J. PHILIPS, JOHN PHILIPS was born on the 30th of December, 1676, at Bampton in Oxfordshire; of which place his father Dr. Stephen Philips, archdeacon of Salop, was minifter. The firft part of his education was domeftick; after which he was fent to Winchester, where, as we are told by Dr. Sewel, his biographer, he was foon diftinguished by the fuperiority of his exercifes; and, what is lefs eafily to be credited, fo much endeared himself to his schoolfellows by his civility and good-nature, that they, without murmur or ill-will, faw him indulged by the mafter with particular immunities. It is related, that, when he was at fchool, he feldom mingled in play with the other boys, but retired to his chamber; where his fovereign pleasure was to fit, hour after hour, while his hair was combed by fomebody, whofe fervice he found means to procure *. At *Ifaac Voffius relates, that he alfo delighted in having his hair combed when he could have it done by barbers or other perfons skilled in the rules of profody. Of the paffage that contains this ridiculous fancy, the following is a tranflation: "Many "people At fchool he became acquainted with the poets ancient and modern, and fixed his attention particularly on Milton. In 1694 he entered himself at Chrift-church, a college at that time in the higheft reputation, by the tranfmiffion of Bufby's scholars to the care first of Fell, and afterwards of Aldrich. Here he was diftinguished as a genius eminent among the eminent, and for friendship particularly intimate with Mr. Smith, the author of Phedra and Hippolytus. The profeffion which he intended to follow was that of Phyfick; and he took much delight in Natural History, of which Botany was his favourite part. His reputation was confined to his friends and to the univerfity; till about 1703 he extended it to a wider circle by the Splendid Shilling, which ftruck the publick attention with a mode of writing new and unexpected. This performance raised him fo high, that, when Europe refounded with the victory of Blenheim, he was, probably with an occult oppofition to Addifon, employed to deliver the acclamation of the Tories. It is faid that he would willingly have declined the tafk, but that his friends urged it upon him. It "people take delight in the rubbing of their limbs, and the combing of their hair; but these exercises would delight much more, if the fervants at the baths, and of the barbers, were "fo fkilful in this art, that they could exprefs any measures with "their fingers. I remember that more than once I have fallen "into the hands of men of this fort, who could imitate any mea"fure of fongs in combing the hair, fo as fometimes to exprefs "very intelligibly Iambics, Trochees, Dactyls, &c. from whence "there arose to me no fmall delight. Sce his Treatife de Poematum cantu & viribus Rythmi. Oxon. 1673, p. 62. H. U 4 appears appears that he wrote this poem at the house of Mr. St. John. Blenheim was published in 1705. The next year produced his great work, the poem upon Cider, in two books; which was received with loud praises, and continued long to be read, as an imitation of Virgil's Georgick, which needed not fhun the presence of the original. He then grew probably more confident of his own abilities, and began to meditate a poem on the Laft Day; a fubject on which no mind can hope to equal expectation. This work he did not live to finish; his diseases, a flow confumption and an asthma, put a stop to his studies, and on Feb. 15, 1708, at the beginning of his thirty-third year, put an end to his life. He was buried in the cathedral of Hereford; and Sir Simon Harcourt, afterwards Lord Chancellor, gave him a monument in Weftminster Abbey, The infcription at Westminster was written, as I have heard, by Dr. Atterbury, though commonly given to Dr. Freind. Offa fi requiras, hanc Urnam infpice: Quàm interim erga Cognatos pius & officiofus, A MARIA PHILIPS Matre ipfius pientiffimâ, Dilecti Filii Memoriæ non fine Lacrymis dicatum. His Epitaph at Westminster : Herefordiæ conduntur Offa, Qui Viris bonis doctifque juxta charus, Litterarum Amoniorum fitim, Quam Wintonia Puer fentire cœperat, Præclaris Emulorum ftudiis excitatus, A Græcia A Græcis Latinifque fontibus feliciter deducta, Antiquo illo, libero, multiformi Uni in hoc laudis genere Miltono fecundus, Res feu Tenues, feu Grandes, feu Mediocres Nufquam, non quod decuit, Egregius, quocunque Stylum verteret, Aufo licèt à tuâ Metrorum Lege difcedere, Vatum certe Cineres, tuos undique ftipantium SIMON HARCOURT, Miles, Viri benè de fe, de Litteris meriti Poft Obitum piè memor, Hoc illi Saxum poni voluit, J. PHILIPS, STEPHANI, S. T. P. Archidiaconi In agro Oxon. Dec. 30, 1676. Philips has been always praised, without contradiction, as a man modeft, blamelefs, and pious; who bore narrowness of fortune without difcontent, and tedious |