the principal heads of his university, and Wren continued the exercise of his ingenuity under the most encouraging circumstances. In 1647 he wrote a Treatise on Spherical Trigonometry, after a new method; in 1650 took his degree of B.A.: in the year after composed an algebraical tract on the Julian period, and in 1653 took the degree of M.A. upon his election to a fellowship in All Souls' college. The astronomical professorship of Gresham college being offered to him in 1657, he signalized himself so eminently in that chair by the solution of various difficult problems, and the discovery of many new modes of practice, that he was chosen Savilian professor of astronomy at Oxford, and created doctor of laws, in 1661. Such were the distinctions to which Wren had attained in one science, before he attached himself to those pursuits which have made him famous. His skill in architecture recommended him to the notice of Charles II.; and when Sir John Denham became surveyor-general of the royal works, Wren was appointed to assist him. An offer was soon after made him, and upon very lucrative terms, to cross over into Africa, and superintend the fortifications ordered for the security of Tangiers; but he declined the journey on account of his health. Notwithstanding this, his desire of employment at home was favourably considered; and when the letters patent for repairing St. Paul's passed the great seal in 1665, he was made a commissioner, and obtained the direction of the proposed works. It was also in this year that, upon the constitution of the Royal Society, he was chosen a fellow, and made the drawings which illustrate Dr. Willis's Anatomy of the Brain. In 1665 he took a tour on the continent, for the purpose of improving himself in architecture; but, unfortunately, proceeded no further than France on the route towards all that is eminent in the art. His drawings for the repair of old St. Paul's were still under the consideration of government, when, in 1666, the great fire broke out, and besides reducing fifty parochial churches, and the greatest portion of the city to ruins, did such serious damage to the cathedral, that nothing less than a new building could be thought of. In the following year the death of Sir John Denham made room for his appointment to be surveyor-general. Thenceforward he became not only the first architect in the country, but indeed almost the only one to whom the erection of any public works was entrusted. He had the honour of being required to plan a suitable design for rebuilding the whole city, which was laid before the king and parliament; and sensible was the regret felt at that period, as well as ever since, that the many obstacles presented by the rights of private property prevented that splendid product of invention from being carried into execution. The resignation of his Savilian professorship was a necessary consequence of the many public employments now heaped upon him. Above these, the re-edification of St. Paul's rises the most conspicuous, for which the models were at last approved, after many clerieal difficulties and alterations, and the abandonment of the first outline, during this year. This magnificent pile and chief ornament of the metropolis was commenced with signal pomp and vigour, and completed by its matchless architect within the term of fifty-five years. Previous to the foundation of the first stone in 1675, Wren was created a knight. Of all existing religious monuments in the Greek and Roman styles, St. Paul's, of London, is generally estimated second only to St. Peter's, at Rome, while there have been some who have preferred it to that most sumptuous temple of the Christian Church. St. Peter's rose out of the wealth of the Catholic world, occupied the time and talents of twelve different architects, and was 145 years in a course of completion. Wren alone, and unaided, finished St. Paul's in much less than a fifth part of that period. Concerning the many critical comparisons which have been made of parts and the whole of these two great edifices, it would require a volume to treat. The more evident and summary distinctions between them are, that the facade of St. Paul's is considered far more consistent and complete than that of St. Peter's: the same observation extends to the domes; ours of St. Paul's is simple, graceful, and unique; that of St. Peter's is heavy, broken by windows, and incongruous. In every variety of dimension, length, breadth, and elevation, St. Peter's excels: in valuable statuary, splendid mausoleums, and internal riches, in gems, pictures, bronze, and marble, the Roman church puts all comparison with the Protestant out of the question. St. Peter's is the chef-d'oeuvre of the more ancient and more gorgeous church; St. Paul's the masterpiece of the reformed and less symbolical religion. But the wondrous labours, inseparable from the building of St. Paul's, were far from the only occupations which at this memorable period were entrusted to the capacity of Sir Christopher Wren. He rebuilt almost all the parochial churches of London; of which St. Stephen's, Walbrook, has been the most praised, and St. Bride's is the most harmonious performance. The compliment paid to the former church by the celebrated Earl of Burlington is truly signal. That nobleman himself, no mean judge of architecture, pronounced it the finest model of Wren's versatile ability and held it to be at least equal, if not superior, to any thing extant