As a specimen of his lordship's epistolary vein, the following being more decorous though less jocose than most of his letters, is inserted: "To the honourable Mr. Henry Savile. "'T is not the least of my happiness, that I think you love me, but the first of all my pretensions is to make it appear that I faithfully endeavour to deserve it. If there be a real good upon earth, 't is in the name of friend; without which, all others are merely fantastical. How few of us are fit stuff to make that thing, we have daily the melancholly experience. However, dear Harry, let us not give out, nor despair of bringing that about, which as it is the most difficult and rare accident of life, is also the best, nay perhaps, the only good one. "This thought has so entirely possest me since I came into the country, where, only, one can think, (for you at court think not at all; or, at least, as if you were shut up in a drum, you can think of nothing but the noise that is made about you) that I have made many serious reflections upon it, and amongst others, gather'd one maxime, which I desire should be communicated to our friend Mr. G. that we are bound in morality and common honesty to endeavour after competent riches; since it is certain that few men, if any, uneasie in their fortunes, have prov'd firm and clear in their friendships. A very poor fellow is a very poor friend, and not one of a thousand can be good-natur'd to another, who is not pleased within himself. "But while I grow into proverbs, I forget that you may impute my philosophy to the dog-days, and living alone. To prevent the inconveniences of solitude and many others, I intend to go to the Bath on Sunday next, in visitation to my lord treasurer. Be so politick or be so kind, (or a little of both which is better,) as to step down thither, if famous affairs at Windsor do not detain you. "Dear Harry, I am "Your hearty, faithful, affectionate "Humble servant, "ROCHESTER "." In the Harl. MS. 7003, occur several original letters from the earl of Rochester to his lady, his mother, his son, and Harry Savile, but none more fit for publication than the preceding. In the same manuscript is the earl's letter to bishop Burnet, as he lay on his death-bed at his lodge in Woodstock Park, June the 25th, 1680, at twelve at night and an attestation, signed Wm. Thomas, of lord Rochester's conduct at a conference on that occasion. Mr. Seward relates, that (according to Aubrey) his lordship sent for all his servants, not excepting his cowherd, to his bedside, when he made his solemn recantation of his former life and opinions; and adds, that during his last illness he often exclaimed, "Mr. Hobbes and the philosophers have been my ruin :" then putting his hand upon a large bible, which lay beside him, he cried out with great rapture, "This, this, is the true philosophy 7!" A short lyric poem taken from Ritson's Anthology. and another from his collection of English Songs, may afford the most pleasing and least exceptionable extracts from this lord's licentious productions, which too forcibly warrant the sentence of outlawry that decorum and taste have passed upon them. SONG. "Insulting beauty, you mispend "Your conq'ring eyes so partial are, That, while I languish in despair, "They an inglorious freedom boast; Vol. i. p. 130. • Vol. i. p. 209. SONG. "My dear mistress has a heart Soft as those kind looks she gave me, And her eyes, she did enslave me; She's so wild and apt to wander, "Melting joys about her move, She can dress her eyes in love, And her lips can arm with kisses : She's my delight, all mankind's wonder; But my jealous heart would break, Should we live one day asunder "."] Dr. Aikin has given a place to these stanzas in his selection of Passionate and Descriptive Songs. HENEAGE FINCH, EARL OF NOTTINGHAM. FEW families have produced so many considerable men as the house of Finch has in late reigns; men who have owed their preferments to themselves, not to favour. The lord in question rose, through the great steps of the law, from solicitor to attorney-general, to lordkeeper, to lord-chancellor, to an earldom. Though employed in the most difficult part of the reign of Charles the second, his character remained untainted. Anthony Wood represents him as a great temporizer. He certainly neither offended the court nor the patriots'. Had he shown great partiality to the latter, there is no doubt but the king would have dismissed him, being by no means so dangerous a man as his predecessor Shaftesbury. That his complaisance for the prerogative was not unbounded, [Qu. Whether the following lines do not allude to some secession from the parliament ? Ask me no more why little Finch From parliament began to winch? Since such as dare to hawk at kings, Can easie clip a Finch's wings. Loyal Songs, vol. i. p. 42.] |