his composition are printed among those of the Academy of Incogniti. He died in 1692. Tiraboschi. Nouv. Dict. Hist.-A.

FOSSE, CHARLES DE LA, an eminent French painter, was the son of a jeweller in Paris, where he was born in 1640. He studied painting in the school of Le Brun, and his progress was such, that he obtained one of the pensions for visiting Italy. There he particularly attached himself to the colouring of the Venetian school, and made Titian and Paul Veronese his models. On his return he rose to great reputation, and was employed in a variety of works, public and private. He was admitted into the Academy of Painting in 1673, of which he became in succession professor, rector, director, and chancellor. His fame extended into foreign countries, and in 1690 he was invited to England by the duke of Montague, to paint his house (now the British Museum) in conjunction with Rousseau and Baptiste. He finished there two cielings, representing the apotheosis of Isis, and the assembly of the gods. King William made him liberal offers to stay in England, which he declined, in hopes of being made first painter to his own sovereign, through the influence of Mansard. On his return he was engaged in painting the dome of the Invalids, a great work in which he displayed the fertility of his genius. He also was employed in the decoration of several of the royal palaces, and received a considerable pension from the king, though he was disappointed of the place of first painter. His style of painting is reckoned somewhat loaded and heavy, and his drawing wants correctness; but his touch is soft, and no French artist has better understood the disposition of tints, and the effects of colouring. His carnations, indeed, are far from natural, but are imitated from Titian, Rubens, and Vandyke. He painted well in fresco, and was a master of landscape. His private character was amiable and estimable: he conversed well, and with much candour. He retained the fire of his genius to an advanced period, and died at Paris in 1716, at the age of seventysix. The principal works of La Fosse are found in the churches of Paris, in the Luxemburgh palace, and in some private galleries. Several of them have been engraved. D'Ar. genville Vies des Peintres.-A.

FOSSE, ANTONY DE LA, sieur d'Aubigny, nephew of the preceding, was born at Paris in 1553. He devoted himself to polite literature, and especially to postry, in which he obtained considerable reputation. He was secretary to the marquis de Crequi in the war in Italy, and

afterwards to the duke d'Aumont in his government of the Boulonnois; but his philosophical temper rendered him more attached to the pursuit of letters and the cultivation of friendship, than to the improvement of his fortune. He wrote Italian so well, that for an ode which he composed in that language he was received into the Academy degli Apatisti at Florence. In French poetry his principal compositions were tragedies, several of which were successful on the stage. "Manlius Capitolinus," represented in 1698, is accounted the best of these. It is said to be not unworthy of Corneille. The verses of La Fosse are extremely laboured, and, as he confessed, cost him more pains in the expression than in the thought. He gave a translation, or rather paraphrase, of Anacreon, in verse, which has little of the spirit of the original. To this, printed in 1704, he added several miscellaneous pieces of poetry, of various merit. This author died in 1708. Of his "Theatre" an edition was given in 1747, two volumes twelves, and another in 1755. Moreri. Nouv. Dict. Hist.-A.

FOSTER, JAMES, a learned English nonconformist divine, and very celebrated preacher, was the son of a fuller, and born at Exeter in the year 1697. When he was only five years of age he was sent to the free-school in that city, where he made so rapid a progress in grammar learning, that his master spoke of him in the warmest terms of applause, and boasted of him as the glory of his school. From the grammar school he was removed to an academy for educating dissenting ministers, then under the care of Mr. Joseph Hallet, senior, in the same city, where he went through the different courses of study necessary to qualify him for the ministerial profession. By his abilities and improvement he soon acquired the admira. tion of his tutor and fellow-students. He possessed remarkable quickness of apprehension, a solid judgment, a happy memory, admirable talents for argumentation, and a free commanding elocution; and at the same time was distinguished for candour and liberality, integrity. and modesty, great tenderness and benevolence of disposition, and unaffected ardent piety. He commenced public preacher in the year 1718, and was much admired in several places where he occasionally officiated. At this time a furious controversy arose among the dissenters in the West of England, and particularly in Exeter, respecting the docaine of the Trinity, and subscriptions to tests of orthodoxy. Mr. Foster did not concur in opinion with the orthodox party, and possessed too honest and

