Here such as for their country wounds received, Or, who by arts invented life improv❜d,

Or by deserving made themselves remembered.—

And, indeed, the character of heroic virtue seem to be, in short, the deserving well of mankind. Where this is chief in design, and great in success, the pretence to a hero lies very fair, and can never be allowed without it.

I have said, that this excellency of genius must be native, because it can never grow to any great height, if it be only acquired or affected; but it must be ennobled by birth, to give it more lustre, esteem, and authority; it must be cultivated by education and instruction, to improve its growth, and direct its end and application; and it must be assisted by fortune, to preserve it to maturity; because the noblest spirit or genius in the world, if it falls, though never so bravely, in its first enterprises, cannot deserve enough of mankind, to pretend to so great a reward as the esteem of heroic virtue. And yet, perhaps, many a person has died in the first battle or adventure he achieved, and lies buried in silence and oblivion, who, had he outlived as many dangers as Alexander did, might have shined as bright in honour and fame. Now since so many stars go to the making up of this constellation, 'tis no wonder it has so seldom appeared in the world;

her that, when it does, it is received and followed with so much gazing, and so much veneration.

Among the simpler ages or generations of men, in several countries, those who were the first inventors of arts generally received and applauded as most nécessary or useful to human life, were honoured alive, and after death worshipped as gods. And so were those who had been the first authors of any good and well-instituted civil government in any country, by which the native inhabitants were reduced from savage and brutish lives, to the safety and convenience of societies, the enjoyment of property, the observance of orders, and the obedience of laws; which were followed by security, plenty, civility, riches, industry, and all kinds of arts. The evident advantages and common benefits of these sorts of institutions, made people generally inclined at home to obey such governors, the neighbour nations to esteem them, and thereby willingly enter into their protection, or easily yield to the force of their arms and prowess. Thus conquests began to be made in the world, and upon the same designs of reducing barbarous nations unto civil and well-regulated constitutions and governments, and subduing those by force to obey them, who refused to accept willingly the advantages of life or condition that were thereby offered them. Such persons of old, who excelling in those virtues, were attended by these fortunes, and made great and famous conFf

VOL. III.

quests, and left them under good constitutions of laws and governments; or who instituted excellent and lasting orders and frames of any political state, in what compass soever of country, or under what names soever of civil government, were obeyed as princes or law-givers in their own times, and were called in after-ages by the name of heroes.

From these sources, I believe, may be deduced all or most of the theology or idolatry of all the ancient pagan countries, within the compass of the four great empires, so much renowned in story; and perhaps of some others, as great in their constitutions, and as extended in their conquests, though not se much celebrated or observed by learned men.

TILLOTSON.

JOHN TILLOTSON, archbishop of Canterbury, was descended from the Tilsons of Tilson, in Cheshire, and born in 1630. His father being a rigid Puritan and Calvinist, was anxious to instil his own principles into the mind of his son, and, with this view, sent him in 1647, to Clare Hall, Cambridge, under the tuition of Mr. David Clarkson, an eminent presbyterian divine. He continued at college two years after having taken his degrees in

arts.

He now became tutor to Edmund Prideaux, esq. of Ford Abbey in Devonshire, Cromwell's attorney-general; in which family he also officiated as chaplain, though without ordination, agreeably to the principles of the times. Being

in London at the death of the protector, in 1658, he was present, from his situation, at a scene in Whitehall, where the conduct of some leading divines of his own persuasion gave him insuperable disgust; and after the restoration, he took occasion to be episcopally ordained. Adhering still, however, to the presbyterians, he was deprived of his fellowship at Clare Hall. In 1661, he complied with the act of uniformity, and was appointed curate to Dr. Thomas Hacket, vicar of Cheshunt in Hertfordshire; and the year following, was elected minister of St. Mary, Aldermanbury; but this he refused, because the vacancy had been occasioned by the refusal of Calamy to comply with the act. Yet, the year following, he accepted the rectory of Ketton, or Kedington, in Suffolk, which was similarly circumstanced. He afterwards became preacher to the society of Lincoln's Inn; and some time after, Tuesday-lecturer of St. Lawrence, Jewry.

About 1663-4, he began to be suspected of an inclination towards the establishment. In 1666, he took his doctor's degree, and early the year following, engaged warmly in the project of effecting an accommodation with the non-conformists, then brought forward by sir