vostship of Eton College, and obtained it; but Clarendon refused to put the seal to the grant, alleging that it could be held only by a clergyman. It is known that Sir Henry Wotton qualified himself for it by deacon's orders.

To this opposition, the Biographia imputes the violence and acrimony with which Waller joined Buckingham's faction in the prosecution of Clarendon. The motive was illiberal and dishonest, and shewed that more than sixty years had not been able to teach him morality. His accusation is such as conscience can hardly be supposed to dictate without the help of malice. "We were to be governed by Janizaries instead "of Parliaments, and are in danger from a worse plot "than that of the fifth of November; then, if the Lords "and Commons had been destroyed, there had been a "succession; but here both had been destroyed for "ever." This is the language of a man who is glad of an opportunity to rail, and ready to sacrifice truth to interest at one time, and to anger at another.

A year after the Chancellor's banishment, another vacancy gave him encouragement for another petition, which the King referred to the council, who, after hearing the question argued by lawyers for three days, determined that the office could be held only by a clergyman, according to the act of uniformity, since the provosts had always received institution as for a personage from the Bishops of Lincoln. The King then said, he could not break the law which he had made: and Dr. Zachary Cradock, famous for a single sermon, at most for two sermons, was chosen by the fellows.

That he asked any thing more is not known; it is certain that he obtained nothing, though he continued obsequious to the Court through the rest of Charles's reign.

At the accession of King James (in 1685) he was chosen for Parliament, being then fourscore, at Saltash in Cornwall; and wrote a Presage of the downfall of the Turkish Empire, which he presented to the King on his birth-day. It is remarked by his commentator Fenton, that in reading Tasso he had early imbibed a veneration for the heroes of the Holy War, and a zealous enmity

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to the Turks, which never left him. James, however, having soon after begun what he thought a Holy War at home, made haste to put all molestation of the Turks out of his power.

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James treated him with kindness and familiarity, of which instances are given by the writer of his life. One day taking him into the closet, the King asked him how he liked one of the pictures: my eyes," said Waller," are dim, and I do not know it." The King said it was the Princess of Orange. "She is," said Waller, "like the greatest woman in the world." The King asked who was that; and was answered, Queen Elizabeth. "I wonder," said the King," you should "think so; but I must confess she had a wise council." "And, Sir," said Waller, "did you ever know a fool "chuse a wise one?" Such is the story, which I once heard of some other man. Pointed axioms, 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 won"dered he could think of marrying his daughter to a falling Church.” "The King," said Waller, "does

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me great honour, in taking notice of my domestic af"fairs; 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 continued 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 deeline 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."

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He died October the 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 there

fore 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 com“mendable 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 countenance and authority of "the Court, which was thoroughly engaged on the be"half 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 "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 com"6 pany which was most celebrated for good conversa"tion; 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.

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"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 thinking "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 administered the oppor,

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"tunity 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 notice of to his reproach, viz. a nar"rowness in his nature to the lowest degree; an abjectness and want of courage to support him in any "virtuous 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 the con

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tempt 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."

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 three-andtwenty; an age, before which few men are conspicuous 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