and is written with great clearness of thought and expression. It met with such general approbation from the judicious and candid of all parties, that repeated impressions were soon demanded by the public. Even Dr. Tindal, against whose work it was written, is said always to have spoken of it with great respect. In the year 1734 Mr. Foster published a volume of "Sermons," on various interesting subjects, in octavo, which was so well received that a fourth edition of it was printed in the year 1745. One of these Sermons, on the subject of heresy, engaged our author in a controversy with Dr. Henry Stebbing, then one of the king's chaplains, and preacher to the Society of Gray's-inn. The " Letters," and "Answers," of these controvertists, in which Mr. Foster's skill in disputation, acquaintance with scripture criticism, and just views of christian liberty, appeared to eminent advantage, were published at different periods in 1735 and the two following years. Mr. Foster's next publications were three additional volumes of "Sermons," of which the last appeared in the year 1744. In that year he was chosen to succeed Dr. Jeremiah Hunt in the pastoral charge of the protestant dissenting congregation at Pinner's-hall. In the year 1746 he was called upon to perform a melancholy office, which made an impression on his tender and sympathising mind that was painfully felt by him ever afterwards. It was to attend the earl of Kilmarnock, who was then in the Tower, under sentence of death for high-treason, to as sist him in preparing for his last moments. Afterwards he published a pamphlet in octavo, entitled "An Account of the Behaviour of the late Earl of Kilmarnock, after his Sentence, and on the Day of his Execution." In the year 1748, the Marischal college at Aberdeen conferred on him the degree of doctor of divinity. Very handsome letters were sent him on that occasion from the principal of the college, and professor David Fordyce, the latter of whom says, We beg that you will be so good as to accept of the diploma, as a small mark of the sincere veneration we have for you, and of the sense we entertain of the eminent services you have done to the cause of liberty, religion, and virtue, by your writings as well as public instructions." In the year 1749 Dr. Foster published, in quarto, the first volume of his "Discourses on all the principal Branches of Natural Religion and Social Virtue." The second appeared in 1752. One chief view of the author throughout the whole of this excellent work, was, to render both the principles

VOL. IV.

and proofs of natural religion, which equally concern all without distinction, fully intelligible to all, by omitting, as much as possible, all philosophical and scholastic terms, and reducing more involved and abstruse demonstrations, to a plainer form. To the second volume are annexed offices of devotion, suited to the principal subjects, which are compositions of great merit in their kind. These volumes were printed by subscription; and the list, which consists of two thousand names, comprehends many of the most distinguished persons in the kingdom. Among others are, lord Hardwicke, lord chancellor of Great-Britain; the duke of Newcastle, lord Bolingbroke, and many others of the nobility; the bishops of Winchester, Durham, Oxford, Norwich, and St. David's ;sir Michael Foster, sir Martin Wright, sir Thomas Abney, Arthur Onslow, esquire, speaker of the house of commons, sir George afterwards lord Lyttleton, sir John Barnard, Dr. Edward Young, Dr. Akenside, Dr. Mead, and Dr. Armstrong: Mons. Daguessau, chancellor of France, was also in the number. We mention these names, as affording a striking testimony of the great estimation in which the author's abilities and character were held by men of all persuasions. In April, 1750, Dr. Foster was attacked by a violent disorder, from the effects of which he never thoroughly recovered, though he continued to preach, as often as he was able, till January, 1752. In that month he had another attack, which appears to have been of the paralytic kind; after which he continued in a declining way till the middle of October, when he received a violent paralytic stroke, and at length expired, without a sigh or groan, on the 5th of November following, in the fifty-fifth year of his age. In addition to the incidental mention which we have already made of his great abilities and endowments, his unbending uprightness and steady attachment to the interests of truth and liberty, and his amiable christian temper, we have to observe that his private life was in all respects most unexceptionable, regular, decent, and exemplary. He also possessed a high degree of humanity, generosity, and of the purest and most active benevolence. So extraordinary was his beneficence, that he never reserved any of his appointments for his own future use; and, had it not been for the numerous subscriptions to his discourses on natural religion, he must have died possessed scarcely of any property. As a preacher, "he used no delusive arts to bribe the passions, to play with the imagination, and so impose on the understanding. He had no

