vations on the 114th psalm; and these are succeeded by a literal and metrical version of the sacred ode, in which the Doctor has preserved with fidelity a peculiar beauty that he had discovered in the conduct and arrangement of the original.

33. ANTHONY HENLEY was the son of Sir Robert Henley, of the Grange in Hampshire; and inherited from his father, who occupied for many years the lucrative office of Master's Place of the King's Bench Court, an unencumbered estate of three thousand pounds per annum.

He was educated at Oxford, where he early distinguished himself by the elegance of his taste, and by a critical knowledge of ancient literature. Shortly after his arrival in this celebrated university, however, he met with such a reception. from Dr. Goodwin, then president of Magdalen College, that the impression which it occasioned was never obliterated during his life. The Doctor, who was the rigid patriarch of independency, and the intimate friend of Cromwell, was of opinion, that there could be no religion unaccompanied by gloom and melancholy; and he therefore systematically surrounded himself with an apparatus calculated to excite despondency

and terror. The interview of young Henley with this formidable divine has been thus related by Addison.

*

"A gentleman, who was lately a great ornament to the learned world, has diverted me more than once with an account of the reception which he met with from a very famous independent minister, who was head of a college in those days. This gentleman was then a young adventurer in the republic of letters, and just fitted out for the university with a good cargo of Latin and Greek. His friends were resolved that he should try his fortune at an election which was drawing near in the college, of which the independent minister, whom I have before mentioned, was governor. The youth, according to custom, waited on him in order to be examined. He was received at the door by a servant, who was one of that gloomy generation that were then in fashion. He conducted him, with great silence and seriousness, to a long gallery, which was darkened at noon-day, and had only a single candle burning in it. After a short stay in this melancholy apartment, he was led into a chamber hung with black, where he entertained himself for some time by the glimmering of a taper, until at length the head of the college came out

* Mr. Henley died the year before this was written.

to him, from an inner room, with half a dozen night-caps upon his head; and religious horror in his countenance. The young man trembled: but his fears increased, when, instead of being asked what progress he had made in learning, he was examined how he abounded in grace. His Latin and Greek stood him in little stead; he was to give an account only of the state of his soul; whether he was of the number of the elect; what was the occasion of the conversion; upon what day of the month, and hour of the day it happened; how it was carried on, and when completed. The whole examination was summed up with one short question, namely, whether he was prepared for death? The boy, who had been bred up by honest parents, was frighted out of his wits at the solemnity of the proceeding, and by the last dreadful interrogatory; so that, upon making his escape out of this house of mourning, he could never be brought a second time to the examination, as not being able to go through the terrors of it *."

After some years spent at the university, Mr. Henley relinquished it for the metropolis, where he soon became familiar with the learned and the great. To the former, he was recommended by the accomplishments of his mind, and by the *Spectator, No 494.

generosity of his patronage; to the latter by his wit and gaiety, and by the easy elegance of his manners. He was no less a favourite with the ladies; and from his poetry and gallantry he was thought to resemble the character of Tibullus.

With the Earls of Dorset and Sunderland he was peculiarly intimate; and he cultivated a friendship of the strictest kind with a Mr. Norton, of Southwick in Hampshire, a gentleman whose temper, whose studies and pursuits were very similar to his own. This cordiality long subsisted fervent and unimpaired; but at length, from some cause which cannot now be ascertained, they quarrelled, they separated, and both immediately married. Mr. Henley selected the daughter of the Honourable Peregrine Bertie, sister to the Countess Pawlet; a lady who presented him with thirty thousand pounds, and, in due course of time, with several fine children.

Mr. Henley now turned his attention to the political state of his country; and in the last year of the reign of King William he obtained a seat in parliament, which he ever afterwards filled, for Weymouth or Melcomb, in the county of Dorset. He was a zealous defender of the principles of liberty, as established by the Revolution; and had the firmness to move in the House of Commons for an address to her Majesty, that

she would be graciously pleased to promote Mr. Benjamin Hoadley, for his strenuous exertions in vindicating the constitution of 1688; a motion which for a time rendered him an object of hatred to the Jacobites and Non-jurors.

The favourite diversion of Mr. Henley was music, of which he was an exquisite judge. He sung with great art, and performed upon several instruments with approved skill; he wrote several poems also for music, and the greater part of the opera of Alexander, which was set by his friend Mr. Purcel. So highly, indeed, was his knowledge of this charming art esteemed, that not an opera could be certain of applause until it had received his approbation.

His social and companionable qualities, his vivacity and humour, rendered him a valuable acquisition to the first associations of conviviality and wit. He was, therefore, a member of several clubs; and among these, of the celebrated Kit-Cat, where he became acquainted with Dr. Garth, who entertained so high an opinion of his abilities and character, that he dedicated his Dispensary to him in terms which must lead the reader to form a very exalted idea of the virtues and accomplishments of our author.

This amiable man died on the eleventh of August, 1711, at a period of life when his friends