irection of
Boulter would have nothing in it indecent or licentious; its title is to
be understood as implying only freedom from unreasonable prejudice. It
has been reprinted in volumes, but is little read; nor can impartial
criticism recommend it as worthy of revival.

Boulter was not well qualified to write diurnal essays; but he knew how
to practise the liberality of greatness and the fidelity of friendship.
When he was advanced to the height of ecclesiastical dignity, he did not
forget the companion of his labours. Knowing Philips to be slenderly
supported, he took him to Ireland, as partaker of his fortune; and,
making him his secretary[173], added such preferments, as enabled him to
represent the county of Armagh in the Irish parliament.

In December, 1726, he was made secretary to the lord chancellor; and in
August, 1733, became judge of the prerogative court.

After the death of his patron he continued some years in Ireland; but at
last longing, as it seems, for his native country, he returned, 1748, to
London, having, doubtless, survived most of his friends and enemies, and
among them his dreaded antagonist, Pope. He found, however, the duke of
Newcastle still living, and to him he dedicated his poems, collected
into a volume.

Having purchased an annuity of four hundred pounds, he now certainly
hoped to pass some years of life in plenty and tranquillity; but his
hope deceived him; he was struck with a palsy, and died June 18, 1749,
in his seventy-eighth year[174].

Of his personal character, all that I have heard is, that he was eminent
for bravery and skill in the sword, and that in conversation he was
solemn and pompous. He had great sensibility of censure, if judgment may
be made by a single story which I heard long ago from Mr. Ing, a
gentleman of great eminence in Staffordshire. "Philips," said he, "was
once at table, when I asked him, how came thy king of Epirus to drive
oxen, and to say 'I'm goaded on by love?' After which question he never
spoke again[175]."

Of the Distrest Mother, not much is pretended to be his own, and,
therefore, it is no subject of criticism: his other two tragedies, I
believe, are not below mediocrity nor above it. Among the poems
comprised in the late collection, the Letter from Denmark may be justly
praised; the Pastorals, which, by the writer of the Guardian, were
ranked as one of the four genuine productions of the rustick muse,
cannot surely be despicable. That they