sold by auction after his decease. Dr. Kippis observes, that both Wood and Burnet have been too severe in their censures; though still we search in vain for a perfect consistency in the earl of Anglesey's character; or, he might have added, in that of any man.]

GEORGE VILLIERS,

SECOND DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.

WHEN this extraordinary man, with the figure and genius of Alcibiades, could equally charm the presbyterian Fairfax, and the dissolute Charles when he alike ridiculed that witty king and his solemn chancellor; when he plotted the ruin of his country with a cabal of bad ministers, or, equally unprincipled, supported its cause with bad patriots; one laments that such parts should have been devoid of every virtue. But when Alcibiades turns chemist, when he is a real bubble, and a visionary miser; when ambition is but a frolic; when the worst designs are for the foolishest ends; contempt extinguishes all reflections on his character.

The portrait of this duke has been drawn by

[Flecknoe thus describes him, in Euterpe revived: "The gallant'st person, and the noblest minde

*In all the world his prince could ever finde,

Or to participate his private cares,

Or bear the publick weight of his affairs.

Like well-built arches, stronger with their weight,
And well-built minds, the steadier with their height,

Such was the composition and frame

O' the noble and the gallant Buckingham.]