MEMOIRS

OF THE

LIFE and WRITINGS

OF

Dr. Robert South,

Late Prebendary of Westminster, Canon of ·Chrift-Church, and Rector of Ilip in the County of Oxford.

W

HEN Men Crown'd with Age, and Honour, and worn out with the Exercise of the most adorable Vertues go down to the Grave; When Learning, Piety, Sincerity, and Courage, with them, feem to be gather'd to their Fathers, and almost every one of them, without a due Recognition of their bright Examples, who gave us their Survey, must cease to be any more; it would be an act of the highest Injustice, not to fet them in their fairest Light, that Pofterity may look upon them with

the

the fame Eyes of Admiration, which the prefent Age has paid their Regards with; and that it may not be in the Power of the Teeth of Time to wear out the Impreffions, that fhall pafs undefac'd from one Generation to another.

It is with this View, and only with This, That the Author of thefe Memoirs, who has long known the value of the Subject he is writing upon, and from thence must be appriz'd of the difficulty of doing it as he ought, takes them in hand; being not without hopes, that he may in fome meafure, prevent the many common Biographers, who gather about a dead Corpfe, like Ravens about their Prey, and Croak out Infults against their Memory, whilst they either Praise them for Actions they have not done, or load them with Difgrace and Infamy for what they never committed: Infomuch, that (in Procopius of Cafarea's Words) their Relations are nothing else but their Interests, delivering down, not what they know, but what they are inclin'd to.

The fame Author likewife very justly obferves, that as Eloquence becomes an Orator, and Fables are proper for Poets, fo Truth is that which an Hiftorian, ought chiefly to follow, and have in Regard; therefore my Readers are neither to expect Embellishments of Art, nor Flourishes of Rhetorick.

Non tali Auxilio, nec Defenforibus iftis
Tempus eget

There

There is no need of fuch Affiftances to fupport me, while I go through with the Character of a Man, that was arrived at the highest Pitch of Knowlege in the Studies of all manner of Divine and Humane Literature: A Man, who in the Words of the Son of Syrach gave his Mind to the Law of the most High, and was occupied in the Meditation thereof: Who fought out the Wisdom of all the Antients, and who kept the Sayings of the Renowned Men, and where fubtle Parables were, there was he alfo. A Man, who fought out the Secrets of grave Sentences, who Served among great Men, and appear'd before Princes: Who Travelled throughout ftrange Countries, for he had tried the Good and the Evil among Men. In a Word, A Man that gave his Heart to refort early to the Lord that made him, and pray'd before the moft High. Who was filled with the Spirit of Understanding, and poured out wife Sentences: So that many fhall commend his Understanding, and fo long as the World endureth, it fhall not be blotted out.

May it fuffice then that I account for the Birth of this Great Man, in the Year 1633, when the Artifices of wicked and defigning Sectarists against the establish'd Government in Church and State, that broke out at last into the Grand Rebellion, made it necessary that fo Bright an Assertor of both, as he proved afterwards,fhould arife. He was the Son of Mr. South, an Eminent Merchant in London, and born at Hackney, of a Mother whofe Maiden Name was Berry, defcended from the Family of the Berrys

rys in Kent: So that by his Extraction on the one fide, which we trace down from the Souths of KelStone, and Keilby in Lincolnshire, (whereof we find one Sir Francis of that Name to be the Head) and his Origin on the other much celebrated for the Productions of many Eminent Men, (among whom, Sir John Berry, the late Admiral in King Charles the Ild's Reign, that commanded the Gloucester, wherein King James the Ild, then Duke of York, had like to have been Shipwreck'd, deferves a Place) he was fufficiently entitled to the Name and Quality of a Gentleman.

In the Year 1647, after he had gone through the firft Rudiments of Learning, previous thereunto with uncommon Succefs, we find him Entred one of the King's Scholars in the College at Westminster, where he made himfelf remarkable the following Year, by Reading the Latin Prayers in the School, on the Day of King Charles the Ift's Martyrdom, and praying for his Majefty by Name: So that he was under the Care of Dr. Richard Busby, who cultivated and improved fo promifing a Genius with fuch Industry and Encouragement, for Four Years, that after the Expiration of that Time, he was admitted, Ann. 1651. Student of Chrift-Church in Oxford.

He was Elected with the great Mr. John Locke, an equal Ornament of Polite and abftrufe Learning. His Studentship, with an allowance of 30 l. per Ann.

from

from his Mother, and the Countenance of his Relation Dr. John South of New College, Regius Professor of the Greek Tongue, Chantor of Salisbury, and Vicar of Writtle in Effex, enabled him to obtain those Acquirements, that made him the Admiration and Efteem of the whole University, and drew upon him the Eyes of the best Masters of Humanity and other Studies, by the quick progrefs he made thro' them.

He took the Degree of Batchelour of Arts, which he compleated by his Determination, in Lent 165 The fame Year he wrote a Latin Copy of Verses, Publish'd in the University Book, fet forth to Congratulate the Protector Oliver Cromwell upon the Peace then concluded with the Dutch; upon which fome People have made invidious Reflections, as if contrary to the fentiments he afterwards cfpoufed; but these are to be told, that fuch Exercises are usually impos'd by the Governors of Colleges upon Batchelors of Arts, and Undergraduats: I fhall forbear to be particular in his, as being a forc'd Compliment to the Ufurper.

Not but even those discover a certain Unwillingness to act in Favour of that Monster, whom even the inimitable Earl of Clarendon, in his History of the Grand Rebellion, diftinguishes by the Name and Title of a GLORIOUS VILLAIN.