been so happily termed the "Corinthian column") of the British constitution. Mr. Collins married about the year 1708; died in 1760; and was interred in the parish church of Battersea, in Surrey. He had issue several children; of whom one son only survived him, viz. Arthur Tooker Collins, Esq. who died on the 4th of January, 1793 (a major-general in the service, and commandant of the Plymouth division of marines); closing in London a life of honourable service, zeal, and integrity. David Collins, Esq. who has lately favoured the public with an ample and interesting "Account of the English Settlement in New South Wales," is a son of Major-Gen. Collins above mentioned; and it is chiefly from data which I procured from this gentleman, that the foregoing sketch of his grandfather has been written. 1799, April. S. J. XXVII. Anecdotes of the Rev. Dr. JOHN FOSTER, of Eton. MR. URBAN, Windsor, Dec. 12. THE following Epitaph, for its novelty and peculiarity, is offered to you; it claims an asylum in your very valuable Miscellany, as many will there contemplate it, who received their education under the learned man who undoubtedly wrote it for himself. It is to be seen on a neat tomb erected in the church-yard of this place: Hic jaceo JOHANNES FOSTER, S. T. P. Literas, quarum rudimenta Etona hauseram, Qui fuerim ex hoc marmore cognosces, Eo scilicet supremo tempore, Quo egomet, qualis et tu fueris, cognoscam. Ut ibidem bonus ipse tunc appareas. Dr. Foster was the son of a tradesman of this place; the propinquity of it to Eton was fortunately for him the motive for sending him to Eton college for his education, where, at a very early age, he manifested great abilities, and, in an uncommon manner, baffled all the hardships which other boys in their progress usually encounter. He however had two considerable advantages; the first, being received as a pupil by the late Rev. Septimus Plumptre, then one of the assistants; and the second, that he was noticed by the reverend and very learned Dr. John Burton, vice-provost of Eton; by the abilities of the former in the Greek language, and of the latter in the Hebrew, Mr. Foster profited exceedingly. It was a matter highly pleasing to them, that they did not throw their seed on a barren soil; whatever instruction he received, he cultivated incessantly; and it is but justice to add, he in a great measure excelled bis contemporaries. His learning and his sobriety recommended him to many friends while he continued at Eton, which was till 1748, when he was elected at King's college, in Cambridge; a college to which, as Mr. Pote observes in his advertisement to his "Registrum Regale," Eton annually sendeth forth her ripe fruit. Mr. Foster here improved himself under the late provost, Dr. William George, a Grecian and a scholar. At the expiration of three years he there (as usual) became a fellow, and shortly afterwards was sent for to Eton by the late Dr. Edward Barnard, to be one of his assistants. Great honour was sure to attend Mr. Foster by this summons, for no man distinguished better, or could form a stronger judgment, of his abilities and capacity than Dr. Barnard; and such was his attention to the school, that he made it his primary consideration, that it should be supplied with assistants the most capable and the most deserving. Dr. Barnard not only chose with judgment, but managed with delicacy. There was a pleasantry in his conversation, which led to the point, and rendered the detestable practice of flagellation almost unnecessary. Dr. Barnard could rally the affections of his scholars in a most peculiar manner. He excited love, and he could impress fear, with wonderful management. Boys that would have been hardened by the infliction of punishment, cringed from his rebuke; the smarts would wear off, but his reprobation never could. The sons of the first nobility were committed to his care, who afterwards made the greatest figure in the world: by a mere knowledge of the classics they could not have done so; but the Doctor, in their early days, worked upon their feelings. There was a dignity in his manner, a certain greatness in his mode, which excited, whilst it instilled, the principles of a gentleman. It is to be observed, Dr. Barnard had not ploughed through the inferior offices of assistant and undermaster; he came at once fresh to the business, and, delighted with the situation, his mind was given to the duties of his office; he worked by persuasion, and he certainly had a great acquaintance with men and manners. The little distractions which disturb the school now and then, were less frequent in his time than since; he restrained the rebellious ardour by such a strain of nervous eloquence, as defeated it at its dawn; in short, few masters, except the great Dr. Snape, exceeded him in politeness, in management, in delicacy, or in attention. At the resignation of this great master, which happened October 25, 1765, being chosen Provost on the death of Dr. Sleech, he exerted his whole interest for Dr. Foster to succeed him in the mastership, and by his weight in the college he carried his point. But it did not prove fortunate for his successor, or for the seminary; the temper, the manner, the persuasion, the politeness, the knowledge of the world, which Dr. Barnard so eminently displayed, did not appear in his successor. His learning justly entitled him; but learning is not the sole ingredient to constitute the master of such a school; more, much more, is required: and Dr. Foster appeared to a greater disadvantage, immediately succeeding so great a man. Nor could he long support himself in his situation; his passions undermined his health, and, notwithstanding his abilities as a scholar, his government was defective, his authority insufficient, and he judged it best to resign, that he might not destroy a fabric which he found