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weather, on the coaft of Holland. His health afterwards declined; and on January 19, 1705-6, he died at Bath.

He was a man whofe elegance and judgement were univerfally confeffed, and whose bounty to the learned and witty was generally known. To the indulgent affection of the publick, Lord Rochester bore ample teftimony in this remark: I know not how it is, but Lord Buckhurst may do what he will, yet is never in the wrong.

If fuch a man attempted poetry, we cannot wonder that his works were praifed. Dryden, whom, if Prior tells truth, he diftinguished by his beneficence, and who lavished his blandifhments on thofe who are not known to have fo well deferved them, undertaking to produce authors of our own country fuperior to thofe of antiquity, fays, I would inftance your Lordfhip in fatire, and Shakspeare in tragedy. Would it be imagined that, of this rival to antiquity, all the fatires were little perfonal invectives, and that his longest compofition was a fong of eleven ftanzas?

The blame, however, of this exaggerated praise falls on the encomiaft, not upon the author; whose performances are, what they pretend to be, the effufions of a man of wit; gay, vigorous, and airy. His verfes to Howard fhew great fertility of mind; and his Dorinda has been imitated by Pope.

STEP

STEPNE Y.

GEORGE STEPNEY, defcended from the Stepneys of Pendigraft in Pembrokeshire, was born at Westminster in 1663. Of his father's condition or fortune I have no account. Having received the firft part of his education at Westminster, where he paffed fix years in the College, he went at nineteen to Cambridge, where he continued a friendship begun at fchool with Mr. Montague, afterwards Earl of Halifax. They came to London together, and are faid to have been invited into publick life by the Duke of Doriet.

His qualifications recommended him to many foreign employments, fo that his time feems to have been spent in negociations. In 1692 he was fent envoy to the Elector of Brandenburgh: in 1693, to the Imperial Court; in 1694, to the Elector of Saxony; in 1696, to the Electors of Mentz and Cologne, and the Congrefs at Francfort; in 1998, a fecond time to Brandenburgh; in 1699, to the King of Poland; in 1701, again to the Emperor; and in 1706,

*He was entered of Trinity College, and took his Master's degree in 1689. H.

to the States General. In 1697 he was made one of the commiffioners of trade. His life was bufy, and not long. He died in 1707; and is buried in Weftminster Abbey, with this epitaph, which Jacob tranfcribed:

H. S. E.

GEORGIUS STEPNEIUS, Armiger,
Vir

Ob Ingenii acumen,
Literarum Scientiam,

Morum Suavitatem,

Rerum Ufum,

Virorum Ampliffimorum Confuetudinem,
Linguæ, Styli, ac Vitæ Elegantiam,

Præclara Officia cum Britanniæ tum Europæ præftita,
Sua ætate multum celebratus,
Apud pofteros femper celebrandus;
Plurimas Legationes obiit

Ea Fide, Diligentia, ac Felicitate,
Ut Auguftiffimorum Principum
Gulielmi & Annæ

Spem in illo repofitam
Nunquam fefellerit,
Haud raro fuperaverit.
Poft longum honorum Curfum
Brevi Temporis Spatio confectum,
Cum Naturæ parum, Famæ fatis vixerat,
Animam ad altiora afpirantem placide efflavit.

On the Left hand,

G. S.

Ex Equeftri Familia Stepneiorum,
De Pendegraft, in Comitatu

Pembrochienfi oriundus,

Weftmonafterii natus eft, A. D. 1663.

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Ele&us

Electus in Collegium

Sancti Petri Weftinonaft. A. 1676.
Sancti Trinitatis Cantab. 1682.
Confiliariorum quibus Commercii
Cura commiffa eft 1697.
Chelfeiæ mortuus, &, comitante
Magna Procerum

Frequentia, huc elatus, 1707.

It is reported that the juvenile compofitions of Stepney made grey authors blush. I know not whether his poems will appear fuch wonders to the present age. One cannot always easily find the reafon for which the world has fometimes confpired to fquander praife. It is not very unlikely that he wrote very early as well as he ever wrote; and the performances of youth have many favourers, because the authors yet lay no claim to publick honours, and are therefore not confidered as rivals by the diftributors of fame.

He apparently profeffed himself a poet, and added his name to thofe of the other wits in the verfion of Juvenal; but he is a very licentious tranflator, and does not recompenfe his neglect of the author by beauties of his own. In his original poems, now and then, a happy line may perhaps be found, and now and then a short compofition may give pleasure. But there is, in the whole, little either of the grace of wit, or the vigour of nature.

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J. PHILIP S

JOHN PHILIPS was born on the 30th of De cember, 1676, at Bampton in Oxfordshire; of which place his father Dr. Stephen Philips, archdeacon of Salop, was minifter. The first 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 fchoolfellows 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 passage that contains this ridiculous fancy, the following is a tranflation: "Many

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