced to the height of ecclesiastical dignity, he did not forget the companion of his labours. Knowing Philips to be slenderly supported, he took him to Ireland, as partaker of his fortune; and, making him his secretary, added such preferments, as enabled him to represent the county of Armagh in the Irish parliament.

In December 1726 he was made secretary to the lord chancellor; and in August 1733 became judge of the prerogative court.

After the death of his patron he continued some years in Ireland; but at last longing, as it seems, for his native country, he returned (1748) to London, having doubtless survived most of his friends and enemies, and among them his dreaded antagonist Pope. He found however the duke of Newcastle still living, and to him he dedicated his poems collected into a volume.

Having purchased an annuity of four hundred pounds, he now certainly hoped to pass some years of life in plenty and tranquillity; but his hope deceived him; he was struck with a palsy, and died June 18, 1749, in his seventy-eighth year.

Of the "Distrest Mother" not much is pretended to be his own, and therefore it is no subject of criticism: his other two tragedies are not below mediocrity, nor above it. Among the poems comprised in his collection, the "Letter from Denmark" may be justly praised; the Pastorals, which by the writer of the "Guardian" were ranked as one of the four genuine productions of the rustic muse, cannot surely be despicable. That they exhibit a mode of life which does not exist, nor ever existed, is not to be objected: the supposition of such a state is allowed to Pastoral. In his other poems he cannot be denied the praise of lines sometimes elegant; but he has seldom much force, or much comprehension. The pieces that please best are those which, from Pope and Pope's adhe

rents, procured him the name of Namby Pamby, the poems of short lines, by which he paid his court to all ages and characters, from Walpole," the steerer of the realm," to Miss Pulteney in the nursery. The numbers are smooth and sprightly, and the diction is seldom faulty. They are not loaded with much thought, yet, if they had been written by Addison, they would have had admirers: little things are not valued, but when they are done by those who can do greater.

In his translations from Pindar he found the art of reaching all the obscurity of the Theban bard, however he may fall below his sublimity; he will be allowed, if he has less fire, to have more smoke.

He has added nothing to English poetry, yet at least half his book deserves to be read: perhaps he valued most himself that part which the critic would reject.*

No. 93, which displays a good portion of learning and talent, was written by the Rev. WILLIAM WOTTON. He was born at Wrentham, in Suffolk (of which parish his father was rector), on the 13th of August, 1666. He was such an instance of precocious talent, that he was admitted at Catherine Hall, Cambridge, before he was ten years old; and at twelve he is reported to have been skilled not only in the classical, but also the chief oriental languages. He obtained a fellowship at St. John's College; and having entered the church, was appointed to a prebend of Salisbury, besides other preferment. His Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Learning was published in 1694; and having ventured to subjoin Bentley's celebrated Dissertations upon Philaris to his second edition, he incurred the hostility of Swift, and was satirized by him in his Tale of a Tub, and Battle of the Books. Besides other learned undertakings, Wotton was engaged in a Latin translation of the Welsh laws, which was not published till after his death. He died on the 13th of February, 1726, distinguished for the most profound learning, and the most extensive acquirements.

A Modest Apology for Punning (No. 36) is one of the best defences of that species of wit which can be written, and was contributed by Dr. THOMAS BIRCH, chancellor and prebendary of Worcester.

The Rev. DEANE BARTELETT was author of No. 30, On *Lives of the Poets.

the Merits of the speculative and active parts of Mankind. The description of a gentleman and a mechanic, and the satire upon the free-thinkers, are excellent.

Mr. LAWRENCE EUSDEN (noticed in the Preface to the Spectator) contributed the humorous letter at the beginning of No. 124; and two translations from Claudian in Nos. 127 and 164.

Dr. ZACHARY PEARCE* wrote the entertaining Account of the Silent Club in No. 121.

The letter in No. 118, signed N. R. was written by NICHOLAS ROWE, the poet. He was born at Little Berkford, in Bedfordshire, and after his education at Westminster under the famous Dr. Busby, was entered a student of the Middle Temple. The stage, however, having more attractions for him than the law, he produced several tragedies, of which The Fair Penitent and Jane Shore still retain their popularity. He executed also a good translation of Lucan's Pharsalia, and held with dignity the office of poetlaureat. He died the 6th of December, 1718, and was honoured with a burial in Westminster Abbey.

The contributions of Mr. MARTYN, Mr. CAREY, and Mr. INCE, who are acknowledged to have written in the Guardian, have not been ascertained.

* See Preface to Spectator.