men, who appointed a committee to treat with the College, and fettle the mode of adminiftering the charity. It was defired by the aldermen, that the testimonials of churchwardens and overseers fhould be admitted; and that all hired fervants, and all apprentices to handicraftsmen, fhould be confidered as poor. This likewife was granted by the College. It was then confidered who should distribute the medicines, and who fhould fettle their prices. The phyficians procured fome apothecaries to undertake the difpenfation, and offered that the warden and company of the apothecaries fhould adjust the price. This offer was rejected; and the apothecaries who had engaged to affift the charity were considered as traitors to the company, threatened with the impofition of troublefome offices, and deterred from the performance of their engagements. The apothecaries ventured upon public oppofition, and prefented a kind of remonftrance againft the defign to the committee of the city, which the phyficians condefcended to confute and at last the traders feem to have prevailed among the fons of trade; for the propofal of the College having been confidered, a paper of approbation was drawn up, but poftponed and forgotten. : The phyficians ftill perfifted; and in 1696 a fubfcription was raised by themselves, according to an agreement prefixed to the Dispensary. The poor were for a time fupplied with medicines ; for how long a time, I know not. The medicinal charity, like others, began with ardour, but foon remitted, and at last died gradually away. About About the time of the fubfcription begins the action of the Difpenfary. The Poem, as its fubject was prefent and popular, co-operated with paffions and prejudices then prevalent, and, with fuch auxiliaries to its intrinfick merit, was universally and liberally applauded. It was on the fide of charity against the intrigues of interest, and of regular learning against licentious ufurpation of medical authority, and was therefore naturally favoured by those who read and can judge of poetry. In 1697, Garth spoke that which is now called the Harveian Oration; which the authors of the Biographia mention with more praise than the pasfage quoted in their notes will fully justify. Garth, fpeaking of the mischief done by quacks, has thefe expreffions: "Non tamen telis vulnerat ista "agyrtarum colluvies, fed theriacâ quadam magis "perniciofa, non pyrio, fed pulvere nefcio quo "exotico certat, non globulis plumbeis, fed pilulis 66 æque lethalibus interficit." This was certainly thought fine by the author, and is ftill admired by his biographer. In October 1702 he became one of the cenfors of the College. Garth, being an active and zealous Whig, was a member of the Kit-cat club, and by confequence familiarly known to all the great men of that denomination. In 1710, when the government fell into other hands, he writ to lord Godolphin, on his difmiffion, a short poem, which was criticifed in the Examiner, and fo fuccefsfully either defended or excufed by Mr. Addison, that, for the fake of the vindication, it ought to be preserved. S 2 At At the acceffion of the prefent Family his merits were acknowledged and rewarded. He was knighted with the fword of his hero, Marlborough; and was made phyfician in ordinary to the king, and physician-general to the army. He then undertook an edition of Ovid's Metamorphofes, tranflated by several hands; which he recommended by a Preface, written with more oftentation than ability: his notions are halfformed, and his materials immethodically confufed. This was his last work. He died Jan. 18, 1717-18, and was buried at Harrow-on-the-Hill. His perfonal character feems to have been focial and liberal. He communicated himself through a very wide extent of acquaintance; and though firm in a party, at a time when firmnefs included virulence, yet he imparted his kindness to thofe who were not supposed to favour his principles. He was an early encourager of Pope, and was at once the friend of Addifon and of Granville. He is accused of voluptuoufnefs and irreligion; and Pope, who says that "if ever there was a good "Christian, without knowing himself to be so, it 66 was Dr. Garth," feems not able to deny what he is angry to hear and loth to confefs. Pope afterwards declared himfelf convinced that Garth died in the communion of the Church of Rome, having been privately reconciled. It is obferved by Lowth, that there is less distance than is thought between scepticism and popery, and that a mind wearied with perpetual doubt, willingly feeks repofe in the bosom of an infallible church. His poetry has been praised at leaft equally to its merit. In the Difpenfary there is a strain of fmooth and free verfification; but few lines are eminently elegant. No paffages fall. below mediocrity, and few rife much above it. The plan feems formed without juft proportion to the fubject; the means and end have no neceffary connection. Refnel in his Preface to Pope's Effay, remarks, that Garth exhibits no discrimination of characters; and that what any one fays might with equal propriety have been faid by another. The general defign is perhaps open to criticifm; but the compofition can feldom be charged with inaccuracy or negligence. The author never flumbers in felf-indulgence; his full vigour is always exerted; scarce a line is left unfinished, nor is it easy to find an expreffion used by constraint, or a thought imperfectly expreffed. It was remarked by Pope, that the Difpenfary had been corrected in every edition, and that every change was an improvement. It appears, however, to want fomething of poetical ardour, and fomething of general delectation; and therefore, fince it has been no longer fupported by accidental and extrinfick pularity, it has been scarcely able to support itself. po S 3 ROWE. ROWE. N His TICHOLAS ROWE was born at Little Beckford in Bedfordshire, in 1673. family had long poffeffed a confiderable eftate, with a good houfe, at Lambertoun * in Devonshire. The ancestor from whom he defcended in a direct line, received the arms borne by his defcendants for his bravery in the Holy War. His father John Rowe, who was the first that quitted his paternal acres to practise any art of profit, profeffed the law, and published Benlow's and Dallifon's Reports in the reign of James the Second, when, in oppofition to the notions then diligently propagated, of difpenfing power, he ventured to remark how low his authors rated the rogative. He was made a ferjeant, and died April 30, 1692. He was buried in the Temple Church. pre Nicholas was first fent to a private fchool at Highgate; and being afterwards removed to Weftminster, was at twelve years chofen one of the * In the Villare Lamerton. |