LOWTH, ROBERT, a prelate of the English Church, son of the Lowth last named, and, like his father, distinguished by his knowledge of the books of Scripture and his valuable writings in illustration of them, was born in 1710. He Wes educated in the school of Winchester founded by William of Wyckham, whence he passed to New College, Oxford, which was also founded by the same munificent prelate. He went abroad with members of the Dartmouth and the Devonshire families, who, especially the latter, favoured his advancement in the Church ; and having the good fortune to secure also the patronage of Headley, bishop of Winchester, he rose by regular gradations till he became Bishop of London, and in a situation to decline the offer which was made to him by King George III. of tho archbishopric of Canter bury. A few dates of his preferments may suffice. Early in life he had the rectory of Ovington ; in 1750 he was made Archdeacon of Winchester ; in 1753 rector of East Woodhay in that diocese; iu 1766 he became Bishop of St. David's ; in the same year he was translated to Oxford; and iu 1777 he was made Bishop of London. He died in 1787.
In speaking of the writings with which Bishop Lowth has enriched the literature of his country, we shall pass over his minor tracts, even those which belong to his controversy with Bishop Warburton, arising out of a trifling difference of opinion respecting the Book of Job. The controversy was conducted on both sides with a virulence rarely witnessed in these days in the disputes of literary men, and the pamphlets may be recommended to any one who can relish angry disputations seasoned by leaning and wit. Writings on which we can dwell with greater satisfaction are his Life of William of Wyckham,' first published in 1758, a good specimen of the results to be attained by curious and recondite biographical research ; and his Lectures on the Poetry of the Hebrews,' which were delivered by him in the university when he was professor of poetry. These lectures may be
said to have opened an almost new subject, little atteutiou having been previously paid to the laws of Hebrew poetry, or even to the fact that large portions of the books of the Old Testament are poems, iu the strict and proper sense of the word, though presented to the English reader in a mere prose version, and as if there was no difference between them and the parts of those Scriptures which are really prose. They were received when published with great respect by the learned, not of England only, but of the Continent, where they were repriuted, with a large body of valuable notes, by the learned biblical scholar, J. D. Michaelis. Theso lectures were published by Lowth iu Latin, the language in which they were delivered, but there is an English traus lation of them by Dr. Gregory, published in 1787. In 1773, the year after he was promoted to the bishopric of London, he published a ' Translation of the Prophet Isaiah,' distinguishing the poetical from the parts written in prose, and exhibiting the various forms of Hebrew parallelisms which occur in that prophet, and which he had explained and illustrated in his lectures. lie gave a large body of valuable notes. These were his greater works; but he published also an Introduction to English Grammar,' which was thought valuable at the time, and was often reprinted, but is now nearly superseded and forgotten. There are also a few poems of his, chiefly in the nature of academical exerciser', which in their day were greatly adm'u•od. A volume coutain ing memoirs of his life and writings was published soon after his decease.