Sylvestre, whose preface has been our principal guide in tracing the life of St. Evremond, says, that he became one of her most zealous and constant admirers: she was the subject of his finest performances in all the kinds of writing. In a thousand places he has celebrated her incompara ble beauty, the agreeableness of her wit and the charms of her conversation: but all his encomiums are far short of what was due to her merits. He found at her house whatever was most honourable and polite in England, and whatever was most remarkable among foreign ministers. But what he esteemed above all, was that he saw Madam Mazarin every day, and that was his chief business. If time, which destroys the greatest and most beautiful things, which effaces even names and titles, could make us forget the beauty, rank and fortunes of Hortensia Mancini, the works of Monsieur de St. Evremond would establish her immortality. Her name and titles are better secured than if they had been engraven on marble and brass.

Her death affected him more sensibly than any other event of his life, and he often shed tears at the mention of her name. He did not long survive her, but died in September, 1703, at about the age of ninety. He was interred in Westminster Abbey, near to the learned Causaubon, Camden, Barrow and the poets Chaucer, Spencer, Cowley,

&c.

His own character, as described by himself in a letter to his friend, Count Grammont, shall close this sketch.

:

He was a philosopher, equally removed from superstition and impiety; a voluptuary, who had no less aversion from debauchery than inclination for pleasure; a man, who had never felt the pressure of indigence and who had never been in possession of affluence he lived in a condition, despised by those who have every thing, envied by those who have nothing, and relished by those who make their reason the foundation of their happiness. When he was young he hated profusion, being persuaded that some degree of wealth was neces

sary for the convenience of a long life: when he was old, he could hardly endure economy, being of opinion, that want is little to be dreaded when a man has but little time left to be miserable. He was well pleased with nature, and did not complain of fortune. He hated vice, was indulgent to frailties, and lamented misfortunes. He sought not after the failings of men with a design to expose them, he only found what was ridiculous in them for his own amusement: he had a secret pleasure in discovering this himself; and would, indeed, have had a still greater in discovering this to others, had he not been checked by discretion. Life, in his opinion, was too short to read all sorts of books, and to burden one's memory with a multitude of things, at the expence of one's judgment. He did not apply himself to the most learned writings, in order to acquire knowledge, but to the most rational, to fortify his reason. He sometimes chose the most delicate, to give delicacy to his own taste; and sometimes the most agreeable, to give the same to his genius. It remains that he should

be described such as he was, in friendship and in religion. In friendship he was more constant than a philosopher, and more sincere than a young man of good nature without experience. With regard to religion, his piety consisted more in justice and charity, than in penance and mortification. He placed his confidence in God, trusting in his goodness; and hoping that in the bosom of his Frovi dence his repose and his felicity.

It is said of him, but upon what authority does not appear, and we are much inclined to doubt the fact, that St. Evremond during his long stay in England, always refused to learn the English language.

D

LETTERS

BETWEEN

M. DE ST. EVREMOND, &c.

LETTER I.

WALLER TO ST. EVREMOND.

GRAMMONT once told Rochester, that if he could, by any means, divest himself of one half of his wit, the other half would make him the most agreeable man in the world. This observation of the Count's did not strike me much when I heard it, but I have often remarked the propriety of it since. Last night I supped at Lord R......'s, with a select party. On such occasions he is not ambitious of shining-He is rather pleasant than arch-He is, comparatively, reserved; but you find something in that restraint which is more agreeable than the utmost exertion of talents in others. The reserve of Rochester gives you the idea of a copious river, that fills its channel, and seems as if it could easily overflow its banks,