w, by Mr. Pinhorne, a clergyman, master of the
freeschool at Southampton, to whom the gratitude of his scholar
afterwards inscribed a Latin ode.

His proficiency at school was so conspicuous, that a subscription
was proposed for his support at the University; but he declared
his resolution to take his lot with the Dissenters. Such he was,
as every Christian Church would rejoice to have adopted.

He therefore repaired in 1690 to an academy taught by Mr. Rowe,
where he had for his companions and fellow-students Mr. Hughes
the poet, and Dr. Horte, afterwards Archbishop of Tuam. Some Latin
essays, supposed to have been written as exercises at this academy,
shew a degree of knowledge, both philosophical and theological,
such as very few attain by a much longer course of study.

He was, as he hints in his Miscellanies, a maker of verses from
fifteen to fifty, and in his youth he appears to have paid attention
to Latin poetry. His verses to his brother, in the _glyconic_
measure, written when he was seventeen, are remarkably easy and
elegant. Some of his other odes are deformed by the Pindaric folly
then prevailing, and are written with such neglect of all metrical
rules as is without example among the ancients; but his diction,
though perhaps not always exactly pure, has such copiousness and
splendour, as shews that he was but at a very little distance
from excellence.

His method of study was to impress the contents of his books upon
his memory by abridging them, and by interleaving them, to amplify
one system with supplements from another.

With the congregation of his tutor Mr. Rowe, who were, I believe,
independents, he communicated in his nineteenth year.

At the age of twenty he left the academy, and spent two years in
study and devotion at the house of his father, who treated him
with great tenderness; and had the happiness, indulged to few
parents, of living to see his son eminent for literature and
venerable for piety.

He was then entertained by Sir John Hartopp five years, as domestic
tutor to his son: and in that time particularly devoted himself
to the Study of the Holy Scriptures; and being chosen assistant
to Dr. Chauncey, preached the first time on the birth-day that
completed his twenty-fourth year; probably considering that as
the day of a second nativity, by which he entered on a new period
of existence.

In about three years he succeeded Dr. Chauncey; but soon after his
entrance on his charge,