Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 19.djvu/260

 prescribed,' Lond. 1682.  'The Righteous Man's Refuge,' Lond. 1682.  'Preparations for Sufferings, or the Best Work in the Worst Times,' Lond. 1682.  'England's Duty under the present Gospel Liberty,' Lond. 1689.  'Mount Pisgah, or a Thanksgiving Sermon for England's Delivery from Popery,' Lond. 1689.  'Sacramental Meditations upon divers select places of Scripture,' Lond. 1689.  'The Reasonableness of Personal Reformation and the Necessity of Conversion,' Lond. 1691.  'An Exposition of the Assembly's Catechism,' Lond. 1693.  'Pneumatologia, a Treatise of the Soul of Man,' Lond. 1698.  'Planelogia, a succinct and seasonable Discourse of the Occasions, Causes, Nature, Rise, Growth, and Remedies of Mental Errors.'  'Vindiciarum Vindex, or a Refutation of the weak and impertinent Rejoinder of Mr. Philip Carey' (a leading anabaptist in Dartmouth).  'Gospel Unity recommended to the Churches of Christ.'  ' A Faithful and Succinct Account of some late and wonderful Sea Deliverances.'  'Antipharmacum Saluberrimum, or a serious and seasonable Caveat to all the Saints in this Hour of Temptation.'  ' Tydings from Rome, or England's Alarm.' <li> ' A pathetic and serious Dissuasive from the horrid and detestable Sins of Drunkenness, Swearing, Uncleanness, Forgetfulness of Mercies, Violation of Promises, and Atheistical Contempt of Death.' <li> 'The Balm of the Covenant applied to the Bleeding Wounds of afflicted Saints.' <li> 'Vindiciæ Legis et Fœderis.' <li> 'A Familiar Conference between a Minister and a doubting Christian concerning the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.' <li> 'A Table or Scheme of the Sins and Duties of Believers.' Many editions of several of these treatises have appeared.</ol> Collected editions of Flavel's worts were issued in 1673, 1701, 1764, and 1797 (6 vols. Newcastle}. [q. v.] edited a selection in 1823.

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<section begin="Flaxman, John"/>FLAXMAN, JOHN (1756–1826), sculptor and draughtsman, was born at York on 6 July 1755. According to a family tradition four brothers Flaxman, coming from Norfolk, had fought against the king at Naseby, and the youngest of the four, named John, had settled as a farmer and carrier in Buckinghamshire. From him was descended another John, who towards the middle of the eighteenth century carried on, partly in London and partly in the provinces, the trade of a maker and seller of plaster casts. He had a good connection among artists, and was employed as a modeller by some of the chief sculptors of the day, including Boubilliac and Scheemakers. He and his wife (whose maiden name was Lee) were on business at York at the time when their second son, the subject of the present article, was born. Six months afterwards the family returned to London, and the childhood of the sculptor was spent almost entirely in his father's shop at the sign of the Golden Head, New Street, Covent Garden. As an infant he was rickety and ill-shapen, could only move with crutches, and was not expected to live; but an alert and stubborn spirit animated the puny frame, and from about his tenth year his health began to mend. His mother, a woman of little thrift, dying about the same time, his father took a second wife, of whom we know nothing except that her maiden name was Gordon, and that she proved a kind and careful stepmother. Except for a brief interval of schooling, under a master whose cruelty he never forgot, the young John Flaxman was kept at home. Unfitted for the play or the exercises of his age, he found in his father's stock-in-trade all the occupation and all the pastime for which he cared. Customers, among whom were men of note in arts and literature, soon began to take an interest in the sickly lad whom they found always busy drawing or modelling behind the counter, or trying to teach himself the classic fables and Latin. Among the earliest of those who noticed and encouraged his talents were the painter Romney and a lettered and amiable clergyman named Mathew; whose wife, herself a woman of culture, used to invite the boy to her house, and read out translations of the ancient poets while he made sketches to such passages as struck his fancy. His earliest commission was from a friend of the Mathews, Mr. Crutchley of Sunninghill Park, for a set of six classical drawings of this kind. He became a precocious exhibitor and prize-winner, gaining at twelve the first prize of the Society of Arts for a medal, and another similar prize at fifteen. In 1767, and for two years following, he was a contributor to the exhibitions of the Free Society of Artists in Pall Mall; and to those of the Royal Academy from the second year of their foundation, 1770. In this year he became a student at the Academy schools, and presently carried off the silver medal. But when it came to the competition for the gold medal in 1772, the successful youth received a check, the president and council awarding the prize to a rival, [q. v.], who did nothing afterwards to justify the choice. This reverse<section end="Flaxman, John"/>