ing in person, in his behalf, to every new lord lieutenant, if he were acquainted with him; or, if that were not the case, contriving by some circuitous means to procure Mr. Jephson's re-appointment to the office originally conferred upon him by lord Townsend; and by these means chiefly he was continued for a long series of years, under twelve successive governors of Ireland, in the same station, which always before had been considered a temporary office. In Mr. Jephson's case, this office was accompanied by a seat in the house of commons, where he occasionally amused the house by his wit, but does not at any time appear to have been a profound politician. His natural inclination was for literary pursuits; and he supported lord Townsend's government with more effect in the "Bachelor," a set of periodical essays which he wrote in conjunction with Mr. Courtenay, the Rev. Mr. Burroughs, and others. He died at his house at Blackrock, near Dublin, of a paralytic disorder, May 31, 1803.

As a dramatic writer, his claims seem to be founded chiefly on his tragedies of "Braganza," and "The Count of Narbonne." "Braganza" was very successful on its original appearance, but fell into neglect after the first season, in 1775. Horace Walpole, whose admiration of it is expressed in the most extravagant terms, addressed to the author "Thoughts on Tragedy," in three letters, which are included in his printed works. In return, Mr. Jephson took the story of his "Count of Narbonne" from Walpole's "Castle of Otranto," and few tragedies in our times have been more successful. It was produced in 1781, and continued to be acted until the death of Mr. Henderson, the principal performer. Of Mr. Jephson's other dramas it may be sufficient to give the names: “The Law of Lombardy," a tragedy, 1779; "The Hotel," a farce, 1783; "The Campaign," an opera, 1785; “Julia," a tragedy, 1787; "Love and War," 1787, and "Two Strings to your Bow," 1791, both farces; and "The Conspiracy," a tragedy. Mr. Jephson afterwards acquired a considerable share of poetical fame from his "Roman Portraits," a quarto poem, or rather collection of poems, characteristic of the Roman heroes, published in 1794, which exhibited much taste and elegance of versification. About the same time he published anonymously, "The Confession of James Baptiste Couteau," 2 vols. 12mo, a kind of satire on the perpetrators of the revolutionary

atrocities in France, and principally the wretched duke of Orleans.'

JEREMIAH, metropolitan of Larissa, was raised to the patriarchal chair of Constantinople in 1572, when only in the thirty-sixth year of his age. The Lutherans presented to him the confession of Augsburg, in hopes of his approbation; but he opposed it, both in his speeches and writings. He seemed even not far from uniting the Greek to the Roman church, and had adopted the reformation of Gregory XIII. in the calendar; but some persons, who were envious of him, taking occasion from thence to accuse him of corresponding with the pope, procured his banishment in 1585. Two years after he was recalled and restored to his dignity, but from that time we find no account of him. His correspondence with the Lutherans was printed at Wittemberg, in Greek and Latin, 1584, folio. It had previously been published by a Catholic, in Latin, 1581.2

JERNINGHAM (EDWARD), an elegant English poet, descended from an ancient Roman catholic family in Norfolk, was the youngest brother of the late sir William Jerningham, bart. and was born in 1727. He was educated in the English college at Douay, and from thence removed to Paris, where he improved himself in classical attainments, becoming a good Latin scholar, and tolerably well acquainted with the Greek, while the French and Italian languages, particularly the former, were nearly as familiar to him as that of his native country. In his mind, benevolence and poetry had always a mingled operation. His taste was founded upon the best models of literature, which, however, he did not always follow, with respect to style, in his latter performances. The first production which raised him into public notice, was a poem in recommendation of the Magdalen hospital; and Mr. Jonas Hanway, one of its most active patrons, often declared, that its success was very much promoted by this poem. He continued occasionally to afford proofs of his poetical genius; and his works, which passed through many editions, are uniformly marked by taste, elegance, and a pensive character, that always excites tender and pleasing emotions; and in some of his works, as in "The Shakspeare Gallery," "Enthu

Malone's Life of the Hon. W. G. Hamilton.-Biog. Dram.-Lord Orford's Works, vol. II, p. 305.-Davies's Life of Garrick, vol. II. p. 286.

Moreri.-Dict. Hist.

