Humano generi utilius NIHIL arte medendi. Vexerit & quemvis trans moeftas portitor undas, ROSCOMMON. W ENTWORTH DILLON, earl of Rofcommon, was the fon of James Dillon and Elizabeth Wentworth, fifter to the earl of Strafford. He was born in Ireland during the lieutenancy of Strafford, who, being both his uncle and his godfather, gave him his own furname. His father, the third earl of Rofcommon, had been converted by Usher to the Proteftant religion; and when the Popish rebellion broke out, Strafford thinking the family in great danger from the fury of the Irish, fent for his godfon, and placed him at his own feat in Yorkshire, where he was inftructed in Latin; which he learned fo as to write it with purity and elegance, though he was never able to retain the rules of grammar. Such Such is the account given by Mr. Fenton, from whofe notes on Waller moft of this account must be borrowed, though I know not whether all that he relates is certain. The instructor whom he affigns to Roscommon is one Dr. Hall, by whom he cannot mean the famous Hall, then an old man and a bishop. When the storm broke out upon Strafford, his house was a shelter no longer; and Dillon, by the advice of Ufher, was fent to Caen, where the Proteftants had then an univerfity, and continued his ftudies under Bochart. Young Dillon, who was fent to study under Bochart, and who is reprefented as having already made great proficiency in literature, could not be more than nine years old. Strafford went to govern Ireland in 1633, and was put to death eight years afterwards. That he was fent to Caen, is certain: that he was a great scholar, may be doubted. At Caen he is faid to have had fome preter-natural intelligence of his father's death. "The "The lord Rofcommon, being a boy of "ten years of age, at Caen in Normandy, "one day was, as it were, madly extrava"gant in playing, leaping, getting over the "tables, boards, &c. He was wont to be "fober enough; they faid, God grant this "bodes no ill-luck to him! In the heat of "this extravagant fit, he cries out, My father "is dead. A fortnight after, news came from "Ireland that his father was dead. This ac count I had from Mr. Knolles, who was "his governor, and then with him,-fince "fecretary to the earl of Strafford; and I "have heard his lordship's relations confirm "the fame." Aubrey's Mifcellany. The prefent age is very little inclined to favour any accounts of this kind, nor will the name of Aubrey much recommend it to credit: it ought not, however, to be omitted, because better evidence of a fact cannot eafily be found than is here offered, and it must be by preferving such relations that we may at laft judge how much they are to be regarded. If we stay to examine this account, we shall fee difficulties on both fides: here is the re lation of a fact given by a man who had no intereft to deceive, and who could not be deceived himself; and here is, on the other hand, a miracle which produces no effect; the order of nature is interrupted to difcover not a future but only a diftant event, the knowledge of which is of no ufe to him to whom it is revealed. Between thefe difficulties, what way fhall be found? Is reafon or teftimony to be rejected? I believe what Ofborne fays of an appearance of fanctity may be applied to fuch impulfes or anticipations as this: Do not wholly flight them, because they but do not eafily trust them, becaufe they may be falfe. may be true; The state both of England and Ireland was at this time fuch, that he who was abfent from either country had very little temptation to return and therefore Rofcommon, when he left Caen, travelled into Italy, and amused himself with its antiquities, and particularly with medals, in which he acquired uncommon fkill. At the Restoration, with the other friends of monarchy, he came to England, was made captain |