F. Strange fpleen to S-k! P. Do I wrong the Man? 64 God knows, I praise a Courtier where I can. Ev'n in a Bishop I can fpy Defert; NOTES. 70 Manners VER. 65. SCARB'ROW] Earl of, and Knight of the Garter, whose personal attachments to the King appeared from his steady adherence to the royal intereft, after his refignation of his great employment of Master of the Horfe, and whofe known honour and virtue made him efteemed by all parties. P. His character is ably and elegantly drawn by Lord Chesterfield, and the manner of his lamented death, minutely and pathetically related by Dr. Maty, in the Memoirs of Lord Chesterfield's Life. VER. 66. Efher's peaceful Grove] The house and gardens of Efher in Surry, belonging to the Honourable Mr. Pelham, brother of the Duke of Newcastle. The Author could not have given a more amiable idea of his Character, than in comparing him to Mr. Craggs. P. VER. 67. Kent and Nature] Means no more than art and nature. And in this confifts the compliment to the Artist. W. VER. 71. Secker is decent,] To fay of a prelate, whofe life was exemplary, and his learning excellent, that he was only decent, is furely to damn with faint praife. His lectures and his fermons are written with a rare mixture of fimplicity and energy, and contain (what fermons too feldom poffefs) a great knowledge of life and human nature. Dr. Lowth, Dr. Kennicott, and Mr. Merrick, frequently acknowledged his uncommon fkill in Oriental learning; but the Author of Warburton's Life has lately thought proper to deny him this praife. The characters of Benfon and Rundel are juftly Manners with Candour are to Benfon giv'n, But does the Court a worthy man remove? NOTES. 75 I fhun justly drawn. It was Gibfon, Bishop of London, who prevented the latter, though ftrongly patronized by Lord Chancellor Talbot, from being an English Bishop, on account of fome unguarded expreffions he had ufed relating to Abraham's offering of his fon Ifaac. VER. 73. Berkley, &c.] Dr. Berkley was, I believe, a good Man, a good Christian, a good Citizen, and all, in an eminent degree. He was befides very learned; and of a fine and lively imagination; which he unhappily abused by advancing, and, as far as I can learn, throughout his whole life perfifting in, the most outrageous whimfey that ever entered into the head of any ancient or modern madman; namely, the impoffibility of the real or actual existence of matter; which he fupported on principles that take away the boundaries of truth and falfehood; expose reason to all the outrage of unbounded Scepticism; and even, in his own opi nion, make mathematical demonftration doubtful. To this man may be eminently applied that oracle of the Stagirite, which fays, To follow Reafon against the SENSES, is a fure fign of a bad underflanding. But if (though at the expence of his moral character) we should fuppofe, that all this was only a wanton exercise of wit; how his metaphyfics came to get him the character of a great genius, unlefs from the daring nature of his attempt, I am at a lofs to conceive. His pretended demonftration, on this capital question, being the pooreft, loweft, and moft miferable of all sophisms; that is, a sophism which begs the question, as the late Mr. Baxter has clearly fhewn: a few pages of whose reasoning have not only more fenfe and fubftance than all the elegant difcourfes of Dr. Berkley, but infinitely better entitle him to the character of a great Genius. He was truly fuch: and a time will come, if learning ever revive amongst us, when the prefent inattention to his admirable Metaphyfics, ettablished on the Phyfics of Newton, will be deemed as great a dishonour to the Wisdom of this age as the neglect of Milton's Poetry was to the Wit of the past. W. I fhun his Zenith, court his mild Decline; Thus SOMMERS once, and HALLIFAX, were mine. Oft, in the clear, ftill Mirrour of Retreat, I ftudy'd SHREWSBURY, the wife and great: CARLETON'S calm Sense, and STANHOPE's noble Flame, Compar'd, and knew their gen'rous End the fame: NOTES. 