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SEVERAL OCCASION S.

WRITTEN BY

DR. THOMAS PARNELL,

Late Archdeacon of CLOGHER:

And published by Mr. POPE.

Dignum laude virum musa vetat mori. HOR.

WITH

The LIFE of Z OIL US:

A

And his R E MARKS on HOME R's Battle

of the FROGS and MICE.

NEW

EDITION.

To which is prefixed,

The LIFE of Dr. P ARNEL L,

Written by Dr. G OLDS MIT H.

LONDON:

Printed for T. DAVIES, in Ruffel Street, Covent-Garden.
MDCCLXX.

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English

Sanders
10-21-31.
246664

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THOMAS PARNELL, D. D.

T

HE life of a scholar feldom abounds with adventure. His fame is acquired in folitude, and the hiftorian who only views him at a distance, must be content with a dry detail of actions by which he is fcarce diftinguished from the rest of mankind. But we are fond of talking of those who have given us pleasure; not that we have any thing important to fay, but because the subject is pleasing.

Thomas Parnell, D.D. was defcended from an ancient family, that had for fome centuries been fettled at Congleton in Cheshire. His father Thomas Parnell, who had been attached to the commonwealth party, upon the restoration went over to Ireland; thither he carried a large perfonal for

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tune, which he laid out in lands in that kingdom. The eftates he purchased there, as alfo that of which he was poffeffed in Cheshire, defcended to our poet, who was his eldest fon, and ftill remain in the family. Thus want, which has compelled. many of our greatest men into the fervice of the Muses, had no influence upon Parnell; he was a poet by inclination.

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He was born in Dublin, in the year 1679, and received the first rudiments of his education at the fchool of Doctor Jones in that city. Surprising things are told us of the greatness of his memory at that early period, as of his being able to repeat by heart forty lines of any book at the first reading; of his getting the third book of the Iliad in one night's time, which was given in order to confine him for fome days. Thefe ftories which are told of almost every celebrated wit, may perhaps be true. But for my own part, I never found any of thofe prodigies of parts, although I have known enough that were defirous, among the ignorant, of being thought fo... b.

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There is one prefumption, however, of the early maturity of his understanding. He was admitted a member of the college of Dublin at the age of thirteen, which is much fooner than ufual, as át that univerfity they are a great deal stricter in their examination for entrance, than either at Oxford or Cambridge. His progrefs through the college courfe of ftudy was probably marked with but lit

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tle fplendour; his imagination might have been too warm to relish the cold logic of Burgerfdicius, or the dreary fubtleties of Smiglefius; but it is certain, that as a claffical scholar, few could equal him. His own compofitions fhew this, and the deference which the moft eminent men of his time paid him upon that head, put it beyond a doubt. He took the degree of Mafter of Arts the ninth of July, 1700, and in the fame year, he was ordained a deacon by William, bishop of Derry, having a difpenfation from the primate, as being under twentythree years of age. He was admitted into prieft's orders about three years after, by William, archbifhop of Dublin, and on the ninth of February, 1705, he was collated by Sir George Afhe, bishop of Clogher, to the archdeaconry of Clogher. About that time also he married Miss Anne Minchin, a young lady of great merit and beauty, by whom he had two fons, who died young, and one daughter, who is ftill living. His wife died fome time before him, and her death is said to have made so great an impreffion on his fpirits, that it served to haften his own. On the thirty-firft of May, 1716, he was prefented, by his friend and patron archbishop King, to the vicarage of Finglas, a benefice worth at out 400 pounds a year, in the diocefe of Dublin, but he lived to enjoy this preferment a very short time. He died at Chefter, in July, 1718, on his way to Ireland, and was buried in Trinity church in that town, without any monument to mark the place of

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