even in classical Italy. The London monument is another beautiful erection, in direct memory of the event which, fortunately for the architect, led to all these improvements. With this no person of taste can find a fault, unless it be in the shameful falsehoods which were put into the inscription upon it. Nor were the immediate precincts of the city of London the only sphere of Wren's exertions: the theatre at Oxford; the library of Trinity college, Cambridge; a great part of the hospital at Greenwich, and the whole of that at Chelsea; and the great belfry of Christ's church, Oxford, are all the fruits of his industry. A just tribute was paid to his scientific excellence in 1680, when the Royal Society unanimously elected him their president. His professional trusts also continued to increase. In 1683 he was appointed architect and commissioner of Chelsea Hospital; in 1684 he was made comptroller of Windsor Castle; and in 1698 was chosen surveyor-general and commissioner for the repair of Westminster Abbey. But his reputation advanced still further in situations of personal credit and public distinction, for he was for many years a member of the House of Commons. He sat for Plympton, the birthplace of Reynolds, in the first parliament of James II., and for Weymouth in the sixth of William III. The duties of Sir Christopher Wren was happy in the prominent circumstances of his life. Of his rank as an author in science, no other estimate need be quoted than that of Sir Isaac Newton, who distinguishes him as one of the chief princes of mathematics during the age in which he lived. His moral character was equal to the excellence of his mind : equanimity in temper, sobriety in habit, modesty in the development of his talents, and piety in his principles, made his life satisfactory to himself and estimable to his contemporaries. He lived at a period which afforded a scope and employment for the exercise of his art, not only unprecedented in the history of his country, but since his time without a parallel; and he proved himself highly worthy of this peculiar good fortune. Sir Christopher Wren has always been, and still is, placed at the head of the list of English architects. He is one of the few men of that profession in England who have produced works which will bear to be com this station he performed in an unexceptionable manner, until an act of the ministry, in the year 1718, disgraceful to themselves, and discreditable to the country, induced him to retire from public life. He was then summarily dismissed from his situation of surveyor-general, upon a mere matter of party, at the venerable age of 86 years. For five years longer life was spared to him. It was spent in retirement, relieved by scientific pursuits and the study of the Scriptures; until a cold, caught in coming from Hampton Court, which he built, to London, put a period to days unexampled for national services in the month of February, 1723. Wren is said to have indulged a very pardonable act of proud regard for his great work, by causing himself to be conveyed to St. Paul's once every year, when he was most particular in surveying every part of the edifice. His interment, as is sometimes, though not always, the case with great men who have been unmeritedly injured and wantonly neglected, was in every respect suitable to the dig-pared with the best buildings on the Continent. nity of his reputation. The grave was sunk in the south transept of the crypt of the cathedral, where a plain stone tomb covers his remains. The spot is supposed to be that on which the high altar of the old structure stood, and the stone is thus inscribed: Here lieth Sir CHRISTOPHER WREN, Knight, Who died In the year of our Lord MDCCXXIII. And of his age XCI. St. Paul's is the test of his excellence. In religious edifices of the Grecian and Roman styles no man has displayed an ability equally varied, beautiful, and ingenious. In his towers, steeples, and spires these qualities are peculiarly observable; and his judgment cannot be better evidenced than by remarking the many gross and heavy anomalies which disfigure the works of his successors, and were so cautiously avoided in all his productions. No one has effected so much, and but few indeed have produced any thing better. In Gothic and also in domestic architecture he is thought to have failed. A large collection of his drawings and designs was purchased after his death by his college, All Souls', and are honourably deposited in its library, where a good bust of him has been placed as a tribute to the greatness of his memory WILLIAM BOYCE, Mus. Doc. WILLIAM BOYCE, a Doctor and eminent composer of Music, was born in London, April 7, 1710. His father was keeper of the Joiners' Hall, in Upper Thames-street, and in that house the young musician first saw light. The father's interest with the members of his Company procured for the son an education in St. Paul's school, at about the same period that an excellent voice introduced him to the choir of the cathedral, where he received the first instructions connected with his future profession from Charles King, the Bachelor in Music. Losing his soprano voice at the usual age, he was apprenticed to Dr. Greene, organist to the cathedral, a man in every respect well worthy of such a trust, although almost all the writers of Boyce's life have been careful to say, that the master was extremely jealous of his pupil's abilities. Dr. Greene's feelings were shown