ambiguities, no disguises; but, whatever he thought an important truth, he delivered with freedom and without reserve." This frankness and openness, connected with a degree of liberality in opinion at that time seldom avowed in an English pulpit, and also with the sublime ideas of virtue and honourable conceptions of the Deity which he inculcated, proved one powerful cause of attraction to the more informed and respectable part of his hearers. His happy talent at reasoning, likewise, and the perspicuity, elegance, and energy of his language, were additional recommendations of him as a pulpit orator. And when we add to these, the propriety and unrivalled graces of his delivery, it can be no matter of surprise to us, that he maintained for so long a time the first place among the most admired preachers of his day. We cannot better convey to our readers an idea of this pre-eminence of Dr. Foster, than in the words of Mr. Rider, a graduate of Oxford, afterwards master of St. Paul's school. "His voice," says he, "was naturally sweet, strong, distinct, harmonious, always adapted to his matter, always varied as his method changed; as expressive of the sense as the most judicious recitative. Monotony was a fault he was never guilty of. His action, the soul of eloquence, was grave, expressive, free from distortions, animated without being theatrical; in short, such as became the pulpit, He reminded us of Paul, at Athens, arresting the attention of his auditors." It is not improbable that curiosity drew the celebrated Mr. Pope to become occa-sionally one of his hearers, who, in the epilogue to his Satires, has taken occasion to praise him in the following lines:

Let modest FOSTER, if he will, excell
Ten metropolitans in preaching well.

In the Gentleman's Magazine for July, 1736, is a copy of verses characterising different dissenting ministers of that period, which are understood to have been written by Richard Savage. Those upon Foster, which close the whole, are as follows:

But see th' accomplished orator appear,
Refin'd his language, and his reasoning clear:
Thou only, FOSTER, hast the pleasing art,
At once to charm the ear, and mend the heart.

Lord Bolingbroke has ascribed to Dr. Foster the memorable aphorism, "where mystery begins, religion ends." Whoever was the author of it, an anecdote which we have introduced from the "Richardsoniana," relative to bishop

Fleetwood, shews that it was adopted and quoted by that prelate, who died before Foster had acquired celebrity as a preacher or writer. Besides the works already particularised, Dr. Foster was the author of three "Funeral Sermons," one of which was for that venerable confessor Mr. Emlyn; and several essays in "The Old Whig." Towers's Collections for the Biog. Britan. British Biog. vol. X.-M.

FOSTER, JOHN, an eminent scholar, was born in 1731, at Windsor. He received his school education at Eton, where he acquired that proficiency in classical learning which is the peculiar boast of that seminary. He was elected to King's college, Cambridge, in 1748, of which society he became a fellow. Dr. Barnard, master of Eton school, from his acquaintance with Foster's abilities, chose him for one of his assistants; and in 1765, when he was himself raised to the provostship, he obtained the post of master for Mr. Foster. But nei ther his temper nor manners were fitted for the chief conduct of such an institution; and finding himself unable to support his authority, he resigned after a few years, with his health much injured by the conflicts and vexations: he had undergone. He was presented to a canonry of Windsor in 1772, but he did not long enjoy it. Having visited the German Spa for the recovery of his health, he died there in September, 1773. A Latin epitaph written by himself marks his tomb in the church-yard of the place. He is known as the author of a learned work entitled "An Essay on the different Nature of Accent and Quantity, with their Use and Application in the Pronunciation of the English, Latin, and Greek Languages; containing an Account and Explanation of the Ancient Tones, and a Defence of the present System of Greek Accentual Marks," octavo, 1762. It was esteemed an ingenious and erudite performance, though it did not go without reply. He annexed to his essay the Greek poem of Musurus addressed to Leo X. with an elegant Latin version. prize dissertation of this writer's, pronounced in. the schools at Cambridge in 1754, was also printed, with the title of " Enarratio & Comparatio Doctrinarum Moralium Epicuri & Stoicorum.-Gent. Mag. Monthly Rev.-A.

