LOWTH, Dr William, a learned and pious divine, born at London in 1661, was the son of an apothecary, and took his degrees at Oxford. His eminent worth and learning recommended him to Dr Mew, bishop of Winchester, [7:13:580]who made him his chaplain, gave him two livings in Hampshire, and conferred upon him a prebend in the cathedral of Winchester. Although he had acquired an unusual share of critical learning, the labours of Mr Lowth were strictly confined within the limits of his own province, and he applied solely to the peculiar duties of his function; yet, in order that he might acquit himself the better in theology, he pursued his studies with a more general and extensive view. Few were more deeply versed in critical learning, there being scarcely any ancient author, Greek or Latin, profane or ecclesiastical, which he had not read with accuracy, constantly accompanying his reading with critical and philological remarks. Of his collections in this way he was upon all occasions very communicative. Hence his notes on Clemens Alexandrinus, which are to be met with in Potter’s edition of that father; and his remarks on Josephus, communicated to Hudson for his edition, and acknowledged in the preface; as also those larger and more numerous annotations upon the Ecclesiastical Historians, inserted in Reading’s edition of them at Cambridge. The author of the Bibliotheca Biblica was indebted to him for the same kind of assistance. Chandler, bishop of Durham, whilst engaged in his Defence of Christianity, from the Prophecies of the Old Testament, against the Discourse of the Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Religion, and in his Vindication of the Defence, in answer to the Scheme of Literal Prophecy considered, held a constant correspondence with Lowth, and consulted him upon many difficulties which occurred in the course of that work. But the most valuable part of his character was that which least appeared in the eyes of the world; the private and retired part, that of the good Christian and the useful parish priest. His piety, his diligence, his hospitality and beneficence, rendered his life highly exemplary, and greatly enforced his public exhortations. He married Margaret, daughter of Mr Robert Pitt, of Blandford, by whom he had two sons and three daughters; and died in 1732, when, by his own orders, he was buried in the churchyard of Buriton. He published, 1. A Vindication of the Divine Authority and Inspiration of the Old and New Testaments; 2. Directions for the profitable reading of the Holy Scriptures; 3. Commentaries on the Prophets; and some other works.

Lowth, Dr Fobert, second son of the preceding Dr William Lowth, and successively bishop of St David’s, Oxford, and London, was born on the 29th of November 1710, probably at Buriton, in the county of Hants. He received the rudiments of his education at Winchester College, where his school exercises were distinguished by uncommon elegance; and having resided the requisite number of years in that seminary, he in 1730 succeeded to a place on the foundation at New College, Oxford. He took the degree of master of arts on the 8th of June 1737. Though his abilities must have been known to those with whom he was connected, he was not forward to appear before the world as a writer. At Oxford he continued many years improving his talents, with little notice from the great, and with so small preferment that, at this time, he escaped the distinct recollection of some of his contemporaries.

He was not, however, suffered to languish for ever in obscurity. His genius and his learning forced themselves upon the notice of the illustrious society of which he was a member; and he was placed in a station where he was eminently qualified to shine. In 1741 he was elected by the university to the professorship of poetry, re-elected in 1743, and, whilst he held that office, he read his admirable lectures De Sacra Poesi Hebraeorum. In 1744 Bishop Hoadly collated him to the rectory of Ovington in the county of Hants; added to it, nine years afterwards, the rectory of East Weedhay in the same county; and in the interim raised him to the dignity of archdeacon of Winchester. These repeated favours he some years afterwards acknowledged in the following manly and respectful terms of gratitude: “This address, my lord, is not more necessary on account of the subject, than it is in respect of the author. Your lordship, unsolicited and unasked, called him from one of those colleges to a station of the first dignity in your diocese, and took the earliest opportunity of accumulating your favour upon him, and of adding to that dignity a suitable support. These obligations he is now the more ready thus publicly to acknowledge, as he is removed out of the reach of further favours of the like kind. And though he hath relinquished the advantages so generously conferred on him, yet he shall always esteem himself highly honoured in having once enjoyed the patronage of the great advocate of civil and religious liberty.”

On the 8th of July 1754 the university of Oxford conferred upon him the degree of doctor of divinity by diploma; an honour which, as it is never granted but to distinguished merit, was probably conferred on Mr Lowth in consequence of his prelections on Hebrew poetry, which had then been recently published. Having in 1749 travelled with Lord George and Lord Frederick Cavendish, he had a claim upon the patronage of their family; and in 1755 the Duke of Devonshire being then lord lieutenant of Ireland, Dr Lowth went to that kingdom as his grace’s first chaplain. Soon after this appointment he was offered the bishopric of Limerick; but having preferred a less dignified station in his own country, he exchanged it with Dr Leslie, prebendary of Durham and rector of Sedgefield, for these preferments. In November 1765 he was chosen a fellow of the Royal Society. In June 1766 he was, on the death of Dr Squire, preferred to the bishopric of St David’s, which, in the October following, he resigned for that of Oxford, vacant by the translation of Bishop Hume to Salisbury. In April 1777 he was translated to the see of London, vacant by the death of Bishop Terrick; and in 1783 he declined the offer of the primacy of all England.

