the good air of Craford, in Kent. Being now returned, and having recovered my stomach, which I had in a manner quite lost, I intend, if God will, to fall to my old trade, if I have any support to follow it. My late misfortune, I feare, will much prejudice me; many persons unacquainted with me, and hearing me to be a stranger, being apt to derive a suspicion upon me. Not a few came to the Tower, merely to enquire after my crime, and to see the warrant; in which when they found that it was for dangerous desseins and practices, they spred it over London, and made others have no good opinion of me. Incarcera audacter, semper aliquid hæret. Before I went into the contry, I waited on my lord Arlington, kissing the rod. I hope I shall live fully to satisfy his majesty, and all honest Englishmen, of my integrity, and of my reall zeal to spend the remainder of my life in doing faithfull service to the nation, to the very utmost of my abilities. I have learned, during this commitment, to know my reall friends. God Almighty blesse them, and enable me to convince them all of my gratitude." About 1674 he was drawn into a dispute with Mr. Robert Hooke; who complained, that the secretary had not done him justice in the Transactions, with respect to the invention of the spiral spring for pocketwatches. The contest was carried on with great warmth on both sides for two years, when it was determined, much to Oldenburg's honour, by a declaration of the council of the Royal Society, Nov. 20, 1676, in these words: "Whereas the publisher of the Philosophical Transactions hath made complaint to the council of the Royal Society, of some passages in a late book of Mr. Hooke, entitled Lampas, &c. and printed by the printer of the said Society, reflecting on the integrity and faithfulness of the said publisher, in his management of the intelligence of the said society; this council had thought fit to declare, in behalf of the publisher aforesaid, that they knew nothing of the publication of the said book; and farther, that the said publisher hath carried himself faithfully and honestly in the management of the intelligence of the Royal Society, and given no just cause for such reflections." Oldenburg continued to publish the Transactions as before, to No. cxxxvi. June 25, 1677. He died at his house at Charlton, near Greenwich, in August 1678, and was interred there. Besides the works already mentioned, he translated into English, The Prodromus

to a Dissertation by Nich. Steno, concerning Solids naturally contained within Solids; A genuine Explication of the Book of Revelation, written by A. B. Piganius; and, The Life of the Duchess of Mazarine, from the French. He left a son, named RUPERT, from prince Rupert his godfather, and a daughter, named SOPHIA, by his wife, who was daughter and sole heir to the famous John Dury, a Scotch divine. From his Correspondence it appears that he was always poor, and ill requited for his services.

OLDENBURGER, (Philip Andrew,) was born in the duchy of Brunswick, and educated, under Herman Conring, at Helmstadt. He became professor of law and history at Geneva, where he died in 1678, leaving a great number of valuable works, some of them published under feigned names, particularly that of P. A. Burgoldensis. The following are the principal: Thesaurus Rerum publicarum totius Orbis; Limnæus enucleatus; Notitia Imperii, sive Discursus in Instrumentum Pacis Osnabrugo-Monasteriensis; Tractatus de Rebuspublicis turbidis in tranquillum Statum reducendis, in eoque conservandis; Tractatus de quatuor Elementis juridicè consideratis et Notis illustratus; Manuale principum Christianorum de Vera eorum Felicitate; Tractatus Juridico-Politicus de Securitate Juris, publici ac privati; and, De Origine et Progressu Juris Romani.

OLDERMAN, (John,) a learned German, was born in 1686 at Wersmould, in Saxony, and educated at Osnaburg, and at Helmstadt, where he studied the Oriental languages, under his maternal uncle, Von der Hardt. He was also much attached to astronomy, and weakened his constitution by watching for many nights together to observe the constellations. In 1707 he took the degree of M.A., and in 1717 was named professor of Greek at Helmstadt, where also he was associated with his uncle in the office of librarian. He died in 1723. His works are, De Imperfectione Sermonis Humanæ; De Phraate fluvio; De Mari Algoso; De Ophir; De Festivitate Enconiorum; De Specularibus Veterum; and, De Origine Natalitorum Jesu Christi.