A

FOSTER, sir MICHAEL, an eminent law yer, was born at Marlborough in Wiltshire in 1689. His grandfather and father were both eminent attorneys in that town, of the dissenting persuasion, and strongly attached to civil and religious liberty. Michael received his early education at the free-school of his na

tive place, whence, in 1735, he was removed to Exeter college, Oxford. He was entered of the Middle Temple in 1707, and in due time called to the bar. Not meeting with much success in Westminster-hall, he settled in Marlborough. He married in 1725, and afterwards removed to Bristol, where he practised in his profession with great reputation. He was chosen recorder of that city in 1735, and was called to the degree of serjeant-at-law in 1736. In a case which came before him during the exercise of this office, he maintained the legality of pressing seamen by profession into the service of the navy whenever the public safety required it; a practice, of the necessity of which all seem at present agreed, though different opinions are entertained of its conformity to the laws of the land. In 1735 Mr. Foster published a pamphlet entitled, "An Examination of the Scheme of the Church Power laid down in the Codex Juris Ecclesiast. Anglicani," which occupied a considerable share of the public attention, and was esteemed by the friends of liberty an important barrier against the dangerous principles of bishop Gibson's work. It went through several editions, and produced various replies, especially an angry one from Dr. Andrews, a civilian. As highchurch maxims were not favoured in that reign, our author's advancement was not impeded by his attack upon them; and, in 1745, upon the recommendation of lord chancellor Hardwicke, he was created one of the judges of the court of King's-bench, with the honour of knighthood. This station he maintained with great credit for legal knowledge and integrity during the remainder of his life, a period of eighteen years, marked with the decision of many points of singular importance in civil and criminal law. He was looked up to as one of those judges who best maintained that spirit of independence and regard to the rights of the subject, which it is the boast of English jurisprudence to have secured upon the bench, but which are too often shackled in their exertion by the pursuit of court favour. In 1762 he published a work which has perpetuated his name among the law writers of his country. This was, "A Report of some Proceedings on the Commission for the Trial of the Rebels in the year 1746 in the County of Surrey; and of other Crown Cases: to which are added Discourses upon a few Branches of the Crown Law." Of this work a second and third edition with improvements were published in 1776 and 1792 by his nephew, Nir. Michael Dodson (see his article). The book is of standard

reputation, and has given occasion to sir W. Blackstone to style the author "a very great master of the crown law." Others of his brethren have expressed a high respect for his character and abilities. The health of judge Foster began to decline soon after the death of his lady in 1758, and he was obliged occasionally to spend part of his time at Bath. He held out, however, till 1763, in which year, on November 7th, he tranquilly expired. He never had any children, but left as his executors three nephews, by three different surviving sisters. Private Memoirs communicated.-A.

FOSTER, SAMUEL, an ingenious English mathematician in the seventeenth century, and professor of astronomy in Gresham college, London, was born in Northamptonshire, but at what place or in what year is uncertain. In the year 1616 he was admitted a sizer at Emanuel college, Cambridge, where he took his degree of B.A. in 1619, and that of M.A. in 1623. His inclination leading him chiefly to the study of the mathematics, they became early the object of his diligent application, and he attained to considerable proficiency in them. In the year 1624 he published a valuable treatise, drawn up with great precision and perspicuity, and entitled "The Use of the Quadrant, &c.," quarto; which, with the exception of a few copies printed separately for the use of the author's friends, first appeared at the end of Gunter's Description of the Crossstaff, by way of appendix to that work. In the year 1636, a vacancy taking place in the astronomical professorship of Gresham college, London, Mr. Foster was elected to fill it; but for some reason, of which we have no account, he resigned that chair within a few months after his appointment to it. He still continued his mathematical studies, however, with great diligence, and in the year 1638 he published a work of considerable merit, which met with a very favourable reception. It is entitled "The Art of Dialling," quarto, and was republished in 1675, by William Leybourne, with numerous additions and variations, from the author's MSS. In the year 1641, the professorship of astronomy in Gresham college again becoming vacant, Mr. Foster was a second time elected to that office, and retained it during the remainder of his life. Mr. Foster was one of those learned and ingenious gentlemen who, during the civil war between Charles I. and the parliament, to divert their attention without any reference to theology or state affairs, agreed to hold stated meetings for the sake of cultivating the new philosophy, and useful