and acute replies, fly loose about the world, and are assigned successively to those whom it may be the fashion to celebrate.

When the King knew that he was about to marry his daughter to Dr. Birch, a clergyman, he ordered a French gentleman to tell him, that "the King "wondered he could think of marrying his daughter "to a falling Church.” "The King," said Waller, "does me great honour, in taking notice of my "domestic affairs; but I have lived long enough to "observe that this falling Church has got a trick of rising again."

He took notice to his friends of the King's conduct; and said that "he would be left like a whale

upon the strand." Whether he was privy to any of the transactions which ended in the Revolution, is not known. His heir joined the Prince of Orange.

Having now attained an age beyond which the laws of nature seldom suffer life to be extended, otherwise than by a future state, he seems to have turned his mind upon preparation for the decisive hour, and therefore consecrated his poetry to devotion. It is pleasing to discover that his piety was. without weakness; that his intellectual powers con·tinued vigorous; and that the lines which he composed when he, for age, could neither read nor write, are not inferior to the effusions of his youth.

Towards the decline of life, he bought a small house with a little land, at Coleshill; and said, "he "should be glad to die, like the stag, where he was "roused." This, however, did not happen. When he was at Beaconsfield he found his legs grow

tumid he went to Windsor, where Sir Charles Scarborough then attended the King, and requested him, as both a friend and a physician, to tell him, what that swelling meant. "Sir," answered Scarborough, "your blood will run no longer." Waller repeated some lines of Virgil, and went home to die.

As the disease increased upon him, he composed himself for his departure; and calling upon Dr. Birch to give him the holy sacrament, he desired his children to take it with him, and made an earnest declaration of his faith in Christianity. It now appeared what part of his conversation with the great could be remembered with delight. He related, that being present when the Duke of Buckingham talked profanely before King Charles, he said to him, "My "Lord, I am a great deal older than your Grace, "and have, I believe, heard more arguments for "Atheism than ever your Grace did; but I have "lived long enough to see there is nothing in them; " and so, I hope, your Grace will.”

He died October 21, 1687, and was buried at Beaconsfield, with a monument erected by his son's executors, for which Rymer wrote the inscription, and which I hope is now rescued from dilapidation.

He left several children by his second wife; of whom, his daughter was married to Dr. Birch. Benjamin, the eldest son, was disinherited, and sent to New Jersey as wanting common understanding. Edmund, the second son, inherited the estate, and represented Agmondesham in Parliament, but at last turned Quaker. William, the third son, was a

merchant in London. Stephen, the fourth, was an eminent Doctor of Laws, and one of the Commissioners for the Union. There is said to have been a fifth, of whom no account has descended.

The character of Waller, both moral and intellectual, has been drawn by Clarendon, to whom he was familiarly known, with nicety, which certainly none to whom he was not known can presume to emulate. It is therefore inserted here, with such remarks as others have supplied; after which, nothing remains but a critical examination of his poetry.

"Edmund Waller," says Clarendon, "was born "to a very fair estate, by the parsimony or frugality "of a wise father and mother: and he thought it so "commendable an advantage, that he resolved to

improve it with his utmost care, upon which in "his nature he was too much intent; and, in order "to that, he was so much reserved and retired, that'

he was scarcely ever heard of, till by his address "and dexterity he had gotten a very rich wife in "the city, against all the recommendation and coun"tenance and authority of the Court, which was "thoroughly engaged on the behalf of Mr. Crofts, "and which used to be successful, in that age, against "any opposition. He had the good fortune to have "an alliance and friendship with Dr. Morley, who "had assisted and instructed him in the reading many good books, to which his natural parts and promptitude inclined him, especially the poets; "and at the age when other men used to give over "writing verses (for he was near thirty years when

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"he first engaged himself in that exercise, at least "that he was known to do so), he surprized the "town with two or three pieces of that kind; as if a tenth Muse had been newly born to cherish "drooping poetry. The Doctor at that time

brought him into that company which was most "celebrated for good conversation; where he was "received and esteemed with great applause and

respect. He was a very pleasant discourser in "earnest and in jest, and therefore very grateful to "all kind of company, where he was not the less "esteemed for being very rich.

"He had been even nursed in parliaments, where " he sat when he was very young; and so, when they were resumed again (after a long intermission), he "appeared in those assemblies with great advantage; having a graceful way of speaking, and by think"ing much on several arguments (which his temper " and complexion, that had much of melancholick, "inclined him to), he seemed often to speak upon "the sudden, when the occasion had only admi"nistered the opportunity of saying what he had thoroughly considered, which gave a great lustre to "all he said; which yet was rather of delight than weight. There needs no more be said to extol the "excellence and power of his wit, and pleasantness ❝of his conversation, than that it was of magnitude "enough to cover a world of very great faults; that " is, so to cover them, that they were not taken no❝tice of to his reproach, viz. a narrowness in his "nature to the lowest degree; an abjectness and "want of courage to support him in any virtuous

" under

"undertaking; an insinuation and servile flattery to "the height, the vainest and most imperious nature "could be contented with; that it preserved and won "his life from those who were most resolved to take "it, and in an occasion in which he ought to have been ambitious to have lost it; and then pre"served him again from the reproach and contempt "that was due to him for so preserving it, and for " vindicating it at such a price that it had power to "reconcile him to those whom he had most offended "and provoked; and continued to his age with that rare felicity, that his company was acceptable "where his spirit was odious; and he was at least " pitied where he was most detested.”

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Such is the account of Clarendon; on which it may not be improper to make some remarks.

"He was very little known till he had obtained a "rich wife in the city."

He obtained a rich wife about the age of threeand-twenty; an age, before which few men are con spicuous much to their advantage. He was known, however, in Parliament and at Court; and, if he spent part of his time in privacy, it is not unreasonable to suppose, that he endeavoured the improvement of his mind as well as of his fortune.

That Clarendon might misjudge the motive of his retirement is the more probable, because he has evidently mistaken the commencement of his poetry, which he supposes him not to have attempted before thirty. As his first pieces were perhaps not printed, the succession of his compositions was not known; and Clarendon, who cannot be imagined to have

been