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the triple personage, supposed only one substance with something like three modes. The victory, nevertheless, was adjudged to South in an extraordinary manner at Oxford, as we have already noticed in the life of Sherlock; for Mr. Bingham of University college, having fallen in with Sherlock's notions, and asserted in a sermon before the university, that "there were three infinite distinct minds and substances in the Trinity, and also that the three persons in the Trinity are three distinct minds or spirits and three individual substances, was censured by a solemn decree there in convocation: wherein they judge, declare, and determine the aforesaid words, lately delivered in the said sermon, to be "false, impious, heretical, and contrary to the doctrine of the church of England." But this decree rather irritated, than composed the differences: and at length the king interposed his authority, by directions to the archbishops and bishops, that no preacher whatsoever in his sermon or lecture, should presume to preach any other doctrine concerning the blessed Trinity, than what was contained in the Holy Scriptures, and was agreeable to the three Creeds and thirty-nine Articles of religion. This put an end to the controversy; though not till after both the disputants, together with Dr. Thomas Burnet, master of the Charter-house, had been ridiculed in a wellknown ballad, called "The Battle Royal." Burnet about the same time had ridiculed, in his "Archæologia Philosophica," the literal account of the creation and fall of man, as it stands in the beginning of Genesis; and this being thought heterodox and profane, exposed him to the lash upon the present occasion.

During the greatest part of queen Anne's reign, South was in a state of inactivity; and, the infirmities of old age growing fast upon him, he performed very little of the duty of his ministerial function, otherwise than by attending divine service at Westminster abbey. Yet when there was any alarm about the church's danger, none shewed greater activity; nor had Sacheverell in 1710 a more strenuous advocate. He had from time to time given his sermons to the public; and, in 1715, he published a fourth volume, which he dedicated to the right hon. William Bromley, esq. "some time speaker to the Hon. House of Commons, and after that principal Secretary of State to her Majesty Queen Anne, of ever blessed memory." He died aged eightythree, July 8, 1716; and was interred with great solemnity,

in Westminster abbey, where a monument is erected to him, with an inscription upon it. He was a man of very uncommon abilities and attainments; of judgment, wit, and learning equally great. There is as much wit in his sermons, as there is good sense and learning, well combined and strongly set forth and there is yet more ill humour, spleen, and satire. His wit indeed was his bane, for he never could repress it on the most solemn occasions, and preaching may surely be reckoned one of those. Of this he seems to have been sensible himself; for when Sherlock accused him of employing wit in a controversy on the Trinity, South, in his reply, observed that, "had it pleased God to have made him (Dr. Sherlock) a wit, he wished to know what he would have done*? However admirable, there was certainly nothing amiable in his nature: for it is doing him no injustice to say, that he was sour, morose, peevish, quarrelsome, intolerant, and unforgiving; and, had not his zeal for religion served for the time to cover a multitude of moral imperfections, all his parts and learning could not have screened him from the imputation of being but an indifferent kind of man.

His sermons have been often printed in 6 vols. 8vo. In 1717, his "Opera Posthuma Latina," consisting of orations and poems; and his "Posthumous Works" in English, containing three sermons, an account of his travels into Poland, memoirs of his life, and a copy of his will; were published in 2 vols. 8vo. By this will, as well as his general conduct in life, it appears that covetousness was not to be enumerated among his failings. His fortune he bestowed liberally on the church, the clergy, and the poor.'

SOUTHERN (THOMAS), an English dramatic writer, who has been very improperly admitted by Wood into the "Athenæ Oxonienses," and grossly misrepresented in every particular, was born at Dublin in 1659, and was ad

On one occasion, it is said, that when preaching before king Charles II. and his courtiers, he perceived in the middle of his sermon that sleep had taken possession of some of them. Stopping, and changing the tone of his voice, he called three times to lord Lauderdale, and when he had awakened him, 40 My lord," said South, "I am sorry to interrupt your repose, but

I must beg that you will not snore quite so loud, lest you should awaken his majesty ;" and theu calmly continued his discourse. Of his general preaching, bishop, Kennet says, " He laboured very much to compose his sermons, and in the pulpit worked up his body when he came to a piece of wit, or any notable saying." Kennett's MSS. in Brit. Museum.

Life prefixed to his Posthumous Works.-Biog. Brit.-Atb. Ox. vol. II.Birch's Tillotson.-Burnet's Own Times, &c. &c.

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mitted a student of Trinity college, March 30, 1676, where Dr. Whitenhall was his tutor. In his eighteenth year, he quitted Ireland, and removed to the Middle-Temple, London, where he devoted himself to play-writing and poetry, instead of law. His "Persian Prince, or Loyal Brother," in 1682, was introduced at a time when the Tory interest was triumphant in England; and the character of the Loyal Brother was no doubt intended to compliment James duke of York, who afterwards rewarded him. After his accession to the throne, Southern went into the army, and served as ensign, upon the duke of Monmouth's landing, in earl Ferrers's regiment, before the duke of Berwick had it. This affair being over, he retired to his studies; and wrote several plays, from which he is supposed to have drawn a very handsome subsistence. In the preface to his tragedy called "The Spartan Dame," he acknowledges, that he received from the booksellers as a price for this play 150l. which was thought in 1721, the time of its being published, very extraordinary. He was the first who raised the advantage of play-writing to a second and third night; which Pope mentions in these lines:

-Tom whom heav'n sent down to raise
The price of prologues and of plays.