at his death, when he bequeathed all his manuscripts to his scholar, and particularly entrusted to him the scores for that fine edition of anthems which he had long been preparing, and which now constitutes the proudest monument of his talents. Boyce lived with his father for many years upon very happy terms, which are described as combining the virtues of filial piety with the endearing qualities of private friendship. Before his apprenticeship expired, his hearing began to fail him, and this defect was soon aggravated into total deafness. An accident which would have damped the ardour of ordinary students, in him only created new vigour. The privation of that sense by which all musical impressions must be originally received, would appear fatal to the attainment of excellence in the art: but in his case the eye was taught to act the part of the ear; and such was the powerful effect of habit, and the force of genius, that he made the study purely intellectual. Henceforward he obtained those ideas upon principle, which others derive in a great measure from sound. Euler, the celebrated mathematician, was blind, and many of the ancient bards were also deprived of sight from the cradle; but there is no second instance preserved, of a man who acquired a perfect mastery of an art which appeals for its effects directly to the ear, while labouring under a thorough absence of auditory sensation. Such were the circumstances under which, in 1734, Boyce became one of five competitors for the post of organist at St. Michael's church, Cornhill. He lost the election; but succeeded during the same year in gaining a similar place at the king's chapel, in Oxford, where he continued to preside, until Kelway, who had been preferred to him at St. Michael's, removed to St. Martin-in-the-fields, and he was voted into the vacant seat without difficulty. This, too, was the period at which he set David's Lamentation over Saul and Jonathan, for the Apollo Society, and was appointed composer to the chapel royal. In the year 1743, Boyce produced his Serenata of Solomon, a classical composition, remarkable for original expression and polished sweetness. It was long and deservedly a favourite. His next publication consisted of Twelve Sonatas or Trios, for two violins and a bass, which were caught up with an avidity, and held popular to an extent unequalled in this country by any similar performances, those of Corelli alone excepted. Although only designed for chamber music, yet they were quickly adopted at public concerts, were introduced into the theatres, played at all the public gardens, and retained in high favour for many years. popularity now caused him to be invited to compose the music for The Chaplet, a drama by Mendez, and the Shepherd's Lottery, a dramatic pastoral. Both pieces were held to contain some of the sweetest and most characteristic melodies by which the opera of the English stage had been enriched. His In 1749, the Duke of Newcastle, then prime minister of England, was installed chancellor of the university of Cambridge: Mason wrote an ode to celebrate the festivity, and Boyce set it to music. His Grace, who enjoyed the reputation of being Boyce's patron, upon grounds which have not been well explained, rewarded the performance by getting the composer made a doctor in music. Promotions of greater value took place as occasion offered. In 1757, on the recommendation of the Duke of Devonshire, he was nominated to discharge his deceased tutor's functions as master of the king's band; during the next year, upon the death of Travers, he became organist at the chapel royal; and in a short time after succeeded Weldon as composer to his majesty. Three honourable and lucrative posts, which before his time had been awarded to different musicians, were thus united in his person. The distinction only led to a further multiplication of appointments. He was made conductor of the annual music performed at St. Paul's for the benefit of the Sons of the Clergy; -an honorary situation, which he continued to fill throughout the remainder of his life with his usual ability, and which he has made memorable by the composition of an admirable instrumental anthem, to this year repeated upon every celebration of the festivity. He was next created director of the performances given at the triennial assemblage of the choirs of Worcester, Hereford, and Gloucester cathedrals; and added to the interest of their meetings, by producing for them many new pieces. His reputation was now universal; and he confirmed, at every opportunity, the justness of that popularity which declared him a composer of superior merit. When Boyce married, he ceased to live with his father, and took a residence in Chancery-lane, from which, about 1752, he removed to Kensington Gore. From the date of this last year, the gout, to which he was constitutionally subject, repeatedly attacked him. As his years advanced, the acuteness of the disorder increased, and at length put a period to his existence in the month of his nativity, February, 1779. His body was interred with becoming solemnity in the crypt of St. Paul's, where his grave may be recognised by a stone with the following memorial: WILLIAM BOYCE, Mus. Doc. Organist, Composer, and Master of the Band of Music, to their Majesties George II. and III. Died February the 7th, 1779, Aged 69. Happy in his compositions, in a constant flow of harmony: through every scene of life, Relative or Domestic, The