J. PHILIP S. OHN 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 minifter. The first part of his education was domestick, 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 exercises; 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 master 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 fome. body, whose service he found means to pro cure, At school he became acquainted with the poets ancient and modern, and fixed his attention particularly on Milton. In 1694 he entered himself at Christchurch; a college at that time in the highest reputation, by the tranfmiffion of Busby's fcholars 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 profeffion which he intended to follow was that of Phyfick; and he took much delight in natural history, of which botany was his favourite part. 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 ftruck the publick attention with a mode of writing new and unexpected. This performance raised him so high, that when Europe refounded with the victory of Blenheim, he was, probably with an occult oppofition to Addison, employed to deliver the acclamation of the Tories. It is faid 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 houfe of Mr. St. John. Blenheim was published in 1705, The next year produced his greatest 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 fhun the prefence of the original, He then grew probably more confident of his own abilities, and began to meditate a poem on the Laft day; a subject on which no mind can hope to equal expectation. This work he did not live to finish; his diseases, a flow confumption and an asthma, put a stop to his ftudies; and on Feb. 15, 1708, at the beginning of his thirty-third year, put an end to his life. He was buried in the cathedral of Hereford; and Sir Simon Harcourt, afterwards Lord Chancellor, gave him a monument in Weftminster Abbey. The infcription at Westminster was written, as I have heard, by Dr. Atterbury, though commonly given to Dr. Freind. His Epitaph at Hereford : JOHANNES PHILIPS Dom. 1708. Obiit 15 die Feb. Anno Etat. fuæ 32. Cujus Offa fi requiras, hanc Urnam inspice; Templum adi Westmonafterienfe : Quæ cenotaphium ibi decorat Infcriptio. Quàm interim erga Cognatos pius & officiofus, Teftetur hoc faxum A MARIA PHILIPS Matre ipfius pientiffimâ, Dilecti Filii Memoriæ non fine Lacrymis dicatum. His Epitaph at Westminster : Herefordiæ conduntur Offa, Eximiâ morum fimplicitate, Litterarum Amoniorum fitim, Quam Wintoniæ Puer fentire coeperat, Inter Edis Chrifti Alumnos jugiter explevit, In illo Mufarum Domicilio Præclaris Emulorum ftudiis excitatus, A Græcis Latinifque fontibus feliciter deducta, Antiquo illo, libero, multiformi Ad res ipfas apto prorfus, & attemperato, Non Numeris in eundem ferè orbem redeuntibus, Non Claufularum fimiliter cadentium fono Metiri: Uni in hoc laudis genere Miltono fecundus, બે Primoque |