Verses to Southern, 1742.

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The reputation which Dryden gained by the many prologues he wrote, made the players always solicitous to have one of his, as being sure to be well received by the public. Dryden's price for a prologue had usually been four guineas, with which sum Southern once presented him; when Dryden, returning the money, said, "Young man, this is too little, I must have six guineas." Southern answered, that four had been his usual price: "Yes," says Dryden, has been so, but the players have hitherto had my labours too cheap; for the future I must have six guineas." Southern also was industrious to draw all imaginable profits from his poetical labours. Dryden once took occasion to ask him, how much he got by one of his plays? Southern said, after owning himself ashamed to tell him, 7007.; which asto nished Dryden, as it was more by 600l. than he himself had ever got by his most successful plays. But it appears that Southern was not beneath the arts of solicitation, and often sold his tickets at a very high price, by making applications to persons of quality and distinction; a degree of servility,

which Dryden might justly think below the dignity of a poet, and more in the character of an under-player. Dryden entertained a high opinion of Southern's abilities; and prefixed a copy of verses to a comedy of his, called "The Wife's Excuse," acted in 1692. The night that Southern's "Innocent Adultery" was first acted, which has been esteemed by some the most affecting play in any language, a gentleman took occasion to ask Dryden, "what was his opinion of Southern's genius?" who replied, "that he thought him such another poet as Otway." Such indeed was Dryden's opinion of his talents, that being unable to finish his "Cleomenes," he consigned it to the care of Southern, who wrote one half of the fifth act of that tragedy, and was with reason highly flattered by this mark of the author's confidence and esteem. Of all Southern's plays, ten in number, the most finished is "Oroonoko, or the Royal Slave:" which is built upon a real fact, related by Mrs. Behn in a novel. Besides the tender and delicate strokes of passion in this play, there are many shining and manly sentiments; and some have gone so far beyond the truth as to say, that the most celebrated even of Shakspeare's plays cannot furnish so many striking thoughts, and such a glow of animated poetry. Southern died May 26, 1746, aged eighty-five. He lived the last ten years of his life in Tothill street, Westminster, and attended the abbey service very constantly; being particularly fond of church music. He is said to have died the oldest and the richest of his dramatic brethren. Oldys, in his MS additions to Gildon's continuation of Langbaine, says, that he remembered Mr. Southern "a grave and venerable old gentleman. He lived near Covent-garden, and used often to frequent the evening prayers there, always neat and decently dressed, commonly in black, with his silver sword and silver locks; but latterly it seems he resided at Westminster." The late poet Gray, in a letter to Mr. Walpole, dated from Burnham in Buckinghamshire, in Sept. 1737, has also the following observation concerning this author: "We have old Mr. Southern at a gentleman's house a little way off, who often comes to see us; he is now seventy-seven years old, and has almost wholly lost his memory; but is as agreeable an old man as can be; at least I persuade myself so when I look at him, and think of Isabella and Oroonoko." Mr. Mason adds in a note on this passage, that " Mr. Gray always thought highly of his pathetic powers, at the same

time that he blamed his ill taste for mixing them so injudiciously with farce, in order to produce that monstrous species of composition called Tragi-comedy." Mr. Southern, however, in the latter part of his life, was sensible of the impropriety of blending tragedy and comedy, and used to declare to lord Corke his regret at complying with the licentious taste of the time. His dramatic writings were for the first time completely published by T. Evans, in 3 vols. 12mo.'

SOUTHGATE (RICHARD), a late worthy divine and antiquary, was born at Alwalton, in Huntingdonshire, March 16, 1729. He was the son of William Southgate, a considerable farmer of that place, and of Hannah, the daughter of Robert Wright, of Castor, in Northamptonshire, a surveyor and civil engineer. He was the eldest of ten children, three of whom died in infancy, and all the rest survived him. He was educated for some time at a private school at Uppingham, but chiefly at the free grammar-school at Peterborough, under the rev. Thomas Marshall, an excellent scholar, who became afterwards his cordial friend. The rapidity of his acquisitions at this school gained him the esteem of many, particularly of Dr. John Thomas, bishop of Lincoln, an intimate friend of his father, Under the patronage of this prelate, and with an exhibition from Peterborough, he removed to Cambridge, where he was entered of St. John's college in 1745, under Mr. (afterwards the learned Dr.) Rutherforth, to whom he was recommended with great warmth by his friend and late master, Mr. Marshall.

At the university he studied hard, and lived retired, delighted with the opportunities for improvement which a college life affords, and in Easter term, 1749, took his degree of A. B. and was on the list of honours on the first tripos. Some unpleasant occurrences in his family, however, obliged him to leave the university, after a residence of little more than four years; and he now retired to his father's house at Alwalton, where, by the assistance of books from the library of Dr. Neve, who was rector of the parish, he was enabled to continue his studies. In Sept. 1752, he was ordained deacon, and in the same month, 1754, priest, by his friend and patron, Dr. Thomas, bishop

Cibber's Lives. Malone's Life of Dryden, vol. I. p. 175,-Harris's Ware. -Biog, Dram.

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