siasm," and "The Rise and Fall of Scandinavian Poetry, he displays great vigour, and even sublimity. The first of these poems had an elegant and spirited compliment from Mr. Burke, in the following passage: "I have not for a long time seen any thing so well-finished. He has caught new fire by approaching in his perihelium so near to the Sun of our poetical system."-His last work, published a few months before his death, was entitled "The Old Bard's Farewell." It is not unworthy of his best days, and breathes an air of benevolence and grateful piety for the lot in life which Providence had assigned him. In his later writings it has been objected that he evinces a species of liberal spirit in matters of religion, which seems to consider all religions alike, provided the believer is a man of meekness and forbearance. With this view in his "Essay on the mild Tenour of Christianity" he traces historically the efforts to give an anchorite-cast to the Christian profession, and gives many interesting anecdotes derived from the page of Ecclesiastical history, but not always very happily applied. His "Essay on the Eloquence of the Pulpit in England," (prefixed to bishop Bossuet's Select Sermons and Orations) was very favourably received by the public, but his notions of pulpit eloquence are rather French than English. Mr. Jerningham had, during the course of a long life, enjoyed an intimacy with the most eminent literary characters in the higher ranks, particularly the celebrated earl of Chesterfield, and the present earl of Carlisle. The illness which occasioned his death, had continued for some months, and was at times very severe; but his sufferings were much alleviated by a course of theological study he had imposed on himself, and which he considered most congenial to a closing life. He died Nov. 17, 1812. He bequeathed all his manuscripts to Mr. Clarke, New Bond-street. Mr. Jerningham's productions are as follow: 1. "Poems and Plays," 4 vols. 9th edition, 1806. 2. "Select Sermons and Funeral Orations, translated from the French of Bossuet, bishop of Meaux," third edition, 1801. 3. "The mild Tenour of Christianity, an Essay, (elucidated from Scripture and History; containing a new illustration of the characters of several eminent personages,)" second edition, 1807. 4. "The Dignity of Human Nature, an Essay," 1805. 5. "The Alexandrian School; or, a narrative of the first Christian Professors in Alexandria," third edition, 1810. 6. "The Old Bard's Fare

well," a Poem, second edition, with additional passages, 1812. His dramatic pieces, "The Siege of Berwick," the "Welsh Heiress," and "The Peckham Frolic," have not been remarkably successful. 1

JEROM, or HIERONYMUS, a very celebrated father of the church, was born of Christian parents at Stridon, a town situated upon the confines of Pannonia and Dalmatia, in the year 331. His father Eusebius, who was a man of rank and substance, took the greatest care of his education; and, after grounding him well in the language of his own country, sent him to Rome, where he was placed under the best masters in every branch of literature. Donatus, well known for his "Commentaries upon Virgil and Terence," was his master in grammar, as Jerom himself tells us and under this master he made a prodigious progress in every thing relating to the belles lettres. He had also masters in rhetoric, Hebrew, and in divinity, who conducted him through all parts of learning, sacred and profane; through history, antiquity, the knowledge of languages, and of the discipline and doctrines of the various sects in philosophy; so that he might say of himself, as he afterwards did, with some reason, "Ego philosophus, rhetor, grammaticus, dialecticus, Hebræus, Græcus, Latinus, &c." He was particularly careful to accomplish himself in rhetoric, or the art of speaking, because, as Erasmus says in the life which he prefixed to his works, he had observed, that the generality of Christians were despised as a rude illiterate set of people; on which account he thought, that the unconverted part of the world would sooner be drawn over to Christianity, if it were but set off and enforced in a manner suitable to the dignity and majesty of it. But though he was so conversant with profane learning in his youth, he renounced it entirely afterwards, and did all he could to make others renounce it also; for he relates a vision, which he pretended was given to him, "in which he was dragged to the tribunal of Christ, and terribly threatened, and even scourged, for the grievous sin of reading secular and profane writers, Cicero, Virgil, and Horace, whom for that reason he resolved never to take into his hands any more."

When he had finished his education at Rome, and reaped all the fruits which books and good masters could afford,

1 Gent. Mag. vol. LXXXIII.

he resolved, for his further improvement, to travel. After being baptized therefore at Rome, when an adult, he went into France with Bonosus, a fellow-student, and remained a considerable time in every city through which he passed, that he might have opportunity and leisure to examine the public libraries, and to visit the men of letters, with which that country then abounded. He staid so long at Treveris, that he transcribed with his own hand a large volume of Hilary's concerning Synods, which some time after he ordered to be sent to him in the deserts of Syria. From hence he went to Aquileia, where he became first acquainted with Ruffinus, who was a presbyter in that town, and with whom he contracted an intimate friendship. When he had travelled as long as he thought expedient, and seen every thing that was curious and worth his notice, he returned to Rome; where he began to deliberate with himself, what course of life he should take. Study and retirement were` what he most desired, and he had collected an excellent library of books; but Rome, he thought, would not be a proper place to reside in it was not only too noisy and tumultuous for him, but as yet had too much of the old leaven of Paganism in it. He had objections likewise against his own country, Dalmatia, whose inhabitants he represents, in one of his epistles, as entirely sunk in sensuality and luxury, regardless of every thing that was good and praise-worthy, and gradually approaching to a state of barbarism. After a consultation therefore with his friends, he determined to retire into some very remote region; and therefore leaving his country, parents, substance, and taking nothing with him but his books, and money sufficient for his journey, he set off from Italy for the eastern parts of the world. Having passed through Dalmatia, Thrace, and some provinces of Asia Minor, his first care was to pay a visit to Jerusalem, which was then considered as a necessary act of religion. From Jerusalem he went to Antioch, where he fell into a dangerous fit of illness; but having the good fortune to recover from it, he left Antioch, and set forward in quest of some more retired habitation; and after rambling over several cities and countries, with all which he was dissatisfied on account of the customs and manners of the people, he settled at last in a most frightful desert of Syria, which was scarcely inhabited by any thing but wild beasts. This however was no objection to Jerom: it was rather a recommendation of the place to him; for,