Having been grievously afflicted with thê stone, and having long borne the severest sufferings of pain and sickness with the most exemplary fortitude and resignation, this great and good man died at Fulham on the 3d of November 1787; and on the 12th his remains were privately interred in a vault at Fulham church, near to those of his predecessor. He had married in 1752, Mary, the daughter of Laurence Jackson of Christ Church, Hampshire, by whom he had two sons and five daughters. His lady and two children only survived him.

His literary character may be estimated from the value and the importance of his works, in the account of which we may begin with his Prelections on Hebrew Poetry. The choice of so interesting a subject naturally attracted general attention; and the work has been read with equal applause abroad and at home. In these Prelections the author has acquitted himself in the most masterly manner, as a poet, a critic, and a divine; and such is the classical purity of his Latin style, that though we have read the work with the closest attention, and with no other view than to discover, if possible, Anglicisms in the composition, we found not a single phrase to which, we believe, a critic of the Augustan age would have objected. This is an excellence to which neither Milton nor Johnson has attained, to which indeed no other English writer of Latin with whom we are acquainted has attained, unless, perhaps, Bishop Atterbury be excepted. To the Prelections was subjoined a short confutation of Bishop Hare’s system of Hebrew metre, which occasioned a Latin letter from Dr Edwards of Clare Hall, Cambridge, to Dr Lowth, in vindication of the Hare metre. To this the [7:13:581]author of the Prelections replied in a larger confutation, in which Bishop Hare’s system is completely overthrown, and the fallacy upon which it was built accurately investigated and exposed. After much attentive consideration, Bishop Lowth has pronounced the metre of the Hebrews to be perfectly irrecoverable.

In 1758 he published The Life of William of Wykcham, ' bishop of Winchester, with a dedication to Bishop Hoadly, which involved him in a dispute concerning a decision which that bishop had lately pronounced respecting the wardenship of Winchester College. This controversy was on both sides carried on with such ability, that, though relating to a private concern, it may yet be read, if not with pleasure, at least with improvement. The life of Wykeham is drawn from the most authentic sources, and affords much information concerning the manners, and some of the public transactions, of the period in which Wykeham lived, whilst it displays some private intelligence respecting the two literary societies of which he was the founder. In these societies Dr Lowth was educated, and he gratefully expresses his obligations to them.

In 1762 was first published his Short Introduction to English Grammar, which has since gone through so many editions. It was originally designed only for private and domestic use; but its judicious remarks being too valuable to be confined to a few, the book was given to the world; and the excellence of its method, which teaches what is right by showing what is wrong, has insured public approbation and very general use. In 1765 Dr Lowth was engaged with Bishop Warburton in a controversy, which made much noise at the time, and attracted thei notice even of royalty itself. If we do not wish to dwell upon; the particulars of this controversy, it is because violent literary contention is an evil which, though, like other war, it may sometimes be unavoidable, yet is always to be regretted; and because the characters of learned, ingenious, and amiable men never appear to less advantage than under the form which that state of literary hostility obliges them to assume.

In 1778 Bishop Lowth published his last great work, A Translation of Isaiah. To his literary and theological abilities the translator joined the most critical knowledge of the character and spirit of eastern poetry; and accordingly the’ prophecies of Isaiah, which, though almost always sublime or elegant, are yet sometimes obscure, were translated in a manner adequate to the highest expectations of the public. Several occasional discourses which the bishop, by his station, was at different times called i upon to deliver, were of course published, and are all worthy of their excellent author; but there is one on the kingdom of God, on the extension and progressive improvement of Christ’s religion, and on the means of promoting these by the advancement of religious knowledge, by freedom of inquiry, by toleration, and mutual charity, which may be distinguished from the rest, as exhibiting a most comprehensive view of the successive states of the Christian church, and containing the truest principles of Christianity.

Of the bishop’s poetical pieces* none display greater 1 merit than verses on the Genealogy of Christ, and the Choice of Hercules, both composed very early in life. He wrote a spirited Imitation of an Ode of Horace, applied to the alarming situation of this country in 1745; and likewise some verses upon the death of Frederick, prince of Wales, with a few smaller poems.

Learning and taste, however, did not constitute Bishop Lowth’s highest excellence. Eulogium itself can scarcely ascend to extravagance when speaking of him either as a private man, or as a pastor of the church of Christ. His amiable manners rendered him an ornament to his high station, whilst they endeared him to all with whom he conversed; and his zeal for the interests of true religion made him eager to advance to places of trust and dignity such clergymen as he knew were best qualified to fill them.