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ness of Expression, which made his Learning thought more than in truth it was. His first inclinations and addresses to the Court, were only to establish his Greatness in the Country; where he apprehended some acts of Power from the Lord Savile, who had been his Rival always there, and of late had strengthen'd himself by being made a Privy-Counsellor, and Officer at Court: but his first attempts were so prosperous, that he contented not himself with being secure from that Lord's Power in the Country, but rested not, till he had bereav'd his adversary of all power and place in Court; and so sent him down, a most Abject, Disconsolate old man, to his Country, where he was to have the Superintendency over him too, by getting himself at that time made Lord President of the North. These Successes, applied to a nature too Elate and Haughty of it self, and a quicker progress into the greatest Employments and Trust, made him more transported with Disdain of other men, and more Contemning the Forms of business, than haply he would have been, if he had met with some Interruptions in the beginning, and had pass'd in a more leisurely gradation to the Office of a States-man.

"He was, no doubt, of great observation, and a piercing judgment, both in Things and Persons; but his too good skill in Persons, made him judge the worse of Things: for it was his Misfortune,

to be in a time wherein very few wise men were equally employ'd with him; and scarce any (but the Lord Coventry, whose Trust was more confined) whose Faculties and Abilities were equal to his: So that upon the matter he rely'd wholly upon himself; and discerning many Defects in most men, he too much neglected what they said or did. Of all his Passions, his Pride was most predominant; which a moderate exercise of ill Fortune might have corrected and reform'd; and which was by the hand of Heaven strangely Punish'd, by bringing his Destruction upon him by Two things that he most despised, the People and Sr. Harry Vane. In a word, the Epitaph which Plutarch records that Sylla wrote for himself, may not be unfitly applied to him, "That "no man did ever exceed him, either in doing "good to his Friends, or in doing Mischief to his "Enemies; for his acts of both kinds were most "notorious."

SECT. III.

AGE OF CHARLES THE SECOND.

We now come, strictly speaking, to the age of king Charles the second. Milton and Clarendon, though for their celebrity and merits they could not be omitted, seem rather to belong to an intermediate period.

The style of this period is exceedingly different

from any thing that had gone before. Many of our authors had, during the interregnum, resided on the continent. They studied the French, with the deference that belonged to a class of writers whom they regarded as their masters. It was now first that facility was regarded as the indispensible, and perhaps the first, grace of composition. Their most considerable authors write like men who lived in the world. Their style has much of the charm of what we now regard as polished conversation. Yet, as they caught the exterior and surface of the French character, the consequences were artificial graces, elaborate negligence, feebleness in the choice of words, and inattention in their arrangement. They trusted all to the native powers of invention and taste; and had but a very slight conception that a finished style is only to be obtained by assiduous and unwearied cultivation. Those of our most admired writers in their day who had not lived in France, yet formed themselves in the French school.

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The authors most celebrated for the graces composition in the reign of king Charles the second, were sir William Temple and archbishop Tillotson; nor have any authors in the annals of literature experienced a more copious commendation.

Sir William Temple is undoubtedly an agreeable writer. His thoughts frequently carry the

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stamp of reflection and good sense, and their impression is by no means counteracted, as we often find it in the preceding periods of our literature, by the alloy of a perplexed or unnatural phraseology.

Take the following passage from his Essay on Popular Discontents as a specimen.

"Princes or States cannot run into every Corner of their Dominions, to look out Persons fit for their Service, or that of the Public: They cannot see far with their own Eyes, nor hear with their own Ears; and must for the most part do both with those of other Men, or else chuse among such smaller Numbers as are most in their way; and these are such, generally, as make their Court, or give their Attendance, in order to advance. themselves to Honours, to Fortunes, to Places and Employments; and are usually the least worthy of them, and better Servants to themselves than the Government. The Needy, the Ambitious, the Half-witted, the Proud, the Covetous, are ever restless to get into publick Employments, and many others that are uneasy or ill entertained at home. The Forward, the Busie, the Bold, the Sufficient, pursue their Game with more Passion, Endeavour, Application, and thereby often succeed where better Men would fail. In the Course of my Observation I have found no Talent of so much Advantage among Men, towards their grow

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ing great or rich, as a violent and restless Passion and Pursuit for one or t'other: And whoever sets his Heart and his Thoughts wholly upon some one Thing, must have very little Wit, or very little Luck, to fail. Yet all these cover their Ends with most worthy Pretences, and those Noble Sayings, That Men are not born for themselves, and must sacrifice their Lives for the Publick, as well as their Time and their Health: And those who think nothing less are so used to say such fine Things, that such who truly believe them are almost ashamed to own it. In the mean time, the Noble, the Wise, the Rich, the Modest, those that are easie in their Conditions or their Minds, those who know most of the World and themselves, are not only careless, but often averse from entering into Publick Charges or Employments, unless upon the Necessities of their Country, Commands of their Prince, or Instances of their Friends. What is to be done in this Case, when such as offer themselves, and pursue, are not worth having, and such as are most worthy, will neither offer, nor perhaps accept?"

Archbishop Tillotson is certainly a writer of some merit. There are few authors who convey more sound sense in more perspicuous expression. It is no mean art of composition, where every sentence comes to us with the force of a proverb,

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