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Ego nec ftudium fine divite venâ,

"Nec rude quid profit video ingenium; alterius fic
"Altera pofcit opem res, & conjurat amice."

He was endowed by Nature with all those excellent and neceffary qualifications which are previous to the accomplishment of a great man. His memory was large and tenacious, yet by a curious felicity chiefly fufceptible of the fineft impreffions it received from the best authors he read, which it always preferved in their primitive ftrength and amiable. order.

He had a quickness of apprehenfion, and vivacity of understanding, which eafily took-in and fur- . mounted the moft fubtle and knotty parts of mathematicks and metaphyficks. His wit was prompt and flowing, yet folid and piercing; his tafte delicate, his head clear, and his way of expreffing his thoughts perfpicuous and engaging. I fhall fay nothing of his perfon, which yet was fo well turned, that no neglect of himself in his drefs could render it difagreeable; infomuch that the fair fex, who observed and esteemed him, at once commended and reproved him by the name of the handfome floven. An eager but generous and noble emulation grew up with him; which (as it were a rational fort of inftinct) pushed him upon ftriving to excel in every art and science that could make him a credit to his college, and that college the ornament of the most learned and polite univerfity; and it was his happinefs to have feveral contemporaries and fellowftudents who exercifed and excited this virtue in themselves and others, thereby becoming fo deferv

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edly in favour with this age, and fo good a proof of its nice difcernment. His judgement, naturally good, foon ripened into an exquifite fineness and diftinguishing fagacity, which as it was active and bufy, fo it was vigorous and manly, keeping even paces with a rich and ftrong imagination, always upon the wing, and never tired with afpiring. Hence it was, that, though he writ as young as Cowley, he had no puerilities; and his earliest productions were so far from having any thing in them mean and trifling, that, like the junior compofitions of Mr. Stepney, they may make grey authors blufh. There are many of his firft effays in oratory, in epigram, elegy, and epique, ftill handed about the univerfity in manufcript, which fhew a masterly hand; and, though maimed and injured by frequent tranfcribing, make their way into our most celebrated mifcellanies, where they fhine with uncommon luftre. Befides thofe verses in the Oxford books, which he could not help fetting his name to, feveral of his compofitions came abroad under other names, which his own fingular modefty, and faithful filence, ftrove in vain to conceal. The Enconia and publick Collections of the Univerfity upon State Subjects were never in fuch esteem, either for elegy and congratulation, as when he contributed moft largely to them; and it was natural for thofe, who knew his peculiar way of writing, to turn to his fhare in the work, as by far the most relishing part of the entertainment. As his parts were extraordinary, fo he well knew how to improve them; and not only to polish the diamond, but enchase it in the moft folid and durable metal. Though he was an academick the greatest

part

part of his life, yet he contracted no fournefs of temper, no fpice of pedantry, no itch of difputation, or obftinate contention for the old or new philofophy, no affuming way of dictating to others, which are faults (though excufable) which fome are infenfibly led into, who are conftrained to dwell long within the walls of a private college. His converfation was pleasant and inftructive; and what Horace faid of Plotius, Varius, and Virgil, might juftly be applied to him:

"Nil ego contulerim jucundo fanus Amico."

Sat. v. 1. 1.

As correct a writer as he was in his moft elaborate pieces, he read the works of others with candour, and referved his greateft feverity for his own compofitions; being readier to cherifh and advance, than damp or deprefs, a rifing genius, and as patient of being excelled himfelf (if any could excel him) as induftrious to excel others.

"Twere to be wifhed he had confined himself to a particular profeffion, who was capable of furpaffing in any; but, in this, his want of application was in a great meafure owing to his want of due encourage

ment.

He paffed through the exercises of the college and univerfity with unufual applaufe; and though he often fuffered his friends to call him off from his retirements, and to lengthen out thofe jovial avocations, yet his return to his ftudies were fo much the more paffionate, and his intention upon thofe refined pleasures of reading and thinking fo vehement (to which his facetious and unbended intervals bore no

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proportion), that the habit grew upon him, and the feries of meditation and reflection being kept up whole weeks together, he could better fort his ideas, and take in the fundry parts of a science at one view, without interruption or confufion. Some indeed of his acquaintance, who were pleafed to diftinguifh between the wit and the fcholar, extolled him altogether on the account of thefe titles; but others, who knew him better, could not forbear doing him juftice as a prodigy in both kinds. He had fignalized himself, in the schools, as a philofopher and polemick of extenfive knowledge and deep penetration; and went through all the courses with a wife regard to the dignity and importance of each science. I remember him in the Divinity-fchool refponding and difputing with a perfpicuous energy, a ready exactnefs, and commanding force of argument, when Dr. Jane worthily prefided in the chair; whofe condefcending and difinterested commendation of him gave him fuch a reputation as filenced the envious malice. of his enemies, who durft not contradict the approbation of fo profound a mafter in theology. None of thofe felf-fufficient creatures, who have either trifled with philofophy, by attempting to ridicule it, or have encumbered it with novel terms and burdenfome explanations, understood its real weight and purity half fo well as Mr. Smith. He was too difcerning to allow of the character of unprofitable, rugged, and abftrufe, which fome fuperficial fciolifts (fo very fmooth and polite as to admit of no impreffion), either out of an unthinking indolence, or an illgrounded prejudice, had affixed to this fort of ftudies. He knew the thorny terms of philofophy

ferved well to fence-in the true doctrines of religion; and looked upon fchool-divinity as upon a rough but well-wrought army, which might at once adorn. and defend the Chriftian hero, and equip him for the

combat.

Mr. Smith had a long and perfect intimacy with all the Greek and Latin Clafficks; with whom he had carefully compared whatever was worth perufing in the French, Spanish, and Italian (to which languages he was no ftranger), and in all the celebrated writers of his own country. But then, according to the curious obfervation of the late Earl of Shaftefbury, he kept the poet in awe by regular criticism; and, as it were, married the two arts for their mutual fupport and improvement. There was not a tract of credit, upon that fubject, which he had not diligently examined, from Aristotle down to Hedelin and Boffu; fo that, having each rule conftantly before him, he could carry the art through every poem, and at once point out the graces and deformities. By this means he feemed to read with a defign to correct, as well as imitate.

Being thus prepared, he could not but tafte every little delicacy that was fet before him; though it was impoffible for him at the fame time to be fed and nourished with any thing but what was fubftantial and lafting. He confidered the ancients and moderns not as parties or rivals for fame, but as Architects upon one and the fame plan, the Art of Poetry; according to which he judged, approved, and blamed, without flattery or detraction. If he did not always commend the compofitions of others, it was not ill-nature (which was not in his temper), but ftrict

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