SPR A T.

TH

HOMAS SPRAT was born in 1636, at Tallaton in Devonshire, the fon of a clergyman; and having been educated, as he tells of himself, not at Weftminster or Eaton, but at a little school by the churchyard fide, became a commoner of Wadham College in Oxford in 1651; and, being chosen scholar next year, proceeded through the ufual academical course, and in 1657 became master of arts. He obtained a fellowship, and commenced poet.

In 1659, his poem on the death of Oliver was published, with thofe of Dryden and Waller.

Waller. In his dedication to Dr. Wilkins he appears a very willing and liberal encomiast, both of the living and the dead. He implores his patron's excufe of his verses, both as falling fo infinitely below the full and fublime genius of that excellent poet who made this way of writing free of our nation, and being fo little equal and proportioned to the renown of the prince on whom they were written ; fuch great actions and lives deferving to be the fubject of the noblest pens and most divine phanfies. He proceeds: Having fo long experienced your care and indulgence, and been formed, as it were, by your own hands, not to entitle you to any thing which my meanness produces, would be not only injufice, but facrilege.

He published the fame year a poem on the Plague of Athens; a subject of which it is not easy to say what could recommend it. To these he added afterwards a poem on Mr. Cowley's death.

After the Restoration he took orders, and by Cowley's recommendation was made chaplain to the Duke of Buckingham, whom he

is

is faid to have helped in writing the Rebearfal. He was likewise chaplain to the king,

As he was the favourite of Wilkins, at whose house began those philosophical conferences and enquiries, which in time produced the Royal Society, he was confequently engaged in the fame ftudies, and became one of the fellows; and when, after their incorporation, fomething seemed neceffary to reconcile the publick to the new institution, he undertook to write its hiftory, which he published in 1667. This is one of the few books which felection of fentiment and elegance of diction have been able to preserve, though written upon a subject flux and tranfitory. The Hiftory of the Royal Society is now read, not with the wish to know what they were then doing, but how their tranfactions are exhibited by Sprat.

In the next year he published Obfervations on Sorbiere's Voyage into England, in a Letter to Mr. Wren. This is a work not ill performed; but perhaps rewarded with at least its full proportion of praise.

In 1668 he published Cowley's Latin poems, and prefixed in Latin the Life of the Author; which he afterwards amplified, and placed before Cowley's English works, which were by will committed to his care.

Ecclefiaftical benefices now fell fast upon him. In 1668 he became a prebendary of Westminster, and had afterwards the church of St. Margaret, adjoining to the Abbey. He was in 1680 made canon of Windfor, in 1683 dean of Westminster, and in 1684 bishop of Rochester,

The Court having thus a claim to his diligence and gratitude, he was required to write the Hiftory of the Ryehouse Plot; and in 1685 published A true Account and Declaration of the horrid Confpiracy against the late King, his prefent Majefty, and the preJent Government; a performance which he thought convenient, after the Revolution, to extenuate and excufe.

The fame year, being clerk of the closet to the king, he was made dean of the chapelroyal; and the year afterwards received the

laft

laft proof of his mafter's confidence, by being appointed one of the commiffioners for ecclefiaftical affairs. On the critical day, when the Declaration distinguished the true fons of the church of England, he ftood neuter, and permitted it to be read at West÷ minster; but preffed none to violate his confcience; and when the bishop of London was brought before them, gave his voice in his favour,

Thus far he fuffered intereft or obedience to carry him; but further he refused to go. When he found that the powers of the ecclefiaftical commiffion were to be exercised against those who had refused the Declaration, he wrote to the lords, and other commiffioners, a formal profeffion of his unwil lingness to to exercise that authority any longer, and withdrew himfelf from them, After they had read his letter, they adjourned for fix months, and fcarcely ever met afterwards.

When king James was frighted away, and a new government was to be fettled, Sprat was one of those who confidered, in a conference,

3.