SOUTH, ROBERT, a distinguished clergyman of the Church of England, was born at Hackney, in Middlesex, in 1633. He seems from his boyhood to have been attached to the reigning monarchy, for, in the school of Westminster, where Dr Busby was master, he prayed for his majesty, Charles I., by name, on the day of his execution. In 1651, he entered Christ Church, Oxford, at the same time with the distinguished John Locke. He took his bachelor's degree in 1655, and wrote, on that occasion, a copy of Latin verses, congratulating Oliver Cromwell on his late peace with the Dutch. The apology usually offered for this indiscretion on South's part is, that it was then usual to impose such a task upon baccalaureates. He took his degree of M.A. in 1657, not without some opposition from the dean of Christ Church, Dr John Owen. South was appointed university orator in 1660; domestic chaplain to Chancellor Clarendon shortly afterwards; prebendary of Westminster in 1663; and canon of Christ's Church, Oxford, in 1670. His "Scribe Instructed" is as good a specimen of his sermons as one could wish for. Although written while the author was a comparatively young man, it displays all the sharp clear sense of his maturer years. It is full of insight, vivacity, perspicuity, copiousness and force. In the latter qualities, he has very few equals among English writers. But the sin of his sermons was the sharp, keen, cutting wit and sarcasm with which they abounded. If his hearers refrained from occasional bursts of laughter, it said much for their gravity, and is more than a reader of the nineteenth century would be capable of. He is perpetually down upon the poor dissenters, mocking them, holding up their defects to the jeers of his audience, and their merits not unfrequently to their bitterest scorn. But a short specimen from the sermon already alluded to will put this in a clear light. The teachers of those days, he says, "first of all seize upon some text, from whence they draw something (which they call doctrine), and well may it be said to be drawn from the words, forasmuch as it seldom naturally flows or results from them. In the next place, being thus provided, they branch it into several heads, perhaps twenty, or thirty, or upwards. Whereupon, for the prosecution of these, they repair to some trusty Concordance, which never fails them, and by the help of that, they range six or seven Scriptures under each head: which Scriptures they prosecute one by one; first amplifying and enlarging upon one for some considerable time, till they have spoiled it; and then, that being done, they pass to another, which, in its turn, suffers accordingly. And these impertinent and unpremeditated enlargements they look upon as the motions, effects, and breathings of the Spirit, and therefore much beyond those carnal ordinances of sense and reason, supported by industry and study; and this they call a saving way of preaching, as it must be confessed to be a way to save much labour, and nothing else that I know of." South accompanied Lawrence Hyde, son of Clarendon, on his embassy to John Sobieski, the King of Poland, as his chaplain. The long letter which South wrote home, descriptive of Poland, is both curious and interesting. Sobieski, he says, in addition to his own language, was acquainted with French, Italian, German, and Turkish, and could speak Latin with great fluency. South on his return to England was made rector of Islip, and continued to preach up divine right and no quarter to Protestant dissenters or to Roman Catholics; yet curious to say he would accept of no preferment either from Charles II. or James; and it is said some of the highest dignities of the church were laid at his feet. He is reported to have had the best of the discussion which was carried on with Dr Sherlock, with more wit than wisdom, and with more sarcasm than solemnity. The latter had written a book entitled, A Vindication of the Holy and Ever-blessed Trinity; and South attacked him for having promulgated tritheism. The war of words ran so high that the king had to interpose. South died on the 8th of July 1716, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. There is a very intemperate and injudicious biography of South prefixed to Curll's edition of his works, published in 1717. The Sermons of Dr South will be found in the 7-vol. edition of Oxford, 1823, or in any of the recent issues of them.