Hitherto Lord Herbert has been little known but as an Author. I much mistake, if hereafter he is not confidered as one of the most extraordinary characters which this country has produced. Men of the proudest blood shall not blush to diftinguish themselves in letters as well as arms, when they learn what excellence Lord Herbert attained in both. Your Lordship's lineage at least will have a pattern before their eyes to excite their emulation and while they admire the piety with which you have done juftice to your common Ancestor, they cannot be forgetfull of the obligation they will have to your Lordship's memory for transmitting to them this record of his glory... I have the honour to be, My LORD,

Four LORDSHIP'S

moft obedient

and moft obliged Servant,.

HORACE WALPOLE.

ADVERTISEMENT.

SOME

OME years ago the following pages wou'd have been reckoned of the greatest presents which the learned World cou'd have received. The Life of the famous Lord Herbert of Chirbury, written by himself, wou'd have excited the curiofity of the whole Republick of Letters. Perhaps a lefs proportion of expectation may attend this it's late appearance. Not that the abilities of the Noble Writer have fallen into difesteem. His reign of Henry VIII. is allowed to be a masterpiece of historic biography. But they were his fpeculative works, which, raising a multitude of admirers or cenfors from their acutenefs and fingularity, made Lord Herbert's a name of the first importance. The many great men, who illustrated the fucceeding period, have taken off fome of the public attention; for it is only a Genius of the first force, whose fame dilates with ages, and can buoy itself up above the indifference which steals upon mankind, as an author becomes less and less the subject of conversation. Speculative Writers, however penetrating, however fublime their talents, feldom attain the seal of universal approbation, because, of all the various abilities which Providence has bestowed on man, Reasoning is not the power which has been brought to standard perfection. Poetry and Eloquence have been fo far perfected, that the great masters in those branches ftill remain unequalled. But where is that book of human

argumen

argumentation, where that fyftem of human opinions, which has not been partly confuted or exploded? Novelty itself in matters. of metaphyfical inquiry often proves, in effect, a confutation of antecedent novelties. Opponents raife the celebrity of the doctrines they attack: newer doctrines ftifle that celebrity. This is a truth, which the bigots of Lord Herbert's age wou'd not have liked to hear; but what has happened to many other great men, has been his fate too they who meaned to wound his fame, extended it: when the cry of Enthufiafts was drawn off to fresher game, his renown grew fainter. His moral character recovered it's' luftre, but has fewer spectators to gaze at it.

This Introduction to his Life may not be improper, tho' at first it may mislead the reader, who will hence perhaps expect from his own pen fome account of a Perfon's creed, whom a few fottish zealots once represented as having none at all. His Lordship's thorough belief and awfull veneration of the Deity will clearly appear in these pages; but neither the Unbeliever nor the Monk will have farther fatisfaction. This Life of a Philofopher is neither a deduction of his opinions nor a table of philofophy-I will anticipate the Reader's surprize, tho' it shall be but in a word: to his astonishment he will find, that the Hiftory of Don Quixote was the Life of Plato.

The noble Family, which gives these sheets to the world, is above the little prejudices which make many a race defraud the Public of what was defigned for it by those, who alone had a right to give or withhold. It is above fuppreffing what Lord Herbert dared to tell. Foibles, paffions, perhaps fome vanity, furely fome wrongheadedness;

these

thefe he fcorned to conceal, for he fought Truth, wrote on Truth, was Truth: He honestly told when he had miffed or mistaken it. His Defcendants, not blind to his faults, but thro' them conducting the reader to his virtues, defire the world to make this candid obfervation with them, "That there must have been a wonderfull fund of internal virtue, of strong refolution and manly philofophy, which in an age of such mistaken and barbarous galantry, of fuch abfurd usages and falfe glory, cou'd enable Lord Herbert to seek fame better founded, and cou'd make him reflect that there might be a more desirable kind of glory than that of a romantic duellist." None shut their eyes fo obftinately against seeing what is ridiculous, as they who have attained a mastery in it: but that was not the cafe of Lord Herbert. His valour made him a hero, be the heroism in vogue what it wou'd; his found parts made him a philosopher. Few men in truth have figured fo confpicuously in lights so various; and his Defcendants, tho' they cannot approve him in every walk of glory, wou'd perhaps injure his memory, if they fuffered the world to be ignorant, that he was formed to fhine in every sphere, into which his impetuous temperament, or predominant reafon conducted him.

As a Soldier he won the esteem of those great captains the Prince of Orange and the Conftable de Montmorency; as a Knight, his chivalry was drawn from the pureft founts of the Fairy Queen. Had he been ambitious, the beauty of his person wou'd have carried him as far as any gentle knight can afpire to go. As a public Minister, he supported the dignity of his country, even when it's Prince disgraced it; and that he was qualified to write it's annals as well as to ennoble them, the history I have mentioned proves, and must make us lament 5 that

that he did not compleat, or that we have loft, the account he purposed to give of his embaffy. These busy scenes were blended with, and terminated by meditation and philofophic inquiries. Strip each period of it's exceffes and errors, and it will not be easy to trace out, or dif. pofe the life of a man of quality into a fucceffion of employments which wou'd better become him. Valour and military activity in youth; business of state in the middle age; contemplation and labours for the information of pofterity in the calmer scenes of closing life: This was Lord Herbert: the deduction he will give himself.

The MS. was in great danger of being loft to the World. Henry Lord Herbert, grandfon of the Author, died in 1691 without iffue, and by his Will left his Eftate to Francis Herbert of Oakly-park, (father of the prefent Earl of Powis) his fifter's fon. At Lymore in Montgomeryfhire (the chief Seat of the Family after Cromwell had demolished Montgomery Castle) was preferved the original Manufcript. Upon the marriage of Henry Lord Herbert with a daughter of Francis Earl of Bradford, Lymore, with a confiderable part of the Estate thereabouts, was allotted for her jointure. After his deceafe, Lady Herbert ufually refided there; fhe died in 1714. The MS. cou'd not then be found yet while fhe lived there, it was known to have been in her hands. Some years afterwards it was discovered at Lymore among fome old papers, in very bad condition, several leaves being torn out and others ftained to fuch a degree as to make it scarcely legible. Under thefe circumstances, inquiry was made of the Herberts of Ribbisford (descended from Sir Henry Herbert a younger brother of the author-lord) in relation to a duplicate

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