OLDFIELD, (Anne,) a celebrated actress, born in Pall Mall, London, in 1683. Her father, who was an officer, left her in dependent circumstances, and she was brought up to the business of a seamstress; but her fondness for plays, and the sweetness of her voice, accidentally heard and commended by Far

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quhar, introduced her to Sir John Vanbrugh, and to Mr. Rich, the patentee of the king's theatre, where she made her first appearance. She soon shone in the characters of Leonora, in sir Courtly Nice, and of lady Betty Modish, in The Careless Husband. A little before this time she had formed an illicit connexion with Arthur Maynwaring, Esq., and after his death was the mistress of general Churchill. By each of these she had a She was humane and benevolent, and was the patroness of indigent merit in Savage. She died Oct. 23d, 1730, and her body, after lying in state in the Jerusalem Chamber, was buried in Westminster Abbey, with great pomp, between the monuments of Craggs and Congreve. Her wit and vivacity were said to be very engaging, and her figure and manners eminently fascinating. The becoming neatness of her dress, as well as the acquired graces of her person and of her understanding, are noticed in the Tatler.

OLDHAM, (Hugh,) an English prelate, a great encourager of learning, and an eminent benefactor to Corpus college, Oxford, is supposed to have been born at Oldham, near Manchester, and was educated at Oxford, whence, after remaining there for some time, he removed to Cambridge, and took the degree of D.D. In 1504, through the interest of Margaret, countess of Richmond, whose chaplain he was, he was advanced to the see of Exeter. His principal benefactions were bestowed on the foundation of Corpus Christi college. The design of Fox, the founder, originally went no farther than to found a college for a warden, and a certain number of monks and secular scholars belonging to the priory of St. Swithin, in Winchester; but Oldham induced him to enlarge his plan to one of more usefulness and durability. He is said to have addressed Fox thus: "What, my lord, shall we build houses, and provide livelihoods for a company of monks, whose end and fall we ourselves may live to see! No, no: it is more meet a great deal that we should have care to provide for the increase of learning, and for such as who by their learning shall do good to the Church and commonwealth." This wise and liberal advice being taken, Oldham became the second great benefactor to Corpus, by contributing six thousand marks, besides lands. He also founded the grammar-school of Manchester, connected with the three colleges of Corpus and Brasennose, Ox

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ford, and St. John's, Cambridge. He died in 1519.

OLDHAM, (John,) a poet, was born in 1653, at Shipton, near Tedbury, in Gloucestershire, (of which parish his father was minister during the usurpation,) and educated at Tedbury school, and at Edmund's hall, Oxford. He after wards became usher of the free school at Croydon, which post he occupied for three years. The Popish plot, which greatly agitated men's minds at that period, incited him to write his Four Satires against the Jesuits, whom he lashes with great severity. While he was in this humble situation he was surprised with a visit from the earls of Rochester and Dorset, Sir Charles Sedley, and other wits, who had seen some of his performances in manuscript. His removal from Croydon soon followed this notice, and he passed some time at the seat of Sir Edward Thurland, as tutor to his grandsons. He afterwards undertook the tuition of a son of Sir William Hickes; and when he had fitted his pupil for foreign travel, declining the offer of accompanying him, he went to London, where he was introduced to Dryden, and to William earl of Kingston, who took him to his seat of Holme - Pierpont, where, in December 1683, he was carried off by the smallpox, at the premature age of thirty. The earl erected a monument to his memory in the church of that place, with a highly encomiastic inscription. The poems of Oldham consist of satires, Pindaries, occasional copies of verses, and a great many translations from the classics. His fame was chiefly obtained by his satires, the spirited and indignant vein of which gave him the appellation of the English Juvenal. They are coarse in language, and harsh in versification, but possess much vigour of style and vivacity of description. A passage describing the servitude of a domestic chaplain at that time, has been often quoted. Some of his poems were published by himself, and the rest after his death, under the title of his Remains. An edition of the whole, with the author's life, was published by captain Thomson in 1722, in 2 vols, 12mo.

