an ornament and honour to the titles you poffefs; and, in one word, a worthy fon to the great Earl of Dorfet.

It is as impoffible to mention that name, without defiring to commend the perfon; as it is to give him the commendations which his virtues deferved. But I affure myself, the moft agreeable compliment I can bring your Lordship, is to pay a grateful refpect to your father's memory: and my own obligations to him were fuch, that the world muft pardon my endeavouring at his character, however I may mifcarry in the attempt.

A thoufand ornaments and graces met in the compofition of this great man, and contributed to make him univerfally beloved and efteemed. The figure of his body was ftrong, proportionable, beautiful: and were his picture well drawn, it must deserve the praise given to the portraits of Raphael; and, at once, create love and refpect. While the greatnefs of his mien informed men, they were approaching the nobleman; the fweetnefs of it invited them to come nearer to the patron. There was in his look and gefture fomething that is more cafily conceived than described; that gained upon you in his favour, before he fpake one word. His behaviour was eafy and courteous to all; but distinguished and adapted to each man in particular, according to his ftation and quality. His civility was free from the formality of rule, and flowed immediately from his good fenfe.

Such were the natural faculties and ftrength of his mind, that he had occafion to borrow very little from education; and he owed those advantages to his own

good

good parts, which others acquire by ftudy and imitation. His wit was abundant, noble, bold. Wit in most writers is like a fountain in a garden, fupplied by feveral ftreams brought through 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 inexhauftible supplies delighted and enriched the country through which it paffed. This extraordinary genius was accompanied with fo true a judgement 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 applied that way and he perfected his judgement by reading and digesting the best authors, though he quoted them very feldom.

"Contemnebat potius literas, quam nefciebat :"

and rather feemed to draw his knowledge from his own ftores, than to owe it to any foreign afliftance.

The brightness of his parts, the folidity of his judge'ment, and the candour and generofity of his temper, diftinguifhed him in an age of great politenefs, and at a court abounding with men of the fineft fenfe and learning. The most eminent masters in their feveral ways appealed to his determination. Waller thought it an honour to confult him in the foftnefs 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 dramatick poetry. Butler owed it to him, that the Court tafted his

Hudibras Wycherley, that the Town liked his Plain Dealer and the late duke of Buckingham deferred to

:

publish his Rehearsal, till he was fure (as he expressed it) that my lord Dorfet would not rehearse upon him again. If we wanted a foreign teftimony; La Fontaine and St. Evremond have acknowledged, that he was a perfect master in the beauty and fineness of their language, and of all that they call les Belles Letres. Nor was this nicety of his judgement confined only to books and literature; but was the fame in statuary, painting, and all other parts of art. Bermini 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 finished, till it had the approbation of my lord Buckhurst.

As the judgement which he made of others writings could not be refuted, the manner in which he wrote will hardly ever be equalled. Every one of his pieces is an ingot of gold, intrinfically and folidly valuable; fuch as, wrought or beaten thinner, would shine through 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 Dorfet's; and yet it was fo eafy too, that every body was ready to imagine himfelf capable of writing it. There is a luftre in his verses, like that of the fun in Claude Lorrain's landskips: it looks natural, and is inimitable. His love-verfes have a mixture of delicacy and ftrength: they convey the wit of Petronius in the foftnefs of Tibullus. His fatire indeed

is fo feverely pointed, that in it he appears, what his, friend the earl of Rochester (that other prodigy of the age) fays he was,

great

"The best good man, with the worst-natur'd mufe:" yet even here, that character may juftly be applied to him, which Ferfius gives of the best writer of this kind that ever lived,

"Omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amico

Tangit, & admiffus circum præcordia ludit :” and the gentleman had always fo much the better of the fatirift, that the perfons touched did not know where to fix their refentments; and were forced to appear rather afhamed than angry. Yet fo 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 verses and sayings of the antient Druids, they retain an univerfal veneration, though they are preferved only by

memory.

As it is often feen, that those men who are leaft qua lified for business love it moft; my lord Dorfet's character was, that he certainly understood it, but did not care for it.

Coming very young to the poffeffion 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 publick. But, whenever the fafety

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 sedate a prefence of mind, and fuch an unusual gallantry, that it deferves as much to be recorded, as Alexander's jefting with his foldiers before he paffed the Granicus; or William the First of Orange, giving orders over-night for a battle, and de firing to be called in the morning, left he should happen to fleep too long.

From hence, during the remaining part of king Charles's reign, he continued to live in honourable leifure. He was of the bed-chamber to the king, and poffeffed not only his master's favour, but (in a great degree) his familiarity; never leaving the court, but when he was fent to that of France, on fome fhort commiffions and embaffies of compliment: as if the king defigned to fhew the French (who would be thought the politest nation) that one of the finest gentlemen in Europe was his fubject; and that we had a

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prince