there was not a school in Afia, whose master had any reputation, to which he was not fent. He was fent to Nyfa, when he was very young, to learn rhetoric and grammar; and afterwards applied himself to philofophy, and heard the mafters of the feveral fects. Xylander, his Latin tranflator, fuppofes him to have embraced the Peripatetic doctrines and difcipline; but this, as the learned Cafaubon and others have obferved, is exprefsly against several declarations of his own, which fhew him plainly enough to have been a Stoic. Ancient authors have faid fo little about him, that we know scarcely any circumstances of his life, but what we learn from himself. He mentions his own travels into feveral parts of the world, into Egypt, Afia, Greece, Italy, Sardinia, and other Iflands: he fays, that he went from Armenia weftward, till he came to that part of Hetruria, which is over against Sardinia; and southward, from the Euxine fea to the extremities of Ethiopia. He did not go fo far as to Germany; on which account it is lefs to be wondered, if he had not defcribed the countries this way with his ufual clearnefs and accuracy. Cluver fays, Antiq. that he has not; yet others have commended even this part Germ: 1. iii. of his geography. He mentions feveral of his contemporaries, and several facts, which fhew him to have lived in the reigns of Auguftus and Tiberius; but the year of his death is not known.

His books of geography are indeed a very precious remain of antiquity. The two firft are employed in fhewing, that the ftudy of geography is not only worthy of, but even neceffary to a philofopher; the third defcribes Spain; the fourth, Gaul and the Britannic ifles; the fifth and fixth, Italy and the adjacent ifles; the feventh, which is imperfect at the end, Germany, the countries of the Getæ and Illyrii, Taurica, Cherfonefus, and Epirus; the eighth, ninth, and tenth, Greece, with the neighbouring ifles; the four following, Afia within Mount Taurus; the fifteenth and fixteenth, Afia without Taurus, India, Perfia, Syria, Arabia; and the feventeenth, Egypt, Ethiopia, Carthage, and other places of Africa. It has been ufual to confult this work, just as we fhould confult a geographical dictionary; but it richly deferves a continued and attentive reading, not on account of its geographical knowledge only, but for many philofophic remarks and hiftorical relations, that are to be found in it; for Strabo was a man of great thought and judgement, as well as reading and travelling; and therefore did not content himself with

B 3

barely

C. I.

barely noting the names and fituations of places, but very frequently explains the cuftoms, manners, policy, and religion of particular nations, and alfo takes occafion to fpeak of their famous men.

Strabo's work was published with a Latin verfion by Xylander, and notes by Ifaac Cafaubon, at Paris 1620, in folio; but the best edition is that of Amfterdam in 1707, in two volumes, folio, by the learned Theodore Janfonius ab Almelooveen, with the intire notes of Xylander, Cafaubon, Meurfius, Cluver, Holftenius, Salmafius, Bochart, Ez. Spanheim, Cellarius, and others. To this edition is fubjoined the Chreftomathia, or epitome of Strabo; which, according to Mr. Dodwell, who has written a very elaborate and learned differtation about it, was made by fome at p:efent unknown perfon between the years of Chrift 679 and 996. It has been found of fome ufe, not only in helping to correct the original, but in fupplying in fome meafure the defect in the feventh book. Mr. Dodwell's differtation is prefixed to this edition. Strabo compofed other works, of which we can only deplore the lofs, as we may with the jufleft reason.

STRADA (FAMIANUS), a very ingenious and learned Jefuit, was born at Rome the latter end of the 16th century; and taught rhetoric there, in a public manner, for fifteen years. He wrote feveral pieces upon the art of oratory, and published fome orations, probably with a view of illuftrating by example what he had inculcated by precept. But his "Prolufiones academicæ," and his "Hif"toria de bello Belgico," are the works which raifed his reputation, and have preferved his memory. His "Hif"tory of the war of Flanders" was published at Rome, the firft decad in 1650, the fecond in 1647, the whole extending from the death of Charles V. which happened in 1558, to the year 1590. It is written in good Latin, as all allow; but its merit in other refpects has been variously determined. Scioppius attacked it in his manner, in a book intituled, "Infamia Famiani:" but Scioppius was a man of great malice and paffion, as well as great parts and learning, which makes his cenfures of any thing little regarded, even where they may happen to be well grounded and true. Bentivoglio, in his "Memoirs," affirms, that Strada's history is fitter for a college, than a court, because he has meddled fo much with war and politics, neither of Reflex. fur which he understood any thing of. The Jefuit Rapin,

la hift.

fpeaking

fpeaking of the vicioufnefs of a compounded and multiform ftyle in hiftory, fays, "this was the fault of Strada, who, "by the beauty of his imagination, and the great variety "of his reading, has mixed fuch different characters and "manners: but fuch a mixture, as he fhews in his way of "writing, how agreeable foever it may be thought, lofes "much of perfection." The late lord Bolingbroke, in his "Letters upon hiftory," has been very fevere upon Letter V Strada: he calls him "a Rhetor," and fays, "that one. "page of Tacitus outweighs whole volumes of him. Ifingle "him out," adds his lordship," among the moderns, because he had the foolish prefumption to cenfure Taci"tus, and to write history himself."

His Prolufiones academica" fhew great ingenuity,. and a masterly fkill in claffical literature; that prolufion especially in which he introduces Lucan, Lucretius, Claudian, Ovid, Statius, and Virgil, each of them verfifying according to his own ftrain. They have been often printed; and, as they are full of things relating to polite literature, are agreeable enough to read, fave that they are written, like his hiftory, a little too rhetorically. We know not the year of Strada's birth, or his death.

P.

