rectify his firft opinion by confulting Waller's book.

Clarendon obferves, that he was introduced to the wits of the age by Dr. Morley; but the writer of his Life relates that he was already among them, when, hearing a noise in the ftrect, and enquiring the caufe, they found a fon of Ben Jonfon under an arrest. This was Morley, whom Waller fet free at the expence of one hundred pounds, took him into the country as director of his ftudies, and then procured him admiffion into the company of the friends of literature. Of this fact, Clarendon had a nearer knowledge than the biographer, and is therefore more to be credited.

The account of Waller's parliamentary eloquence is feconded by Burnet, who, though he calls him "the delight of the house," adds, that he was only concerned to fay "that, which fhould make him be ap

plauded, he never laid the bufinefs of the Houfe to heart, being a vain and empty though a witty man."

Of

Of his infinuation and flattery it is not unreasonable to believe that the truth is told. Afcham, in his elegant defcription of those whom in modern language we term Wits, fays, that they are open flatterers, and privy mockers. Waller fhewed a little of both, when, upon fight of the Dutchefs of Newcaftle's verfes on the death of a Stag, he declared that he would give all his own compofitions to have written them; and, being charged with the exorbitance of his adulation, answered, that "nothing was too much "to be given, that a Lady might be faved "from the difgrace of fuch a vile perfor"mance." This, however, was no very mifchievous or very unusual deviation from truth: had his hypocrify been confined to fuch tranfactions, he might have been forgiven, though not praised; for who forbears to flatter an author or a lady?

Of the laxity of his political principles, and the weaknefs of his refolution, he experienced the natural effect, by lofing the esteem of every party. From Cromwell he had only his recall; and from Charles the Second,

Second, who delighted in his company, he obtained only the pardon of his relation Hampden, and the fafety of Hampden's fon.

As far as conjecture can be made from the whole of his writing, and his conduct, he was habitually and deliberately a friend to monarchy. His deviation towards democracy proceeded from his connection with Hampden, for whofe fake he profecuted Crawley with great bitterness; and the invective which he pronounced on that occafion was fo popular, that twenty thousand copies are faid by his biographer to have been fold in one day.

It is confeffed that his faults ftill left him many friends, at leaft many companions. His convivial power of pleafing is univerfally acknowledged; but those who converfed with him intimately, found him not only paffionate, efpecially in his old age, but refentful; so that the interposition of friends was fometimes neceffary.

His wit and his poetry naturally connected him with the polite writers of his time: he was joined with Lord Buckhurst in the tranf

lation of Corneille's Pompey; and is faid to have added his help to that of Cowley in the original draught of the Rehearsal,

The care of his fortune, which Clarendon imputes to him in a degree little lefs than criminal, was either not conftant or not fuccéfsful; for, having inherited a patrimony of three thousand five hundred a year in the time of James the First, and augmented it at least by one wealthy marriage, he left, about the time of the Revolution, an income of not more than twelve or thirteen hundred; which, when the different value of money is reckoned, will be found perhaps not more than a fourth part of what he once poffeffed.

Of this diminution, part was the confe quence of the gifts which he was forced to scatter, and the fine which he was condemned to pay at the detection of his plot; and if his eftate, as is related in his Life, was fequeftered, he had probably contracted debts when he lived in exile; for we are told that at Paris he lived in fplendor, and was the only Englifhman, except the Lord St. Albans, that kept a table.

His unlucky plot compelled him to sell a thoufand a year; of the wafte of the reft there is no account, except that he is confeffed by his biographer to have been a bad œconomist. He feems to have deviated from the common practice; to have been a hoarder in his first years, and a fquanderer in his ·laft.

Of his courfe of ftudies, or choice of books, nothing is known more than that he profeffed himself unable to read Chapman's tranflation of Homer without rapture. His opinion concerning the duty of a poet is contained in his declaration, that he would "blot from his works any line that did not "contain fome motive to virtue."

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