3f,0 



EDWARDS. 



studies ; and, by diligent improvement of these ad- 

 , vantage*, he aoon become the most eminent ornitholo- 

 gist of the age in which he lived. In the years 17-t- ; . 

 17J7, 17 JO, and 1751, he published his " History of 

 Birds," in four volumes, with coloured plates and de- 

 scriptions, in French and English. The lact of these 

 volumes he dedicated to the Supreme Being ; an net in 

 which his piety may be acknowledged, but of which the 

 example is not to be imitated. Resuming his labours, 

 he published in 1758, 1760, and 1763, threeadditiou.il 

 volumes, under the title of " Gleaning* of Natural His- 

 tory," consisting of coloured plates of birds, fishes, in- 

 ects, and plants ; and thus completed a work containing 

 engravings and descriptions of more than 600 subjects 

 in natural history. As an artist, he was remarkable 

 tor his scrupulous exactness in copying nature. He 

 communicated occasional papers to the Royal Society, 

 of which he was chosen a member; and, in 1770, 

 he published, in one volume octavo, several essays, 

 which had been prefixed to his larger volumes, con- 

 taining instructions in drawing and painting in wa- 

 ter colour-, etching on copperplate, &c. He was ad- 

 mitted a member of several academies in different parts 

 of Europe ; and, besides the friendship and correspon- 

 dence or the great Linna'us, enjoyed the patronage of 

 the principal promoters of the arts and sciences in his 

 native country. In 1769, he retired from all public 

 employments to a small house at Plaistow, and devoted 

 the evening of his life to the conversation of a few se- 

 lect friends, and the perusal of a few favourite books. 

 During his latter years, he was greatly afflicted by the 

 stone, and by a cancer in one of his eyes ; but remark- 

 ably patient. Emaciated with age and sickness, he 

 died in 1773, and was interred in his native parish of 

 West-Ham, where a stone is erected over his grave, 

 with a plain inscription, to perpetuate his skill as a 

 zoologist. He was a man of middle stature, inclining 

 to corpulence, of a benevolent disposition and cheerful 

 temper ; an entertaining and communicative compa- 

 nion to persons of congenial taste with himself; but, 

 from his diffidence and humility, little calculated to 

 shine in general conversation. See Biog. Brit. ; Me- 

 moirs of (he Life of Gen. Edwards; Anecdotes of Bom. 

 yer ; and New Biog. Diet. (q\ 



EDWARDS, THOMAS, a critic and a poet, was born 

 in London or its vicinity, in the year 1699, and re- 

 ceived his grammatical education at Eton school. He 

 entered upon the study of the law at Lincoln's Inn, 

 with the view of practising at the bar ; but was dis- 

 couraged by a remarkable hesitation in his speech, from 

 engaging much in the duties of that profession. He 

 applied himself indeed from his youth rather to the 

 cultivation of polite literature, than to the perusal of 

 the statutes ; and was, in particular, an ardent admir- 

 er of the works of Shakespeare. He first appeared as 

 an author in 17*4, by publishing a letter to the author 

 of a late epistolary dedication, addressed to Mr War- 

 burton, in which he attacked the critical tenets of that 

 celebrated writer. Warburton had hinted in the pre- 

 face to his edition of Shakespeare, that he had once in- 

 tended to have given his readers a body of canons for 

 literary criticism ; but now referred them to what he 

 had occasionally said upon the subject in the course of 

 his annotations. This idea was humorously taken up 

 by Mr Edwards, who framed a set of canons ridicu- 

 lously absurd, which he illustrated by examples from 

 Warburton's notes. This performance appeared in 1 747, 

 as " A Supplement to Mr Warburton's edition of Shnke- 

 fpeare," and afterwards under the title of " Canon* of 



Criticism." It was remarkably well received by the Rdwd 

 public; and besides effectually exposing the singular Jonyh"^ 

 aberrations ot' the ingenious critic in question, holds up > "" W "Y" 1 ' 

 to deserved contempt, the rash and fanciful stile of cri- 

 tical expo-it ion and emendation which then 'began to 

 prevail. Warburton, in return, intnxluccd Kilward* 

 into the Duneiad, in a scurrilous note upon lii:- 

 of book fourth; a retort which the litter, from the iras- 

 cible character of his antagonist, might have been pre- 

 pared to expect, and which scarcely deserved the in- 

 dignant reply which he prefixed to a future impression 

 of his " Canons." He produced another small piece, 

 entitled, " An Account of the trial of the letter T alias 

 Y," which regards the orthography of the English lan- 

 guage ; and in which he chiefly recommends attention 

 to uniformity in spelling, and to the marks of etymo- 

 logy. He was more eminent as a classical .scholar, and 

 an elegant critic in the English language, than as a 

 writer of jMH'try. All his piece- in tlii- l:i-t mentioned 

 capacity, excepting one ode, were in the fonn of son- 

 nets, in the style of Spenser, thirteen of which are 

 printed in l)od-lcy's collection, eight in IVarch's, four 

 in Nicol's ; and the whole of these, with twenty-seven 

 additional, are to be found in the last edition of 

 his " Canons," in 1765. A small tract on predestina- 

 tion, was published after his death. From the year 

 173,9, till his decease, he resided at his estate at Tur- 

 rick. He died in January 1757; and, in an inscription 

 upon his monument in the church-vard of Ellesbo- 

 rough, is described as a sincere Christian, a friend to 

 the cause of liberty, and an enemy to licentiousness 

 and faction. See New Biog. Diet, and Biog. Britan. 



"1, 



IDWARDS, JONATHAN, an eminent American di- 

 vine, was born at Windsor in Connecticut in October 

 1703; and entered Yale College in 171 6, where he re- 

 ceived the degree of bachelor of arts, before he was 

 fully seventeen years of age. He gave very early indi- 

 cations of his genius for abstract enquiries ; and in his 

 thirteenth year, used to take the utmost delight in study- 

 ing Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding. He 

 made a rapid progress in scientific pursuits, especially 

 in the study of natural philosophy ; but was particu- 

 larly attached to moral philosophy and theology, as con- 

 nected with his future occupation. Having continued 

 at college two years after he took his first degree, he 

 was licensed as a preacher of ilu i;<-)>r) , ana, in the 

 year 1722, he preached during eight months with much 

 acceptance, to the English Presbyterians in New York; 

 but, as he did not consider the circumstances of that 

 society such as to justify him in settling as their minis- 

 ter, he returned to his father's house in the following 

 spring, where he spent the summer in close application 

 to study. In September 1723, he was admitted master 

 of arts ; and, in the following year, was chosen tutor 

 of the college in which he had been educated, where 

 he continued in that office above two years. In 1 726, 

 he resigned his tutorship, and was ordained pastor of 

 a congregation at Northampton, and colleague to his 

 grandfather, the Rev. Solomon Stoddard. In this si- 

 tuation he continued to labour with the greatest suc- 

 cess and approbation till the year 174-i, when his en- 

 deavours to check the dissemination of licentious pub- 

 lications among the young persons of his congregation, 

 and to exercise greater strictness in admitting commu- 

 nicants to the Lord's supper, excited such violent dis- 

 putes and dislikes, as, in a great measure, terminated 

 his comfort and usefulness at Northampton. In the 

 midst of the most violent and uncandid opposition, he 



