Robert, D. D. second son of the preceding Dr William Lowth, and bishop successively of St David's, Oxford, and London, was born on the 29th of November 1710, probably at Buriton in the county of Hants. He received the rudiments of his education at Winchester college, where his school exercises were distinguished by uncommon elegance; and having resided the requisite number of years in that seminary, in 1730 he succeeded on the foundation at New College, Oxford. He took the degree of M. A. June 8, 1737. Though his abilities must have been known to those with whom he was connected, he was not forward to appear before the world as a writer. At Oxford he continued many years improving his talents, with little notice from the great, and with preferment so small as to have at present escaped the distinct recollection of some of his contemporaries. He was not, however, suffered to languish for ever in obscurity. His genius and his learning forced themselves upon the notice of the illustrious society of which he was a member; and he was placed in a station where he was eminently qualified to shine. In 1741 he was elected by the university to the professorship of poetry, re-elected in 1743, and whilst he held that office he read his admirable lectures De sacra poesia Hebraeorum. In 1744 Bishop Hoadley collated him to the rectory of Ovington in the county of Hants; added to it, nine years afterwards, the rectory of Eall Weedhay in the same county; and in the interim raised him to the dignity of archdeacon of Winchester. These repeated favours he some years afterwards acknowledged in the following manly and respectful terms of gratitude: "This address, my Lord, is not more necessary on account of the subject, than it is in respect of the author. Your Lordship, unfoiled and unasked, called him from one of those colleges to a station of the first dignity in your diocese, and took the earliest opportunity of accumulating your favour upon him, and of adding to that dignity a suitable support. These obligations he is now the more ready thus publicly to acknowledge, as he is removed out of the reach of further favours of the like kind. And though he hath relinquished the advantages so generously conferred on him, yet he shall always esteem himself highly honoured in having once enjoyed the patronage of the great advocate of civil and religious liberty."

On the 8th of July 1754 the university of Oxford conferred upon him the degree of D. D. by diploma; an honour which, as it is never granted but to distinguished merit, was probably conferred on Mr Lowth in consequence of his prelections on the Hebrew poetry, which had then been lately published. Having in 1749 travelled with Lord George and Lord-Frederick Cavendish, he had a claim upon the patronage of the Devonshire family; and in 1755, the late duke being then lord lieutenant of Ireland, Dr Lowth went to that kingdom as his grace's first chaplain. Soon after this appointment he was offered the bishopric of Limerick; but preferring a less dignified station in his own country, he exchanged it with Dr Leffie, prebendary of Durham and rector of Sedgefield, for these preferments. In November 1765 he was chosen F. R. S. In June 1766 he was, on the death of Dr Squire, preferred to the bishopric of St David's; which, in the October following, he resigned for that of Oxford, vacant by the translation of Bishop Hume to Salisbury. In April 1777, he was translated to the see of London, vacant by the death of Bishop Terrick; and in 1783 he declined the offer of the primacy of all England.

Having been long afflicted with the stone, and having long borne the severest sufferings of pain and sickness with the most exemplary fortitude and resignation, this great and good man died at Fulham, Nov. 3, 1787; and on the 12th his remains were privately interred in a vault at Fulham church, near those of his predecessor. He had married in 1752, Mary, the daughter of Laurence Jackson of Christ-church, Hants, Esq. by whom he had two sons and five daughters. His lady and two children only survived him.

His literary character may be estimated from the value and the importance of his works; in the account of which we may begin with his Prelections on the Hebrew Poetry. The choice of so interesting a subject naturally attracted general attention; and the work has been read with equal applause abroad and at home. In these prelections the author has acquitted himself in the most masterly manner, as a poet, a critic, and a divine; and such is the classic purity of his Latin style, that though we have read the work with the closest attention, and with no other view than to discover, if possible, an Anglicism in the composition, we never found a single phrase to which, we believe, a critic of the Augustan age could possibly have objected. This is an excellence to which neither Milton nor Johnson has attained; to which indeed no other English writer of Latin with whom we are acquainted has attained, unless perhaps Atterbury must be excepted. To the prelections was subjoined a short confutation of Bishop Hare's system of Hebrew metre; which occasioned a Latin letter from Dr Edwards of Clare-hall, Cambridge, to Dr Lowth, in vindication of the Harian metre. To this the author of the prelections replied in a larger confutation, in which Bishop Hare's system is completely overthrown, and the fallacy upon which it was built accurately investigated. After much attentive consideration, Bishop Lowth has pronounced the metre of the Hebrews to be perfectly irrecoverable.

