Of his most popular book, his "Practical Treatise on Death," no less than thirty editions were called for, and Prior expressed the contemporary feeling when he called it "a nation's food." Addison also yielded conspicuous praise to Sherlock, who is nevertheless a writer of no great importance.-GOSSE, EDMUND, 1888, A History of Eighteenth Century Literature, p. 101.

He is competent in learning and in ability, well-bred, persuasive, not too enthusiastic, as the age was already beginning to say, and deeply imbued with that not unkindly but somewhat unheroic and intensely commonsense morality which dominated the religion and the literature of the next century. He has not the polish of the younger generation of those who admired him; but, on the other hand, he has still a touch of the older directness and simplicity. Above all, he is

completely free from the somewhat arrogant and insulting preponderance of intellect which made his elder contemporary and enemy, South, not exactly loved, and which made his younger contemporary, Bentley, feared and hated. He was too hardened a controversialist to show traces of the almost too abundant milk of human kindness which flowed in Tillotson; but there is nothing savage or overweening about him.-SAINTSBURY, GEORGE, 1894, English Prose, ed. Craik, vol. III, p. 299.

It ["Discourse"] is a model of clear and forcible writing, but on the lowest plane of unspiritual selfishness. "How unreasonable is it for us to trouble ourselves about this world longer than we are like to continue in it!" exclaims Sherlock, with the air of one apologizing for enunciating a truism.-GARNETT, RICHARD, 1895, The Age of Dryden, p. 228.

PERSONAL

Somewhat reserved and silent amongst strangers, but free, familiar, and easy with his friends; he was averse to disputes, and thought no time so ill spent, and no wit so ill used, as that which was employed in such debates; his whole life was distinguished by a natural goodness, and well-grounded and unaffected piety, an universal charity, and a steady adherence to his principles; no one observed the natural and civil duties of life with a stricter regard, whether a son, a friend, or a member of society, and he had the happiness to fill every one of these parts, without even the suspicion either of undutifulness, insincerity, or disrespect. Thus he continued to the last, not owing his virtues to the happiness of his constitution, but the frame of his mind, insomuch, that during a long sickness, which is apt to ruffle the smoothest temper, he never betrayed any discontent or uneasiness, the integrity of his life still

preserving the cheerfulness of his spirits; and if his friends had measured their hopes of his life, only by his unconcern in his sickness, they could not but conclude, that either his date would be much longer, or that he was at all times prepared for death.-SEWELL, GEORGE, 1763, Life of Philips.

Philips has been always praised, without contradiction, as a man modest, blameless, and pious; who bore narrowness of fortune without discontent, and tedious and painful maladies without impatience; beloved by those that knew him, but not ambitious to be known. He was probably not formed for a wide circle. His conversation is commended for its innocent gaiety, which seems to have flowed only among his intimates, for I have been told, that he was in company silent and barren, and employed only upon the pleasures of his pipe. His addiction to tobacco is mentioned by one of his biographers, who remarks that in all his writings,

except "Blenheim" he has found an opportunity of celebrating the fragrant fume. In common life he was probably one of those who please by not offending, and whose person was loved because his writings were admired. He died honoured and lamented, before any part of his reputation had withered, and before his patron St. John had disgraced him.-JOHNSON, SAMUEL, 1779–81, Philips, Lives of the English Poets.

THE SPLENDID SHILLING

1703

Philips's "Splendid Shilling" may have pleased, because its manner was new, and we often find people of the best sense throw away their admiration on monsters, which are seldom to be seen, and neglect more regular beauty, and juster proportion.-CIBBER, THEOPHILUS, 1753, Lives of the Poets, vol. III, p. 146.

This is reckoned the best parody of Milton in our language; it has been an hun

dred times imitated without success. The truth is, the first thing in this way must preclude all future attempts, for nothing is so easy as to burlesque any man's manner, when we are once shewed the way. -GOLDSMITH, OLIVER, 1767, The Beauties of English Poetry.

aye

in thy numbers, Phillips, shines for

The solitary Shilling.
-COWPER, WILLIAM, 1785, The Task, The
Garden.

