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 of the commiffioners of trade. His life was bufy, and not long. He died in 1707; and is buried in Weftminster-Abbey, with this epitaph, which Jacob transcribed ; H. S. E. GEORGIUS STEPNEIUS, Armiger, Ob Ingenii acumen, Morum Suavitatem, Rerum Ufum, Virorum Ampliffimorum Confuetudinem Sua ætate multum celebratus, Spem in illo repofitam Poft longum honorum Curfum Brevî Temporis Spatio confectum, Cum Naturæ parum, Famæ fatis vixerat, On the Left Hand. G. S. Ex Equeftri Familia Stepneiorum, Sancti Petri Westmonaft. A. 1676. Frequentia, huc elatus, 1707. It is reported that the juvenile compofitions of Stepney made grey authors blush. I know not whether his poems will appear fuch wonders to the prefent age. One cannot always eafily find the reason for which the world has fometimes confpired to fquander praife. 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 publick honours, and are therefore not confidered as rivals by the distributors of fame. He apparently profeffed himself a poet, and added his name to thofe of the other wits in the verfion of Juvenal; but he is a very licentious tranflator, and does not recompenfe 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 fhort. compofition may give pleasure. But there is, in the whole, little either of the grace of wit, or the vigour of na ture. J. PHI J. PHILIPS. OHN PHILIPS was born on the 30th of De Jcember, 1676, at Bampton in Oxfordhire; of which place his father Dr. Stephen Philips, archdeacon of Salop, was minifter. The first part of his education was domeftick, after which he was fent to Winchester, where, as we are told by Dr. Sewel, his biographer, he was foon distinguished by the fuperiority of his exercifes; 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 mafter 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 fomebody, whose fervice he found means to procure At * Ifaac Voffius relates that he also delighted in having his hair combed when he could have it done by barbers or other perfons fkilled At fchool he became acquainted with the poets ancient and modern, and fixed his attention particularly on Milton. In 1694 he entered himself at Chrift-church; a college at that time in the highest reputation, by the tranfiniffion of Bufby's fcholars to the care firft of Fell, and afterwards of Aldrich. Here he was diftinguished as a genius eminent among the eminent, and for friendfhip 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 hiftory, 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 fo 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, fkilled in the rules of profody. Of the paffage that contains this ridiculous fancy, the following is a tranflation: "Many people "take delight in the rubbing of their limbs, and the combing of "their hair, but these exercises would delight much more, if the fervants at the baths, and of the barbers, were fo fkilful in this art, that they could exprefs any meafures with their fingers. I re"member that more than once I have fallen into the hands of men "of this fort, who could imitate auy measure of fongs in combing "the hair, so as fometimes to exprefs very intelligibly lambics, Tro"chees, Dactyls, &c. from whence there arose to me no small delight." See his Treatife De Poematum cantu & viribus Rythmi, Oxon. 1673, p. 52. 6. but 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 produced his greateft 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 fhuin the prefence of the original. He then grew probably more confident of his own abilities, and began to meditate a poem on the Last day; a fubject 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 mònument in Westminster Abbey. The infcription at Westminster was written, as I have heard, by Dr. Atterbury, though commonly given to Dr. Freind! VOL. II. His Epitaph at Hereford : JOHANNES PHILIPS Obiit 15 Cujus Etat. fuæ 32. Offa fi requiras, hanc Urnam infpice; Si Ingenium nefcias, ipfius Opera confule; Quàm |