minary, and, for his hour, became lord of the ascendant.

This light, too, is passed and set for ever.

In truth, sir, Charles Townshend was the delight and ornament of this house, and the charm of every private society which he honoured with his presence. Perhaps there never arose in this country, nor in any country, a man of a more pointed and finished wit, and (where his passions were not concerned) of a more refined, exquisite, and penetrating judgment.'

He (Mr. Burke) commonly entered with a spirited yet gentle air, that showed him full fraught with the generous purpose to receive as well as to dispense social pleasure, untinged with one bitter drop of political rancour, and clarified from all acidity of party sarcasm.2

Philips (the poet) has been always praised as a man modest, blameless, and pious; who bore narrowness of fortune without discontent, and tedious and painful maladies without impatience; beloved by those who knew him, but not ambitious to be known.3

I know not how it is, but Lord Buckhurst' may do what he will, yet is never in the wrong.

5

Whether (although swelled and affected with dropsy all over to that degree that he could not

1 Burke.

2 See Memoirs of Dr. Burney by his Daughter.

3 Johnson (see Life).

5 Saying by Lord Rochester.

4 Afterwards Earl of Dorset.

move himself without assistance in his chair, in which he remained night and day, without being able to bear lying on a bed, and though it was evident that he suffered cruelly), he ever allowed us to perceive the least sign or sense of pain, the manifestation of which could be disagreeable to us; but whether, on the other hand, he did not always preserve a serene, contented, and tranquil air, and without ever alluding to his condition; whether he did not always converse with us in the most agreeable and cordial manner on the news of the day, on literature, on ancient and modern history, and particularly on farming and gardens, which he was always very anxious about.1

Of Fox, by Gibbon: "I admired the powers of a superior man, as they were blended in his attractive character with all the softness and simplicity of a child. No human being was ever more free from any taint of malignity, vanity, or falsehood."

And observes Burke: "To be sure, Fox was a man made to be loved!"

No man less needed auxiliaries for the entertainment of his guests, when Horace Walpole was himself in good humour and good spirits. He had a fund of anecdotes that could furnish food for conversation without any assistance from the news of the day or the state of the elements; and he had

1 Mém. Hist. sur la dernière Année de la Vie de Frederick II., par le Conte de Herzburgh. See also a beautiful passage in Thiébault (Souvenir de Vingt Ans à Berlin) evincing the king's deep feeling on occasion of a death in his family.

wit and general knowledge to have supplied their place had his memory been of that volatile description that retained no former occurrence, either of his own or of his neighbour, to relate. He was scrupulously, and even elaborately well-bred; fearing, perhaps, from his conscious turn to sarcasm, that if he suffered himself to be unguarded, he might utter expressions, more amusing to be recounted aside, than agreeable to be received in front. He was a witty, sarcastic, ingenious, deeplythinking, highly cultivated, quaint, though evermore gallant and romantic, though very mundane, old bachelor of other days.'

He (Johnson) is more mild and complacent than he used to be. His sickness seems to have softened his mind, without having weakened it. I was struck with the mild radiance of his setting sun.2

The most eloquent assertor of English liberty, and the most amiable of great men.3

He (Wilberforce) is the very model of a reformer. Ardent without turbulence, mild without timidity or coldness; neither yielding to difficulties, nor disturbed or exasperated by them; patient and meek, yet intrepid; just and charitable even to his most malignant enemies; unwearied in every experiment to disarm the prejudices of his more rational and disinterested opponents, and support

1 Portrait of Horace Walpole by Madame d'Arblay. See Life of Burney. 2 H. More. 3 Mackintosh, of Fox (from his own lips).

ing the zeal, without dangerously exciting the passions, of his adherents.'

In the pride of talent and of wisdom, he (Swift) endeavoured to frame a new path to happiness; and the consequences have rendered him a warning, where the various virtues with which he was endowed ought to have made him a pattern.2

With more capacity for love than earth
Bestows on most of mortal mould and birth,
His early dreams of good outstripp'd the truth,
And troubled manhood followed baffled youth:
With thoughts of years in phantom chase misspent,
And wasted powers, to better purpose lent,
And fiery passions that had poured their wrath,
In hurried desolation o'er his path,

And left the better feelings all at strife,
In wild reflection o'er his stormy life.3

That brow, in furrow'd lines, had fix'd at last,
And spake of passions, but of passions past;
The pride, but not the fire, of early days,
Coldness of mien, and carelessness of praise;
A high demeanour, and a glance that took
The thoughts from others by a single look;
And that sarcastic levity of tongue,

The stinging of a heart the world hath stung,
That darts in seeming playfulness around,
And makes those feel, that will not own the wound:
All these seemed his, and something more beneath,
Than glance could well reveal or accent breathe.*

1 Mackintosh (Life).

3 Byron (Lara).

2 Scott (Life of Swift).

4 Id. ibid.

But every feature had the power
To aid the expression of the hour;
Whether gay wit and humour sly
Dance, laughing, in the light blue eye,
Or soft and sadden'd glances show
The ready sympathy with woe.

His face was of that doubtful kind
. Which wins the eye, but not the mind.

That smile, if oft observed and near,
Waned in its mirth, and wither'd to a tear.'

All that gives gloss to sin - all gay,
Light folly, pass'd with youth away;
But rooted stood in manhood's hour
The weeds of vice, without the flower.
And yet the soil in which they grew,
Had it been tamed when life was new,
Had depth and vigour to give forth
The hardier fruits of virtuous worth.2

His was the subtle look and sly

That, seeing all, seems none to spy

Round all the group his glances stole,

Unmark'd themselves, to mark the whole.3

To gild a face with smiles, and leer a man to ruin.*

A sober, thinking villain,

Whose black blood runs temperately bad."

With a head like a nutmeg, and legs like a spider, A voice like a cricket, a look like a rat,

The brains of a goose, and the heart of a cat."

1 Scott (Rokeby).

3 Rokeby.

5 Congreve.

2 Id. ibid.

4 Dryden (Spanish Friar). 6 Charles Cotton.