John Philips was a young and lively writer, who, having succeeded in a burlesque, was unfortunately induced to attempt serious poetry, and devoted himself to it with a scholarly dulness which he would probably have seen the folly of in any one else. His serious imitations of Milton are not worth a penny; but his burlesque of the style of "Paradise Lost," though it no longer possesses the novelty which made it popular, is still welcome to the lover of wit. The low every-day circumstances, and the lofty classic manner with its nomenclatures, are happily

interwoven; the more trivial words are brought in with unlooked-for effect; the motto is particularly felicitous; and the comparison of the rent in the small-clothes with the ship that has sprung a leak at sea, and founders, concludes the poem with a tremendous and calamitous grand

eur, only to be equalled by the exclamation of the Spaniard; who said he had torn his "breeches, as if heaven and earth had come together."-HUNT, LEIGH, 1846, Wit and Humour, p. 274.

In style as in subject it was small coin glorified, perhaps the best piece of burlesque writing in our literature.-MORLiterature, ed. Tyler, p. 528. LEY, HENRY, 1879, A Manual of English

This parody still retains its humour.GOSSE, EDMUND, 1888, A History of Eighteenth Century Literature, p. 108.

GENERAL

Received then of Jacob Tonson forty guineas in full for the copy of a poem intituled "Cyder," in two books. -PHILIPS, JOHN, 1707, Agreement, Jan. 24.

The French are very just to eminent men in this point; not a learned man nor a poet can die, but all Europe must be acquainted with his accomplishments. They give praise and expect it in their turns: they commend their Patrus and Molieres as well as their Condes and Turennes; their Pellisons and Racines have their elegies, as well as the prince whom they celebrate; and their poems, their mercuries, and orations, nay their very gazettes, are filled with the praises of the learned. I am satisfied, had they a Philips among them, and known how to value him; had they one of his learning, his temper, but above all of that particular turn of humour, that altogether new genius, he had been an example to their poets, and a subject of their panegyricks, and perhaps set in competition with the ancients, to whom only he ought to submit. -SMITH, EDMUND, 1708? A Prefatory Discourse to the Poem of Mr. Philips, with a Character of His Writings.

Philips, by Phoebus and his Aldrich taught, Sings with that heat wherewith his Churchill fought,

Unfetter'd in great Milton's strain he writes,
Like Milton's angels, whilst his hero fights;
Pursues the bard whilst he with honour can,

Equals the poet and excels the man.
—TICKELL, THOMAS, 1733, Oxford.

Philips in his "Cyder" has succeeded. extremely well in his imitation of it ("Paradise Lost"), but was quite wrong in endeavouring to imitate it on such a subject.-POPE, ALEXANDER, 1734-36, Spence's Anecdotes, ed. Singer, p. 131.

GENERAL

One of the soundest and shrewdest of our older Divines.-DIBDIN, THOMAS FROGNALL, 1824, The Library Companion, p. 62, note.

Notwithstanding the popularity of this defence of the Nicene faith, and the learning it displays, the author was far from ending the controversy, or from satisfying all his readers. It was alleged, that he does not meet the question with which he deals; that the word ouoovorios being almost new at the time of the council, and being obscure and metaphysical in itself, required a precise definition to make the reader see his way before him, or, at least, one better than Bull has given, which the adversary might probably adopt without much scruple.-HALLAM, HENRY, 183739, Introduction to the Literature of Europe, pt. iv, ch. ii, par. 31.

One of the most learned divines whom our Church has produced, a man equal to Stillingfleet in the depth of his researches, and superior to him as a practical working clergyman. -PERRY, GEORGE C., 1864, History of the Church of England, vol. III.

When it ["Defensio"] was printed in 1685, it was most favourably received; its fame extended to foreign lands; it was mentioned with praise by the great Bossuet, bishop of Meaux, who, in his controversy with Jurieu, referred his adversary to "that learned English protestant, Dr. Bull." The "Defensio" was a very seasonable as well as a very valuable work; for not only the antitrinitarians, but also some of the believers in the Trinity-notably Petavius the jesuit, and Episcopius --denied that the ante-Nicene fathers held the same doctrines as those which were established at the council of Nicæa. Bull took upon himself to prove that they did. The "Defensio" was written in excellent Latin. It still remains the "locus classicus" of

that particular branch of the great trinitarian controversy with which it excluSively deals, and the objections which have been raised against it seem, partly at least, to have risen from what really is one of its chief merits. Bull showed great self-restraint in never being tempted to diverge from his proper subject (the opinions of the ante-Nicene fathers) into any of the other numerous questions connected with the doctrine of the Trinity; and consequently those who have looked for a satisfactory reply to any question except that to which Bull confined himself, have not found what they wanted.-OVERTON, J. H., 1886, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. VII, p. 237.