STRAIGHT (JOHN), rector of Findon, in Suffex, Gent. Mag. to which he was prefented by Magdalen college, Oxford, 1776, being Fellow of that fociety, was author of the fol- 14. lowing poems in Dodfley's Collection, vol. V. p. 244, &c. "To Mr. J[ohn] H[oadly], at the Temple, occafi"oned by a Tranflation of an Epiftle of Horace, 1730,' "Anfwer to fome Verfes from Mr. J. H. 1731." "Cupid "and Chloe." "The Poet to his falfe Miftrefs, &c." These pieces are excellent, and much in the manner of Prior. Mr. Straight was ever in a ftate of perfecution, as it were, for his extraordinary parts and eccentric good fenfe, by which entirely he got rid of his good enthufiaftic father's prejudices (in which he was educated) in favour of thofe vifionaries the French prophets, by whom he was eaten up and betrayed. Mr. Straight married the daughter of Mr. Davenport, vicar of Broad Hinton, Wiits, whom he left a widow with fix children. After his death, two vols. 8vo, of Select Difcourfes" were published for their benefit, which, though never defigned for the prefs, were extremely worthy of it. His circumftances and health were particularly hurt by his turning farmer, merely for the fake of his numerous family, and dying foon after, before

Letters by fevera¡emi

nt perfons deceased, vol. III.

he had time to retrieve the extraordinary firft expences. The following letter, occafioned by Bp. Hoadly's giving him the prebend of Westminster in Salisbury cathedral, is worth perufing.

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"My Lord,

1732.

"I just now received your Lordships moft furprifing. generous, opportune, beatific letter. I was dead till I "received it, but it has given new life: I feel myself gay, ❝elated. . . I have been tithe-gathering thefe three weeks, "and never thought to enquire after any thing for the "future but the price of corn; but now I fhall fee Lon"don again, I fhall fee Sarum again, I shall see the bishop again;

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66

66

"Shall eat his oysters, drink his ale,

66

Loos'ning the tongue as well as tail;

"I fhall be poetical, oratorical, ambitious; I fhall write again to the young divine [A]; nay I don't know but to the public. But I muft fupprefs the extravagance of my joy, and think of proper terms to exprefs my gra❝titude. I can only with your Lordship and myself a long life to fhew it. I am, &c. J. STRAIGHT."

[A] Mr. John Hoadly.

STREATER (ROBERT), an English painter, was born in 1624, and, being a perfon of great induftry as well as capacity, arrived to an eminent degree of perfection in his art. He excelled particularly in hiftory, architecture, and perspective; and fhewed himself a great master, by the truth of his cutlines, and fkill in foreshortening his figures. He was alfo excellent in landscape and ftill-life; and there is fome fruit of his painting yet to be feen, which is of the higheft Italian gufto, both for pencilling, judgement, and compofition. It is faid, that he was the greatest and moft univerfal painter England ever bred, which is fupposed to have been owing in fome measure to his reading; for he was reputed a very good hiftorian. He had a very good collection of Italian books, drawings, and prints, after the best mafters. Upon the restoration of Charles II. he was made his majefty's ferjeant-painter; for that king was a lover of painting and painters, as well as his father. He became violently afflicted with the ftone, and refolved to be cut; which the king hearing of, and having a great kindness

I

kindness for him, fent on purpose to France for a furgeon, who came and performed the operation, which, however, Streater did not long furvive. He died in 1680, having fpent his life in great esteem and reputation. His principal works were at the Theatre at Oxford; fome cielings at Whitehall, now burnt; the battle of the giants with the gods, at Sir Robert Clayton's; the pictures of Mofes and Aaron, at St. Michael's church in Cornhill, &c. &c.

P. 392.

STRYPE (JOHN), the induftrious editor of many Atterbury's Epiftolary valuable publications, was born in London, of German Correfponparents. He was educated at Catherine-Hall, Cambridge, dence, where he took the degree of M. A. and was admitted vol. III. ad eundem at Oxford, July 11, 1671. He was collated to the rectory of Theydon-boys, in Effex, in July 1669, which he refigned, in February following, for the vicarage of Low-Leyton in that county. He had alfo a conderable finecure given him by Archbishop Tenifon, and was lecturer of Hackney, where he died (at the house of Mr. Harris, an apothecary, who had married his granddaughter) Dec. 13, 1737, at an uncommonly great age, having enjoyed his vicarage near 68 years. He kept an exact diary of his own life, which contained many curious circumstances relating to the literary hiftory of his times, as is eafy to conceive, he being engaged in a frequent correfpondence, by letters with Archbishop Wake, Bishops Atterbury, Burnet, Nicolfon, and other eminent perfons. Six volumes of these letters are now (1784) in the poffeffion of the Rev. Mr. Knight, of Milton, Cambridgeshire. Strype's publications were, 1. "The second "volume of Dr. John Lightfoot's works, 1684," fol. 2. "Life of Archbishop Cranmer, 1694," fol. 3. "The "Life of Sir Thomas Smith, 1698," 8vo. 4. "Leffons "for Youth and Old Age, 1699," 12°. 5. "The Life "of Dr. John Elmer, Bishop of London, 1701," 8vo. 6. "The Life of Sir John Cheke, 1705," 8vo. 7. "An"nals of the Reformation," 4vols; vol. I. 1709 (reprinted 1725); vol. II. 1725; vol. III. 1728; vol. IV. 1731. 8. "Life of Archbishop Grindal, 1710," fol. "Life "and Letters of Archbishop Parker, 1711," fol. 10. 'Life of Archbishop Whitgift, 1718," fol. 11." An "accurate edition of Stow's Survey of London, 1720," 2 vols. folio, for which he was 18 years in collecting materials. Dr. Birch obferves, that his fidelity and industry will always give a value to his numerous writings,

46

9.

"however