Husband, Father, Friend! Dr. Boyce holds a high reputation among his countrymen, and seems to have fully deserved the consideration in which he is still held. His pieces are numerous, and many of them excellent. His principal work was his large publication of Church Anthems, in 3 vols. folio. Next to this, in point of size and merit, is his Lyra Britannica, a series of miscellaneous songs, distinguished by strains of pure melody and rich modulation. During his time the country was surfeited with imitations of Handel. Boyce was one of the few composers, who, conscious of their own merit, neither pirated nor copied the great master of the day. Dr. Burney observes of him, in his History of Music, "There is an original and sterling merit in his productions, founded as much upon the study of our own old masters, as on the best models of other countries, that gives to all his works a peculiar stamp and character of his own, for strength, clearness, and facility, without any mixture of styles or extra neous ornaments." BISHOP NEWTON. CLOSE to Sir Christopher Wren's tomb is a flat stone with this inscription : In a vault Beneath this stone Are deposited the remains of THOMAS NEWTON, D.D. Lord Bishop of Bristol, and Dean of this Cathedral, Who died Feb. 14, 1782, Aged 78. The bishop thus plainly commemorated ranked high in the Church as a divine and theological writer, and is also known by his works in general literature. He was born at Lichfield, Jan. 1, 1704, where his father was a wine and brandy merchant. From the free school of his native town he was sent, under the patronage of his fellowtownsman, Bishop Smallridge, to Westminster School in 1717, and thence to Trinity College, Cambridge, of which he afterwards became a fellow. He obtained the rectory of St. Mary-leBow, London, in 1744, and the degree of D. D. in 1745. In 1749 he published an edition of Paradise Lost, with Notes, and a Memoir of Milton, and two years afterwards edited Paradise Regained in the same manner. His principal work, and that which most tended to give him a literary reputation and church preferment, was his Dissertations on the Prophecies, which have been remarkably fulfilled, and are at this time fulfilling in the world. This work appeared in 1759, in 3 vols., 8vo, and has gone through several editions. When it came out he was a prebendary of Westminster; he was afterwards made precentor of York Minster, and in 1761 raised to the see of Bristol. On this occasion he resigned his other places in the Church, taking, however, that of canon residentiary of St. Paul's. The deanery of this cathedral falling afterwards vacant, Dr. Newton obtained and held it until his death. For several years before that event took place he was disabled by ill health from performing his duty in the pulpit, or even attending service in the church. During this time he employed himself in revising his works for the press, and writing an autobiography, which was prefixed to them, in 3 vols. 4to. He left 500l. by his will for a monument in the cathedral, to which the prejudices of Bishop Osbaldiston denied admission. SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. Decessit. Idib. Decembr. Ann. Christ. Sepult. in Ed. Sanct. Petr. Westmonasteriens. H. M. Faciend. Curaver. Samuel Johnson was born September 7, 1709, at Lichfield, in which place his father was a bookseller of good character, who more than once filled the duties of chief magistrate. At eight years of age young Sam entered the grammarschool of his native city, then taught by Mr. Hunter, and at fifteen, after an interval spent under the tuition of Cornelius Ford, a cousin and a minister, passed into Mr. Wentworth's academy, at Stourbridge, for two years. Returning home, he stopped with his father for two years, during which he was so far initiated into business, that he made a good-humoured boast, when an old man, of being able to bind a book. It is related that the progress of his acquirements up to this period of his Who lived 75 years, two months, and fourteen days, Died on the Ides of December, in the year of Christ 1784, And was buried in the church of St. Peter, in Westminster, On the 13th kalend of January, in the year of Christ 1785. His friends and literary companions By a pecuniary subscription life was slow, but that his memory was retentive, and his observation penetrating; so that whatever he undertook to acquire he mastered thoroughly. In 1728, Mr. Corbet, a country gentleman of fortune in the neighbourhood, sent the future critic to Pembroke college, Oxford, as a companion for his son but an act which might have been a valuable boon proved a source of deep personal degradation. The first discontent Johnson felt at the university was provoked by Mr. Jourden, the tutor he was appointed to, a man of narrow mind and poor information,-faults rendered still more disagreeable by a bad temper. Detecting his deficiencies, Johnson despised him as a superior, and, upon being exposed to the sallies of his bile, retorted with insolence. This unpropitious state of things was still further increased after the lapse of two years by young Corbet's departure from the university,an event which subjected Johnson to much severer trials, inasmuch as his pecuniary resources were almost exclusively drawn from this friend, and entirely ceased with his absence. There are few examples of more injurious cruelty to be found in life than where some quick impulse of ill-weighed generosity excites