OLDISWORTH, (William,) a writer in the reigns of Anne and George I. but of whose personal history little is known. He was one of the writers of The Examiner, and published, A Vindication of the Bishop of Exeter (Dr. Blackall), against Mr. Hoadly; State Tracts; and, State and Miscellany Poems. He also

translated The Odes, Epodes, and Carmen Seculare, of Horace; and he wrote, The Life of Edmund Smith, prefixed to his works, and, Timothy and Philatheus, in which the principles and projects of a late whimsical book, entitled, The Rights of the Christian Church, &c. are fairly stated and answered in their kind, &c. By a Layman, 1709, 1710, 3 vols, 8vo. This is the work to which Pope makes Lintot the bookseller allude, in their pleasant dialogue on a journey to Oxford, and which perhaps may also convey one of Pope's delicate sneers at Oldisworth's poetry. He also published a translation of The Accomplished Senator, from the Latin of Gozliski, bishop of Posnia, 1733, 4to. He died in 1734.

OLDMIXON, (John,) a political writer, born near Bridgewater, in Somersetshire, in 1673. His first production was Amyntas, a pastoral, and his second in 1700, an opera. He soon, however, became a violent party-writer, and a severe and malignant critic. He was a bitter opponent of the Stuart family; and he was perpetually attacking, with evident marks of envy and malevolence, his contemporaries; particularly Addison, Eusden, and Pope. The last of these, however, whom he had assailed in different letters which he wrote in The Flying Post, and repeatedly reflected on in his Prose Essays on Criticism, and in his Art of Logic and Rhetoric, written in imitation of Bouhours, has given him a conspicuous place in the Dunciad. His zeal as a virulent party-writer procured him the place of collector of the customs at the port of Bridgewater. He died in 1742. Oldmixon, when employed by bishop Kennet in publishing the historians in his Collection, perverted Daniel's Chronicle in numberless places, which renders Kennet's first edition of little value. His principal works are, History of the Stuarts, fol., and, The Critical History of England. He also wrote, Reflections on Dr. Swift's Letter to the Earl of Oxford about the English Language; A volume of Poems; The Life of Arthur Maynwaring, Esq.; The Life of Queen Anne; and, A Review of Dr. Grey's Defence of our ancient and modern Historians.

OLDYS, (William,) an industrious bibliographer and biographer, born in 1696, was the natural son of Dr. William Oldys, chancellor of Lincoln, commissary of St. Catharine's, and advocate of the Admiralty Court. Of the early part of young Oldy's's life little is known, except

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that he lost his parents early, and, probably, was left to make his way in life unassisted by every thing but his own talents. Captain Grose says that he soon squandered away a small patrimony, and afterwards became librarian to the earl of Oxford; after whose death, in 1741, he made the catalogue of that nobleman's collection of books and MSS. when it was prepared for sale by Osborne the bookseller. He was also employed in the selection made from the pamphlets, in a work in 8 vols, 4to, entitled, The Harleian Miscellany. In compiling this work, it is supposed that he proceeded only to the end of the second volume. Dr. Johnson was afterwards employed upon it. The only post he ever held was that of Norroy king at arms, given him by the duke of Norfolk, in return for the pleasure he had received from his Life of Sir Walter Raleigh, which is undoubtedly his best biographical work. The chief part of his subsistence was derived from the booksellers, by whom he appears to have been constantly employed. He seems to have had but little classical learning, and his style is very uncouth; but his knowledge of English books has hardly been exceeded. In the latter part of his life he abandoned himself to drinking, and was almost continually in a state of intoxication. He is said also to have been much addicted to low company. He wrote, beside the works already mentioned, The British Librarian, exhibiting a compendious View of all unpublished and valuable Books in all Sciences, as well in MS. as in Print; this is an accurate and useful work; A translation of Camden's Britannia; The Lives in the Biographia Britannica, distinguished, by the signature G, among which are those of T. and E. Alleyn, Eugene Aram, Caxton, Sir Geo. Etherege, &c. He died in 1761. In the British Museum is Oldys's copy of Langbaine's Lives, filled with notes written in the margin, and between the lines, in an extremely small hand. It came to the Museum as a part of the library of Dr. Birch. Transcripts of this have been made by various literary men.

