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A man, who, under poverty, calamities, and dif appointments, could make fo many friends, and those fo truly valuable, must have juft and noble ideas of the paffion of friendship, in the fuccefs of which confifted the greatest, if not the only, happiness of his life. He knew very well what was due to his birth, though Fortune threw him fhort of it in every other circumftance of life. He avoided making any, though perhaps reafonable, complaints of her dif penfations, under which he had honour enough to be eafy, without touching the favours fhe flung in his way when offered to him at a price of a more durable reputation. He took care to have no dealings with mankind, in which he could not be just ; and he defired to be at no other expence in his pretenfions than that of intrinfick merit, which was the only burthen and reproach he ever brought upon his friends, He could fay, as Horace did of himself, what I never yet saw translated :

"Meó fum pauper in ære."

At his coming to town, no man was more furrounded by all those who really had or pretended to wit, or more courted by the great men, who had then a power and opportunity of encouraging arts and fciences, and gave proofs of their fondnefs for the name of Patron in many inftances, which will ever be remembered to their glory. Mr. Smith's character grew upon his friends by intimacy, and out-went the ftrongeft prepoffeffions which had been conceived in his favour. Whatever quarrel a few four creatures, whofe obfcurity is their happiness, may poffibly have to the age; yet amidst a studied

neglect,

neglect, and total difufe of all thofe ceremonial attendances, fashionable equipments, and external recommendation, which are thought neceffary introductions into the grande monde, this gentleman was fo happy as ftill to pleafe; and whilft the rich, the gay, the noble, and honourable, saw how much he excelled in wit and learning, they eafily forgave him all other differences. Hence it was that both his acquaintance and retirements were his own free choice. What Mr. Prior obferves upon a very great character was true of him, that most of his faults brought their excufe with them.

Those who blamed him moft understood him leaft, it being the cuftom of the vulgar to charge an excess upon the most complaifant, and to form a character by the morals of a few, who have fometimes fpoiled an hour or two in good company. Where only fortune is wanting to make a great name, that fingle exception can never pafs upon the beft judges and moft equitable obfervers of mankind; and when the time comes for the world to fpare their pity, we may juftly enlarge our demands upon them for their admiration.

Some few years before his death, he had engaged himself in feveral confiderable undertakings; in all which he had prepared the world to expect mighty things from him. I have feen about ten fheets of his English Pindar, which exceeded any thing of that kind I could ever hope for in our own language. He had drawn out a plan of a tragedy of the Lady Jane Grey, and had gone through feveral scenes of it. But he could not well have bequeathed that work to better hands than where, I hear, it is at pre

fent lodged; and the bare mention of two fuch names may juftify the largeft expectations, and is fufficient to make the town an agreeable invitation.

His greatest and nobleft undertaking was Longinus. He had finished an entire tranflation of the Sublime, which he fent to the reverend Mr. Richard Parker, a friend of his, late of Merton College, an exact critick in the Greek tongue, from whom it came to my hands. The French verfion of Monfieur Boileau, though truly valuable, was far fhort of it. He propofed a large addition to this work, of notes and obfervations of his own, with an entire fyftem of the Art of Poetry, in three books, under the titles of Thought, Diction, and Figure. I saw the last of these perfect, and in a fair copy, in which he fhewed prodigious judgement and reading; and particularly had reformed the Art of Rhetorick, by reducing that vaft and confused heap of terms, with which a long fucceffion of pedants had encumbered the world, to a very narrow compafs, comprehending all that was useful and ornamental in poetry. Under each head and chapter; he intended to make remarks upon all the ancients and moderns, the Greek, Latin, English, French, Spanish, and Italian poets, and to note their feveral beauties and defects.

What remains of his works is left, as I am informed, in the hands of men of worth and judgement, who loved him. It cannot be fuppofed they would fupprefs any thing that was his, but out of respect to his memory, and for want of proper hands to finish what fo great a genius had begun.

SUCH

SUCH is the declamation of Oldifworth, written while his admiration was yet fresh, and his kindness warm; and therefore fuch as, without any criminal purpose of deceiving, fhews a ftrong defire to make the moft of all favourable truth. I cannot much commend the performance. The praife is often indiftinct, and the sentences are loaded with words of more pomp than ufe. There is little, however, that can be contradicted, even when a plainer tale comes to be told.

EDMUND NEALE, known by the name of Smith, was born at Handley, the feat of the Lechmeres, in Worcesterfhire. The year of his birth is uncertain *.

He was educated at Weftminster. It is known to have been the practice of Dr. Bufby to detain thofe youth long at fchool, of whom he had formed the highest expectations. Smith took his mafter's degree on the 8th of July, 1696; he therefore was probably admitted into the univerfity in 1689, when we may fuppofe him twenty years old.

His reputation for literature in his college was fuch as has been told; but the indecency and licentioufnefs of his behaviour drew upon him, Dec. 24, 1694, while he was yet only Bachelor, a public admonition, entered upon record, in order to his expulfion. Of this reproof the effect is not known. He was probably lefs notorious. At Oxford, as we all know, much will be forgiven to literary merit;

By his epitaph he appears to have been 42 years old when he died. He was confequently born in the year 1668. R.

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and of that he had exhibited fufficient evidence by his excellent ode on the death of the great Orientalift, Dr. Pocock, who died in 1691, and whofe praise muft have been written by Smith when he had been but two years in the university.

This ode, which clofed the fecond volume of the Mufa Anglicana, though perhaps fome objections may be made to its Latinity, is by far the beft Lyrick compofition in that collection: nor do I know where to find it equalled among the modern writers. It expreffes, with great felicity, images not claffical in claffical diction: its digreffions and returns have been deservedly recommended by Trapp as models for imitation.

He had feveral imitations from Cowley:

Teftitur hinc tot fermo coloribus
Quot tu, Pococki, diffimilis tui
Orator effers, quot viciffim

Te memores celebrare gaudent.

I will not commend the figure which makes the orator pronounce the colours, or give to colours memory and delight. I quote it, however, as an imitation of these lines:

So many languages he had in ftore,

That only Fame shall speak of him in more.

The fimile, by which an old man, retaining the fire of his youth, is compared to Etna flaming through the fnow, which Smith has used with great pomp, is ftolen from Cowley, however little worth the labour of conveyance. VOL. X.

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