himself unequal to support. He wisely chose to withdraw himself rather than to suffer a foundation to which he was under so great obligations to be ruined. Dr. Foster, however, did not retire unrewarded; his Majesty, on the death of Dr. Sumner, in 1772, bestowed on him a canonry of Windsor. But this he did not long enjoy; his health carried him to the German Spa, where he died in September the year following; and where his remains were interred, but afterwards removed to Windsor, and were re-deposited near those of his father, who had been mayor of the corporation. Dr. Foster published "An Essay on the different Nature of Accent and Quantity, with their use and application in the pronunciation of the English, Latin, and Greek Languages: Containing, an Account and Explanation of the Ancient Tones, and a Defence of the present System of Greek Accentual Marks, against the Objections of Isaac Vossius, Henninius, Sarpedonius, Dr. Gally, and others." This learned Essay sufficiently exalted his character as a scholar; it was printed for Mr. Pote, in 1762. Divers exercises of the Doctor's are extant in MS. which also do him peculiar honour. 1783, Dec. MR. URBAN, Jan. 9. I was glad, as great numbers doubtless have been besides, to see announced in your useful Repository for last month, some account of the late Master of Eton, Dr. Foster: but in the perusal my satisfaction by no means equalled the pleasure I had promised myself from the subject; though as a composition there is no ordinary merit in the narrative. It does justice, so far as a brief and general acknowledgement can do to his singular qualifications as a scholar; ta which testimony has been borne by almost every one of his contemporaries who have been eminent in literature. It digresses copiously and warmly into an encomium on the late Provost. The writer of these remarks had the honour and happiness to be educated under both, For the memory of both he feels his share of the public veneration, and acknowledges particular obligations that would impel him to speak more largely, from the fulness of his heart, if he might escape the censure of vanity and self-indulgence. Both were men of eminent talents, and have highly merited of the public in the arduous office of presiding over education in so great a seminary. As my present object is to discharge, how inadequately soever, a tribute of respect to the memory of Dr. Foster, let me be permitted to express my astonishment that he should be treated as a mere classical scholar, and, by a contrast somewhat invidiously presented, all his other endowments cast into shadow. He was a man that, just to his own talents, and faithful to the institution of which he sustained the dignity, exerted himself by discipline, by reward, by liberal and impartial commendation, to diffuse the splendor of Grecian glory in an age which gave but too many marks of declining taste and vitiated manners. With the classics of our own age and country he was perhaps not so familiar as his distinguished predecessor, though Shakespeare, Milton, Akenside, and that truly classical poem on Cyder, our English Georgic, were not unfrequently introduced to illustrate similar passages of antiquity, or notice the conformity of kindred genius. Many judicious observations, happily insinuating the principles of a correct and pure taste, and animating to a love of virtue, were suggested daily by Dr. Foster. His favourite, above all productions of the Roman poetry, was the Georgics, though, in a detached view, he considered many of those parts of Lucretius, where the philosopher drops his Epicurean subtleties and soars into the poet, as perfect models in diction and sentimental harmony. He had much esteem for the nervous character and originality of manner of Plautus; but above all was his delight in the simply and sweetly great, the sublime, the ardently patriotic Demosthenes. The force of invention, the chastity of diction, the skill and energy of argument, the powers of composition, the divine enthusiasm of that noblest and most perfect of orators, he felt, he analysed, he represented, in a manner suitable to his strong and acute discrimination, his consummate knowledge of the language, and his true sensibility. He was indeed a lover of truth, virtue, and freedom: the glorious resistance of the Corsicans, and whatever in modern or ancient history could cherish the flame of social duty, the sense of unbending rectitude, openness and simplicity of manners, he was fond of impressing on our minds, and suggesting for our exercises. I speak not as if this were his exclusive praise: others before and since will have their merited portion: but I think it is hardly possible that his zeal in these great points of education can be more than equalled, or his judgment excelled. His memory was great, and, joined with a clear and firm intellect, prevented any embarrassment in his ideas from the immensity of his reading. He was a strict and equal disciplinarian; mild to natural infirmity, which he pitied and screened from the ridicule of youthful companions of quicker parts. Instances have been known of his discovery of talents under unpromising appearances, and giving to such minds the cultivation adapted to differences of temper so peculiarly nice and latent. Severe against all immorality, he was inexorable in his rigour against the fatal meanness of a lie; not fond of the ludicrous, though not insensible to humour. Some may recollect an instance of his commending the ingenuity of a burlesque exercise composed on a serious theme, but at the same time, with Spartan exactness, punishing the fault of having substituted the ridiculous for the useful. He was nearly of the same opinion with Blackwell on the style of the New Testament, at least so far as to vindicate many expressions by the best authority, that have been K + |