his mind, that he had occafion to borrow very little from education; and he owed those advantages to his own good parts, which others acquire by study and imitation. his wit was abundant, noble, bold. wit in moft writers is like a fountain in a garden, fupply'd by several streams brought thro^ artful pipes, and playing fometimes agreeably. but the earl of DORSET's was a fource rifing from the top of a mountain, which forced its own way, and with inexhaustible supplies, delighted and inriched the country thro' which it pafs'd. this extraordinary genius was accompanied with so true a judgment in all parts of fine learning, that whatever subject was before him, he difcourfed as properly of it, as if the peculiar bent of his ftudy had been apply'd that way; and he perfected his judgment by reading and digefting the best authors, tho' he quoted them very feldom,

Contemnebat potius literas, quam nefciebat:

and rather feem'd to draw his knowledge from his own ftores, than to owe it to any foreign affist

ance.

The brightness of his parts,the folidity of his judg ment, and the candour and generofity of his temper diftinguish'd him in an age of great politeness, and at a court abounding with men of the finest sense and learning. the most eminent mafters in their fe veral ways appeal'd to his determination. WALLER thought it an honour to confult him in the foftness

and harmony of his verfe: and Dr. SPRAT, in the delicacy and turn of his profe. DRYDEN determines by him, under the character of Eugenius, as to the laws of dramatic poetry. BUTLER ow'd it to him, that the court tafted his Hudibras: WICHERLEY, that the town liked his Plain Dealer: and the late Duke of BUCKINGHAM deferr'd to publish his Rehearfal; 'till he was fure (as he expreffed it) that my Lord DORSET would not Rehearse upon him again. if we wanted foreign teftimony; LA FONTAINE and ST. EVREMONT have acknowledged, that he was a perfect master in the beauty and fineness of their language, and of all that they call les Belles Lettres. nor was this nicety of his judgment confined only to books and literature; but was the fame in ftatuary, painting, and all other parts of art.

BERNINI Would have taken his opinion upon the beauty and attitude of a figure; and King CHARLES did not agree with LELY, that my Lady CLEVELAND's picture was finifhed, 'till it had the approbation of my Lord BUCKHURST.

As the judgment which he made of others writings, could not be refuted; the manner in which he wrote, will hardly ever be equall'd. every one of his pieces is an ingot of gold, intrinfically and folidly valuable; fuch as, wrought or beaten thinner, would shine thro' a whole book of any other author. his thought was always new; and the expreffion of it so particularly happy, that every body knew immediately, it could only be my Lord DORSET's: and yet it was fo easy too, that every body was rea

dy to imagine himself capable of writing it. there is a luftre in his verfes, like that of the fun in CLAUDE LORAINE's landskips; it looks natural, and is inimitable. his love verfes have a mixture of delicacy and strength: they convey the wit of PETRO NIUS in the softness of TIBULLUS. his fatyr indeed is fo feverely pointed, that in it he appears, what his great friend the Earl of ROCHESTER (that o ther prodigy of the age) fays he was;

The best good man, with the worst-natur'd muse:

yet even here, that character may justly be applied to him, which PERSIUS gives of the best writer in this kind, that ever lived:

Omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amico
Tangit, et admiffus circum praecordia ludit.

and the gentleman had always fo much the better of the fatyrift, that the perfons touched did not know where to fix their refentments; and were forced to appear rather afhamed than angry. yet so far was this great author from valuing himself upon his works, that he cared not what became of them, though every body elfe did. there are many things of his not extant in writing, which however are always repeated: like the verfes and sayings of the ancient DRUIDS, they retain an universal veneration; tho' they are preferved only by memory.

As it is often feen, that those men who are least

qualified for bufinefs, love it moft; my Lord DORSET's character was, that he certainly understood it, but did not care for it.

Coming very young to the poffefsion of two plentiful eftates, and in an age when pleasure was more in fashion than business; he turned his parts rather to books and converfation, than to politicks, and what more immediately related to the public. but whenever the safety of his country demanded his affiftance, he readily entered into the most active parts of life; and underwent the greatest dangers, with a conftancy of mind, which fhewed, that he had not only read the rules of philofophy, but understood the practice of them.

In the first Dutch war he went a volunteer under the Duke of YORK: his behaviour, during that campaign, was fuch, as diftinguished the SACKVILLE defcended from that HILDEBRAND of the name, who was one of the greatest captains that came into ENGLAND with the Conqueror. but his making a fong the night before the engagement (and it was one of the prettieft that ever was made) carries with it so fedate a prefence of mind, and such an unufual gallantry, that it deserves as much to be recorded, as ALEXANDER's jefting with his foldiers, before he past the GRANICUS or WILLIAM the first of ORANGE, giving order over night for a battle, and defiring to be called in the morning, left he should happen to sleep too long.

From hence, during the remaining part of King CHARLES's reign, he continued to live in honour

able leifure, he was of the bed chamber to the king, and poffefs'd not only his master's favour, but (in a great degree) his familiarity; never leaving the court, but when he was sent to that of FRANCE, On fome fhort commiffions and embassies of compliment: as if the king defigned to show the FRENCH, (who would be thought the politeft nation) that one of the finest gentlemen in EUROPE was his fubject; and that we had a prince who understood his worth fo well, as not to suffer him to be long out of his prefence.

The fucceeding reign neither relifhed my Lord's wit, nor approved his maxims: fo he retired altogether from court. but as the irretrievable mistakes of that unhappy government went on to threaten the nation with fomething more terrible than a Dutch war: he thought it became him to resume the courage of his youth,and once more to engage himfelfin defending the liberty of his country. he entred into the prince of ORANGE's intereft; and carried on his part of that great enterprise here in LonDON, and under the eye of the court; with the fame refolution, as his friend and fellow-patriot the late Duke of DEVONSHIRE did in open arms at NOTTINGHAM; 'till the dangers of those times encreafed to extremity; and juft apprehenfions arofe for the fafety of the princefs, our prefent glorious queen: then the Earl of DORSET was thought the propereft guide of her neceffary flight, and the perfon under whose courage and direction the nation