a person of wealth to exalt a youth from his natural sphere, because, at a first view, it does not appear provided with those advantages which may be the best and most favourable for the development of his budding talents. To effect any early improvement in the condition of another person, without maturely considering how the means are to come which will be called for by the new and enlarged views, tastes, and comforts he is sure to acquire, is a fatal piece of imprudence; and when the strong appetite for these things is confirmed, and a second nature established, then to throw back the grieving object of giddy patronage upon all the wants and vexations of primitive poverty, rendered doubly galling by the transitory experience he has had of better things, and the memory of brighter prospects, is a social injury of the deepest character -an act of moral assassination. Yet such was the extremity to which Johnson was now reduced. It was out of his father's power to make him any thing like a competent allowance for his support, so that after struggling through another year, in debt to his tutor, and so poor that he generally lounged about with his feet worn through his shoes and stockings, and his threadbare coat ripping into pieces, he started from the seat of religion and learning in all the recklessness of broken fortune, and returned to the home from which he had been so unfortunately diverted. did there appear any thing very promising or remarkable. It was also during his stay at Birmingham that Johnson became a married man. He has himself described it solely as a "love-match upon both sides;" but his biographers represent it mainly as a connexion of interest, because the lady was ordinary, double his age, and had 8001. However the truth may lie between these two points, one thing ought not to be forgotten: Johnson always treated his wife with respect; spoke of her with regard; and both in her epitaph and his various writings has given many proofs of sincere affection. Her name was Porter, and she was the widow of a mercer. With the capital thus acquired, Johnson reverted to what seems to have been with him, as with many other literary men of chequered fortunes, a favourite plan,-the establishment of a classical academy. For this purpose he fitted up a large house at Edial, near Lichfield: but before the year closed he was obliged to shut it up in utter want of scholars. From this disappointment he ventured to take refuge in the vast expectations of a journey to London, at which place he eventually arrived in March, 1737, accompanied by one of only three pupils whom he is now known to have had the celebrated Garrick. Johnson hoped for wealth and reputation from the performance of his "Irene," a tragedy, in the composition of which he was already far advanced; while Garrick, though intended for the profession of the law, rapidly usurped both wealth and fame where his friend and master failed to acquire them-on the stage. The great grammarian's career was a very different one. Fleetwood, then manager of the theatre in Drury-lane, rejected his play, and there his first hope was blasted. Alone, amidst the vast multitude, and poor amidst all the superfluities of London, he wandered about destitute during the day, and at night, when the rain chilled, and the frost bit, was forced to take refuge with the prostitute under an archway; or, if the weather happened to be milder, to stroll about the squares in want of a sixpence with which to pay for the shelter of a roof. Such was the misery suffered by the great Samuel Johnson, a scholar justly respected as an ornament to the literature of his country. If such a man had to bear a fate so hard, who may murmur at the vicissitudes of life? One solace, indeed, occurred to him in this abandoned state, the solace of companionship-the clever but dissolute Savage was the partner of his midnight rambles, and the sharer of a common adversity. Johnson's first employment in London was obtained from Cave, the publisher of that great zine," to which he soon became a constant contributor. What sum he used to receive for his contributions has never been ascertained. They com In 1731 his father died, and he inherited a sum of 201. In these straitened circumstances he undertook the place of usher in the grammar-parent of our periodicals, the "Gentleman's Magaschool at Market Bosworth, but was soon compelled, by the insolence of the master, to throw it up in disgust. About this juncture the invitation of an old schoolfellow, Mr. Hector, who was prac-menced in 1738, continued until 1744, and mainly tising as a surgeon at Birmingham, led him to that busy town, in which, for the modest reward of 5l., he brought forward his first book-" A Voyage to Abyssinia, by the Portuguese Jesuit Jerome Lobo," translated from the French. The effort arose out of some literary contributions which he casually tendered to a newspaper printed by the occupier of the house in which he lodged with his friend; but neither in that longer nor these shorter essays comprised parliamentary debates and biographical essays. In all probability the first money paid him worth mentioning was a sum of forty-nine guineas for a translation of " Courayer's History of the Council of Trent "-a work which Cave was deterred from publishing by some proposals which were issued at the same time for a rival undertaking; and, what was a strange coincidence, by another Samuel Johnson. So little was he satisfied |