80 How VER. 77. SOMMERS] John Lord Sommers died in 1716. He had been Lord Keeper in the reign of William III. who took from him the feals in 1700. The Author had the honour of knowing him in 1706. A faithful, able, and incorrupt Minifter; who, to qualities of a confummate statesman, added those of a man of Learning and Politeness. P. "One of thofe divine men," fays Lord Orford finely," who, like a chapel in a palace, remains unprofaned, while all the rest is tyranny, corruption, and folly. All the traditional accounts of him, the hiftorians of the laft age, and its best authors, represent him, as the most incorrupt lawyer, and the honefteft statesman; as a master orator, a genius of the finest taste, and as a patriot of the nobleft and most extenfive views; as a man, who dispensed bleffings by his life, and planned them for pofterity. He was at once the model of Addison, and the touchftone of Swift: The one wrote from him, the other for him." VER. 77. HALLIFAX,] A Peer, no lefs diftinguished by his love of Letters than his abilities in Parliament. He was disgraced in 1710, on the change of Q. Anne's ministry. P. VER. 79. SHREWSBURY,] Charles Talbot, Duke of Shrewfbury, had been Secretary of State, Embaffador in France, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord Chamberlain, and Lord Treasurer. He feveral times quitted his employments, and was often recalled. He died in 1718. P. P. VER. 80. CARLETON] Hen. Boyle, Lord Carleton, (nephew of the famous Robert Boyle,) who was Secretary of State under William III. and Prefident of the Council under Q. Anne. VER. 80. STANHOPE] James Earl Stanhope. A Nobleman of equal courage, fpirit, and learning. General in Spain, and Secre tary of State. P. How pleafing ATTERBURY'S fofter hour! NOTES. 85 ARGYLL, VER. 80. STANHOPE's noble Flame,] Who confeffed to old Whiston, that, in his opinion, it was almoft impoffible for a Minifter of State to be an honeft man. VER. 83. How fbin'd the Soul,] Among thefe, Atterbury was his chief intimate. The turbulent and imperious temper of this haughty prelate was long felt and remembered in the college over which he prefided. It was with difficulty Queen Anne was perfuaded to make him a bishop; which fhe did at laft, on the repeated importunities of Lord Harcourt; who preffed the Queen to do it, because truly she had before disappointed him, in not placing Sacheverell on the bench. After her decease, Atterbury vehemently urged his friends to proclaim the Pretender; and on their refufal, upbraided them for their timidity with many oaths; for he was accustomed to fwear, on any ftrong provocation. In a Collection of Letters, lately published by Mr. Duncombe, it is affirmed, on the authority of Elijah Fenton, that Atterbury, speaking of Pope, faid, there was, Mens curva in corpore curvo. This fentiment feems utterly inconfiftent with the warm friendship fuppofed to fubfift between these celebrated men. But Dr. Herring, in the 2d vol. of this collection, p. 104. fays, " If Atterbury was not worse used than any honeft man in the world ever was, there were ftrong contradictions between his public and private character." VER. 84. PULT'NEY, CHESTERFIELD] I have heard a lady of exquifite wit and judgment, say of these two celebrated men, "The latter was always ftriving to be witty, and the former could not help being fo." The two lines on Argyle are faid to have been added, on the Duke's declaring in the Houfe of Lords, on occafion of fome of Pope's fatires, that if any man dared to use his name in an invective, he would run him through the body, and throw himself on the mercy of his Peers, who, he trufted, would weigh the pro vocation. Boling ARGYLL, the State's whole Thunder born to wield, Or WYNDHAM, juft to Freedom and the Throne, Names, which I long have lov'd, nor lov'd in vain, Train; And if yet higher the proud Lift should end, 91 Yet think not, Friendship only prompts my lays; I follow Virtue; where fhe fhines, I praise : NOTES. 95 Point Bolingbroke's Letters to Wyndham, is one of the most curious of his works, and gave a deadly and incurable blow to the folly and madnefs of Jacobitifm. VER. 84. CHESTERFIELD forget,] His character was much funk by the publication of the loofe and libertine Letters to his Son. VER. 88. WYNDHAM,] Sir William Wyndham, Chancellor of the Exchequer under Queen Anne, made early a confiderable. figure; but fince a much greater, both by his ability and eloquence, joined with the utmoft judgment and temper. VER. 88. Or WYNDHAM, juft to] In former Editions, Or WYNDHAM arm'd for Freedom P. VER. 92. And if yet higher, &c.] He was at that time honoured with the esteem and favour of his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. W. Frederic Prince of Wales; who poffeffed many of what the King of Pruffia called, ces qualités fociables qui s'allient fi rarement avec la morgue et la grandeur des Souveraines. VER. 93. Still let me fay! No Follower, but a Friend.] i. e. Unrelated to their parties, and attached only to their perfons. W. VER. 93. A Friend.] At a vifit at Twickenham, the Prince very pleasantly observed to Pope, that his profeffed love to Princes was inconfiftent with his diflike of Kings, fince Princes may in time be Kings. "Sir," replied Pope, "I confider Royalty, under the known and authorized type of a Lion; whilft he is young, and before his nails are grown, he may be approached and careffed with fafety and pleasure." |