In 1758 he published The Life of William of Wykeham, bishop of Winchester, with a dedication to Bishop Hoadley; which involved him in a dispute concerning a decision which that bishop had lately made respecting the wardenship of Winchester-college. This controversy was on both sides carried on with such abilities, that, though relating to a private concern, it may yet be read, if not with pleasure, at least with improvement. The life of Wykeham is drawn from the most authentic sources; and affords much information concerning the manners, and some of the public transactions of the period in which Wykeham lived, whilst it displays some private intelligence respecting the two literary societies of which he was the founder. In these two societies Dr Lowth was educated, and he gratefully expresses his obligations to them.

In 1762 was first published his Short Introduction to English Grammar, which has since gone through many editions. It was originally designed only for private and domestic use: but its judicious remarks being too valuable to be confined to a few, the book was given to the world; and the excellence of its method, which teaches what is right by showing what is wrong, has insured public approbation and very general use. In 1765 Dr Lowth was engaged with Bishop Warburton in a controversy, which made much noise at the time, which attracted the notice even of royalty, and of which the memory is still recent. If we do not wish to dwell on the particulars of this controversy, it is because violent literary contention is an evil, which though like other war it may sometimes be unavoidable, is yet always to be regretted; and because the characters of learned, ingenious, and amiable men, never appear to less advantage than under the form which that state of hostility obliges them to assume. The two combatants indeed engaged with erudition and ingenuity such as is seldom brought into conflict; but it appears that, in the opinion of Dr Johnson, Warburton had the most scholastic learning, and that Lowth was the most correct scholar; that, in their contest with each other, neither of them had much argument, and that both were extremely abusive. We have heard, and we hope it is true, that they were afterwards reconciled, and expressed mutual regret for the violence of their past conduct.

In 1778 Bishop Lowth published his last great work, A Translation of Isaiah. To his literary and theological abilities, the translator joined the most critical knowledge of the character and spirit of the eastern poetry; and, accordingly, the prophecies of Isaiah (which, though almost always sublime or elegant, are yet sometimes obscure) were translated in a manner adequate to the highest expectations of the public. Several occasional discourses, which the bishop, by his station, was at different times called upon to deliver, were of course published, and are all worthy of their excellent author; but there is one on the kingdom of God, on the extension and progressive improvement of Christ's religion, and on the means of promoting these by the advancement of religious knowledge, by freedom of inquiry, by toleration, and mutual charity, which may be distinguished above the rest, as exhibiting a most comprehensive view of the successive states of the Christian church, and containing the truest principles of Christianity.

Of the bishop's poetical pieces, none display greater merit than Verles on the Genealogy of Christ, and the Choice of Hercules, both written very early in his life. He wrote a spirited Imitation of an Ode of Horace, applied to the alarming situation of this country in 1745; and likewise some verses on the death of Frederick prince of Wales, with a few smaller poems. The following inscription on the tomb of his daughter, beautifully displays his paternal affection and classic taste. As it is short, and, in our opinion, has all the merit of the ancient epitaph, the reader will probably be pleased with such a specimen of his lordship's Latinity.

Cara, vale, ingenio praefatus, pietate, pudore, Et plurimum nate nomine cara, vale. Cara Maria, vale. At venier felicius ævum, Quando iterum tecum, sim modo dignus, ero. Cara, redi, leeta tum dicam voce, paternos, Eja, age in amplexus, cara Maria, redi.

Learning and taste, however, did not constitute Bishop Lowth's highest excellence. Eulogium itself can scarcely extend to extravagance when speaking of him either as a private man, or as a pastor of the church of Christ. His amiable manners rendered him an ornament to his high station, whilst they endeared him to all with whom he conversed; and his zeal for the interests of true religion made him eager to promote to places of trust and dignity such clergymen as he knew were best qualified to fill them. Of his modesty, gentleness, and pleasing conversation, we have the testimony of one whose decision will hardly be disputed.—"It would answer no end (says Bishop Warburton) to tell you what I thought of the author of Hebrew poetry, before I saw him. But this I may say, I was never more surprised, when I did see him, than to find him of such amiable and gentle manners, of so modest, sensible, and diligent a deportment." He united, indeed, in an eminent degree, the qualities of the gentleman with those of the scholar: he conversed with elegance, as he wrote with accuracy. As a husband, a father, or the master of a family, he was as nearly faultless as the imperfections of humanity will easily permit. His temper, when ruffled by what he thought improper conduct was indeed susceptible of considerable warmth; but if he could be highly offended, upon a slight conception he could likewise forgive. His heart was tender and sympathetic. He possessed a mind which felt its own strength, and decided on whatever came before it with promptitude and firmness. In those trials where affliction was to be suffered or subdued, he behaved as a man and a Christian. His piety had no tincture of moroseness; his charity no leaven of ostentation. To his whole diocese he was endeared by his laudable discretion and his useful zeal. To the world he was a benefit by his exemplary life and his splendid abilities. And whilst virtue and learning are reverenced. reverenced among men, the memory of Lowth will be respected and admired.