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GEORGE,

EARL OF BERKELEY,

THE first earl of that ancient line2, distinguished his piety by bestowing on the public library of Sion-college, for the use of the city clergy, a valuable library collected by sir Robert Coke; and by the following religious tract,

"Historical Applications, and occasional Meditations, upon several Subjects. Written by a Person of Honour, 1670." 12mo.1

2 [And thirteenth lord Berkeley, who having greatly manifested his loyalty to Charles the second, in the Restoration, was advanced to the dignity of viscount Dursley, and earl of Berkeley, in 1679. He died on October 14. 1698, aged seventy-one, and was buried at Cranford in Middlesex, where a monument was erected to his memory, of which Collins has given the inscription. Vide Peerage, vol. iii. p. 465.]

3 Vide Collins in Berkeley. [Where the letter of thanks from the president and head of the college may be seen.]

+ [To this publication Flecknoe appears to allude in the following lines, addressed " To the lord George Berkeley."

"Since, as by clear experience we see,

Virtue is onely true nobility;

There's none give's greater proof of it than you,

(My lord) that your nobility is true:

And that 't may so continue, you provide,

By adding to't, true piety beside.

This uncommon little book came out of the library of John Vaughan, earl of Carberry, who had written in the title-page the name of the author. It was purchased by Mr. Whiston, to whom I am obliged for it, and who was assured by one of the family, that it was certainly lord Berkeley's; of which the piece itself contains some slight collateral proofs. The dedication, signed Constans, is addressed to the lady Harmonia, in whose name the author writes an epistle to himself, which concludes the book, and in which she is made to call him," my lord." A copy of verses

For piety is but vertue dyed in grain,

Can ne'er change colour, nor take spot or stain.
Such courtiers Heav'n desires, and such kings shou'd
Desire too, if they'd have them great and good:
Happy the whilst (my lord) are such as you,

Fit both for th' heavenly court, and earthly too."

Epig. 1670.]

5 [Believed to be Mary, countess of Warwick, the daughter of Richard Boyle, earl of Cork. See p. 230. of this volume.]

6 [Some of the verses run as follow:

"Bold is the man that dares ingage

For piety, in such an age:

Who can presume to find a guard

From scorn, when Heav'n's so little spar'd?

Divines are pardon'd; they defend

Altars on which their lives depend:

But the prophane impatient are,

When nobler peers make this their care.

by Waller (printed, I think, in none of his works") is prefixed, calls the author's a noble pen, and says, "he drew his well-known pedigree from kings." Robert Fitzharding, the direct ancestor of the earl of Berkeley, was of the royal house of Denmark.

[Lord Berkeley also published

"A Speech to the Levant Company, at their annual Election, 9 Feb. 1680,"

in one sheet, quarto. See Wood's Athenæ, vol. ii. p. 1038. Lord Orford was mistaken, as Dr. Lort and Mr. Reed both observed, in supposing that "Waller's copy of verses was printed in none of his works." It occurs in the edition by Fenton, who has added the following interesting and curious information: "The book to which this poem is prefixed was written by George lord Berkeley, created earl of Berkeley, by king Charles the second. He was a person of strict virtue and piety; and of such an undistinguishing affability to men of all ranks and parties, that I have been told Mr. Wycherley strained

High birth and fortune, warrant give

That such men write what they believe:
And, feeling first what they indite,

New credit give to antient light."]

7 [It appeared in the tenth edition, 1722, 12mo. where lord Berkeley's name is at the bottom. Dr. Lort.]

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