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STEPNEY.

GEORGE STEPNEY, descended from the Stepneys of Pendigrast, in Pembrokeshire, was born at Westminster in 1663. Of his father's condition or fortune I have no account. Having received the first part of his education at Westminster, where he passed six years in the College, he went at nineteen to Cambridge, where he continued a friendship begun at school with Mr. Montague, afterwards Earl of Halifax. They came to London together, and are said to have been invited into public life by the Duke of Dorset.

His qualifications recommended him to many foreign employments, so that his time seems to have been spent in negotiations. In 1692 he was sent 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 Congress at Francfort; in 1698, a second time to Brandenburgh; in 1699, to the King of Poland; in 1701, again to the Emperor; and in 1706, to the States General. In 1697, he was made one

* Trinity College; where he took his Master's degree in 1689.

of the commissioners of trade.

and not long.

His life was busy,

He died in 1707; and is buried in

Westminster Abbey, with this epitaph, which Jacob

transcribed:

H. S. E.

GEORGIUS STEPNEIUS, ARMIGER,

VIR

OB INGENII ACUMEN,

LITERARUM SCIENTIAM,

MORUM SUAVITATEM,
RERUM USUM,

VIRORUM AMPLISSIMORUM CONSUETUDINEM.

LINGUÆ, STYLI, AC VITÆ ELEGANTIAM,

PRÆCLARA OFFICIA CUM BRITANNIA TUM EUROPÆ PRÆSTITA,
SUA ETATE MULTUM CELEBRATUS,

APUD POSTEROS SEMPER CELEBRANDUS;
PLURIMAS LEGATIONES OBIIT

EA FIDE, DILIGENTIA, AC FELICITATE,
UT AUGUSTISSIMORUM PRINCIPUM
GULIELMI ET ANNE

SPEM IN ILLO REPOSITAM

NUNQUAM FEFELLERIT,

HAUD RARO SUPERAVERIT.

POST LONGUM HONORUM CURSUM

BREVI TEMPORIS SPATIO CONFECTUM,

CUM NATURE PARUM, FAME SATIS VIXERAT,
ANIMAM AD ALTIORA ASPIRANTEM PLACIDE EFFLAVIT.

VOL. I.

On the Left Hand,

G. S.

EX EQUESTRI FAMILIA STEPNEIORUM,
DE PENDEGRAST, IN COMITATU
PEMBROCHIENSI ORIUNDUS,

WESTMONASTERII NATUS EST, A. D. 1663.
ELECTUS IN COLLEGIUM

SANCTI PETRI WESTMONAST. A. 1676.
SANCTI TRINITATIS CANTAB. 1682.
CONSILIARIORUM QUIBUS COMMERCI
CURA COMMISSA EST 1697.
CHELSEIÆ MORTUUS, ET, COMITANTE

MAGNA PROCERUM

FREQUENTIA, HUC ELATUS, 1707.

N

It is reported that the juvenile compositions of Stepney made grey authors blush. I know not whether his poems will appear such wonders to the present age. One cannot always easily find the reason for which the world has sometimes conspired to squander praise. 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 public honours, and are therefore not considered as rivals by the distributors of fame.

He apparently professed himself a poet, and added his name to those of the other wits in the version of Ivenal; but he is a very licentious translator, and does not recompense 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 composition may give pleasure. But there is, in the whole, little either of the grace of wit, or the vigour of nature.

J. PHILIPS.

AND

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 minister. The first part of his education was domestic; after which he was sent to Winchester, where, as we are told by Dr. Sewel, his biographer, he was soon distinguished by the superiority of his exercises; and, what is less easily to be credited, so much endeared himself to his schoolfellows by his civility and good-nature, that they, without murmur or ill-will, saw him indulged by the master with particular immunities. It is related, that, when he was at school, he seldom mingled in play with the other boys, but retired to his chamber; where his sovereign pleasure was to sit, hour after hour, while his hair was combed by somebody, whose service he found means to procure.

*

At school he became acquainted with the poets, ancient and modern, and fixed his attention particularly on Milton.

* Isaac Vossius relates, that he also delighted in having his hair combed when he could have it done by barbers or other persons skilled in the rules of prosody.

In 1694 he entered himself at Christ-church, a college at that time in the highest reputation, by the transmission of Busby's scholars to the care first of Fell, and afterwards of Aldrich. Here he was distinguished as a genius eminent among the eminent, and for friendship particularly intimate with Mr. Smith, the author of Phædra and Hippolytus.' The profession which he intended to follow was that of Physic; and he took much delight in Natural History, of which Botany was his favourite part.

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His reputation was confined to his friends and to the university; till about 1703 he extended it to a wider circle by the 'Splendid Shilling,' which struck the public attention with a mode of writing new and unexpected.

This performance raised him so high, that, when Europe resounded with the victory of Blenheim, he was, probably with an occult opposition to Addison, employed to deliver the acclamation of the Tories. It is said that he would willingly have declined the task, but that his friends urged it upon him. It appears that he wrote this poem at the house of Mr. St. John.

Blenheim' was published in 1705. The next year he 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 Georgic, which needed not shun the presence of the original.

He then grew probably more confident of his own abilities, and began to meditate a poem on the 'Last

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