OLEARIUS, (Adam,) a learned German, whose proper name was Oelschlager, was born about 1600, at Ascherleben, in the principality of Anhalt, and educated at Leipsic, where he made great progress in the mathematics and philosophy, and where he was for some time a professor, which office he quitted for a place in the service of Frederic, duke of HolsteinGottorp. That prince had a plan of

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and educated at St. Malo. He then entered into the Franciscan order of Capuchins; and he was soon after appointed chaplain to a regiment of his countrymen in the service of the French king; but not entering warmly into the measure of engaging the subjects of these kingdoms to enlist in foreign battalions, he incurred the displeasure of those in power, and in a little time returned to his own country, where he built a chapel at Cork, in which he officiated. About this time Dr. Blair, a Scotch physician, published, at Cork, a work, entitled, Thoughts on Nature and Religion, which advanced sentiments hostile to the Christian faith. As no one among the Protestants thought proper to answer him, father O'Leary applied to Dr. Mann, bishop of the diocese, for leave to enter the lists against the writer; and, having obtained his lordship's permission, he soon after published his Defence of the Divinity of Christ and the Immortality of the Soul. When the parliament of Ireland showed a disposition to relax the rigour of the penal laws against the Roman Catholics, and framed the Test Act, father O'Leary published his Loyalty Asserted, or the Test Oath Vindicated, in consequence of which publication he became the favourite of almost all the eminent Irish political and literary characters of the day. At that critical period during the American war, when the combined fleets of France and Spain threatened an invasion of Ireland, he addressed his Roman Catholic countrymen in the most energetic language, in the cause of order and loyalty. About 1784, when a considerable number of nocturnal insurgents, of the Romish persuasion, committed great excesses in the county of Cork, particularly towards the tithe proctors of the Protestant clergy, he rendered himself useful in bringing them to a proper sense of their misconduct, by his addresses to them. Some of his sentiments, however, drew down upon him the attack of Dr. Woodward, the Protestant bishop of Cloyne; which he repelled in, A Defence of the Conduct and Writings of the Rev. Arthur O'Leary, &c., written by himself, in Answer to ill-grounded Insinuations of the Right Rev. Dr. Woodward, &c. 1788, 8vo. This defence, which is a masterpiece of wit, argument, delicate irony, and energetic writing, was drawn up by the author in less than eight hours. For many years he resided in London, as principal minister of the Roman Catholic chapel in Soho-square. He died at an advanced age, in 1802. He published,

Remarks on Mr. Wesley's Defence of the Protestant Association; A Defence of his Conduct in the Affair in the Insurrection in Munster; A Review of the Important Controversy between Dr. Carrol and the Rev. Messrs. Wharton and Hopkins; A Fast Sermon at St. Patrick's Chapel, Soho; and, Miscellaneous Tracts. His character was eloquently eulogized by Grattan, Flood, and other members of the Irish parliament.

OLEASTER, (Jerome,) a learned Portuguese Dominican monk in the sixteenth century, was a native of Azambuja, a town on the banks of the Tagus. He was a perfect master of the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages; and he had the reputation of being most intimately conversant with the Scriptures. In 1545 he was one of the divines whom John III. of Portugal sent to the council of Trent. Afterwards he was made Inquisitor, and filled the various offices of trust and honour pertaining to his order. died in 1563. He wrote, Hieronymi Commentarii in Pentateuchum ; and, Commentarius in Esaiam.

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OLEY, (Barnabas,) a learned and pious divine, president of Clare hall in Cambridge, and vicar of Great Gransden in Huntingdonshire, was born at Thorp, near Wakefield, in Yorkshire, (of which place his father was vicar,) and was proctor of the university in 1635. the breaking out of the rebellion (1644) he was turned out of his fellowship by the earl of Manchester, and forced to quit his vicarage. After having suffered much during the usurpation, he was, in 1660, restored both to his fellowship and vicarage, was made prebendary of Worcester, and archdeacon of Ely. He published Dr. Jackson's works, and Herbert's Country Parson, to each of which he prefixed a preface. He died in 1686.

OLIVA, (Alessandro,) a celebrated cardinal, was born at Saxoferato in 1408, of poor parents, and was admitted when young among the monks of Augustine, and studied at Rimini, Bologna, and Perugia; in which last place he was first made professor of philosophy, and afterwards appointed to teach divinity. At length he was chosen provincial, and some time after solicitor-general, of his order. He displayed his pulpit eloquence at Rome, Naples, Venice, Bologna, Florence, Mantua, and Ferrara; was elected first vicar-general, and then general of his order, in 1459; and at last created cardinal, in 1460, by Pius II. This learned pontiff gave him afterwards the