He received the rare honour of a formal letter of thanks from the great Bossuet and the French bishops for his defence of the Catholic creeds. His most famous works are his "Defensio Fidei Nicenæ," his "Harmonia Apostolica," and his sermons, particularly that treating of the Fall. As an historical and theological vindication of the work of the Nicene Council as the necessary and inevitable consequence of the teaching of the Bible. and the Church, Bull's defence has never been superseded. It was recognised at once as a great book, and the judgment of England was confirmed by that of foreign nations and posterity. The "Harmonia Apostolica,' an explanation of the doctrine of justification, and of the agreement between St. Paul and St. James in their treatment of faith and works, has been considered to have as great practical value. Scarcely less attention has been bestowed on his discussion of the Fall. It was the fashion to think lightly of his sermons, because they wanted the florid eloquence in which the age delighted. -HUTTON, WILLIAM HOLDEN, 1895, Social England, ed. Traill, vol. IV, p. 420.

PERSONAL

On Thursday last, June 7th, died Mr. Henry Dodwell, that great and good man, in the 70th year of his age, at Shottesbrooke, in Berks, where he had lived in a most retired, studious, private condition for several years. He died with the same piety with which he had always lived, and was buried on Saturday, June the 9th, in the church of Shottesbrooke. This extraordinary person might have reached an hundred years, if he had taken but ordinary care of his health. He was of small stature of body, but vigorous and healthy; of a brisk, facetious constitution, always chearful, even in the worst of times. He was humble and modest, to a fault. learning was above the common reach.

His

I take him to be the greatest scholar in Europe when he died; but, what exceeds that, his piety and sanctity was beyond compare. Had he indulged himself a little, and not abstained so much from even the ordinary refreshments of nature, 'twould certainly have conduced to the lengthening of his life; but a severe, steddy course of life, like the primitive Christians, and the most renowned philosophers, could not comply with those principles. His name will always be mentioned and spoke of with honour as long as there is any regard for true religion, virtue, probity, and learning. . . . As to his person, he was of a small stature of body, yet of a strong, vigorous constitution, chiefly owing to his abstemious and temperate way of living. He was of a sanguine complexion, of a grave, modest, ingenious countenance, of a piercing eye, and of a quick apprehension. He was acute and chearful in his discourse, ready and forward in his advice, and delighted to have difficult questions proposed to him for solution.-HEARNE, THOMAS, 1711, Reliquiæ Hearnianæ, ed. Bliss, June 15, vol. 1, pp. 227, 228, 229.

GENERAL

Dodwell's learning was immense; in this part of history especially (that of the Upper Empire) the most minute fact or passage could not escape him; and his skill in employing them is equal to his learning. The worst of this author is his method and style; the one perplexed beyond imagination, the other negligent to a degree of barbarism. GIBBON, EDWARD, 1762, Journal, June 8.

Its ["De Veteribus"] absurdity is so evident, that only the character of Dodwell, and the seriousness and labour with which he defended it, could persuade us to think that he believed it himself. The work is very curious, as a specimen of the torture to which a corrupted creed or system is capable of putting the Scriptures. It contains some singular remarks on the scriptural distinction between soul and spirit which is the foundation of his whole hypothesis.-ORME, WILLIAM, 1824, Bibliotheca Biblica.

He had perused innumerable volumes. in various languages, and had indeed acquired more learning than his slender faculties were able to bear. The small intellectual spark which he possessed was put out by the fuel. Some of his books. seem to have been written in a mad-house, and, though filled with proofs of his immense reading, degraded him to the level of James Naylor and Ludowick Muggleton. -MACAULAY, THOMAS BABINGTON, 1843, Critical and Historical Essays.

A man of wonderful, though very eccentric, erudition and talents.-PERRY, G. G., 1864, History of the Church of England.

Dodwell was a most voluminous writer on an immense variety of subjects, in all of which he showed vast learning, great ingenuity, and, in spite of some eccentricities, great power of reasoning.-OVERTON, J. H., 1888, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. xv, p. 180.