The effect of this fatal blow it required all Sir William's magnanimity to surmount: he felt it indeed the more sensibly, as he had occasionally contended (for the sake of argument) in conversation, That a wise man might dispose of himself, and make his life as short as he pleased.'

He died, January, 1698. According to the directions in his will, his heart was deposited in a silver box, and buried under the sun-dial in his garden, opposite to the window from which he used to contemplate the glorious works of nature in company with his beloved sister Lady Giffard; a lady, who as she had shared the fatigues of his travels during his public negotiations, proved also the principal comfort of his retirement and his old age.

His character is briefly given by Dr. Birch, in his • Lives of Illustrious Persons,' in the following words: "He had an extraordinary vivacity, with so agreeable a vein of wit and fancy in his conversation, that nobody was welcomer in all sorts of company; but his humour was greatly affected by the spleen in sudden changes of weather, and especially from the crosses and disappointments, which he so often met with in his endeavours to contribute to the honour and service of his country.

"He was an exact observer of truth, thinking none who had failed once ought ever to be trusted again; of great humanity and good nature; his passions naturally warm and quick, but tempered by

reason.

Plessis Rambouillet, a French lady, by whom he left two daughters. To these young ladies Sir William bequeathed the

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greatest part of his estate, with the express condition that they should not marry Frenchmen.'

"He never seemed busy in his greatest employ- · ments, was devoted to his liberty, and therefore averse from the servitude of courts. He had been a

passionate lover, was a kind husband, an indulgent father, a good master, an excellent friend, and, knowing himself to be so, impatient of the least suspicion or jealousy from those he loved.

"He was not without strong aversions, so as to be uneasy at the first sight of some whom he disliked, and impatient of their conversation: apt to be warm in disputes and expostulations, which made him hate the one, and avoid the other; being used to say, That they might sometimes do well between lovers, but never between friends.'

"He had a very familiar way of conversing with all sorts of people, from the greatest princes to the meanest servants, and even children, whose imperfect language and natural innocent talk he was fond of, and made entertainment of every thing that could afford it.

"He was born to a moderate estate, and did not much increase it during his employments.

"His religion was that of the Church of England, in which he was born and educated; and how loose soever Bishop Burnet, who was not acquainted with him, in the History of his own Times' represents his principles to have been, yet there is no ground for such a reflexion given in his writings; among which, his excellent Letter to the Countess of Essex is a convincing proof both of his piety and eloquence.

"He was rather tall in stature: his shape, when young, very exact: his hair dark-brown, and curled naturally; and, while that was esteemed a beauty, nobody had it in greater perfection: his eyes gray,

but lively; and his body lean, but extremely active, so that none acquitted themselves better at all exercises."

Few authors, says Granger, have been more read, or more justly admired, than Sir William Temple. He displays his knowledge of books and men in an elegant, easy, and negligent stile, much like the language of genteel conversation. His vanity often prompts him to speak of himself: but he and Montaigne are never more pleasing, than when they dwell on that difficult subject. His readers are great gainers by this foible. He is sometimes, also, inaccurate; but we forgive a little incorrectness of drawing in the paintings of a Correggio, when there is so much beauty and grace to atone for it.

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It remains only to mention his literary labours. These consist of Memoirs,' Letters,' Observations on the United Provinces,' and Miscellanies.' They are in general either political or historical, and should be read by all who aspire to public employments, but more particularly by such as are appointed to foreign embassies. A few of the Miscellanies,” however, are upon subjects of morality, philosophy, and criticism, for which he deserves the grateful remembrance of his countrymen; "having," as Hume observes, "kept himself in his writings altogether unpolluted by that inundation of vice and licentious ness, which overwhelmed the nation in his time."

His works have all passed through several editions.

EXTRACTS.

Upon the Gardens of Epicurus.

-'If we believe the Scripture, we must allow that God Almighty esteemed the life of a man in a garden the happiest he could give him, or else he would not have placed Adam in that of Eden; that it was a state of innocence and pleasure; and that the life of husbandry and cities came in, after the Fall, with guilt and with labour.

"Where Paradise was, has been much debated and little agreed; but what sort of place is meant by it, may perhaps easier be conjectured. It seems to have been a Persian word, since Xenophon and other Greek authors mention it as what was much in use and delight among the Kings of those eastern countries. Strabo describing Jericho says, Ibi est palmetum, cui immixta sunt etiam aliæ stirpes hortenses, locus ferax, palmis abundans, spatio stadiorum centum, totus irriguus; ibi est regia, et balsami Paradisus. He mentions another place to be prope Libanum et Paradisum. And Alexander is written to have seen Cyrus' tomb in a Paradise, being a tower not very great and covered with a shade of trees about it.

So that
So that a Paradise among

them seems to have been a large space of ground adorned and beautified with all sort of trees, both of fruits and of forest, either found there before it was enclosed or planted afterward; either cultivated like gardens for shades and for walks with fountains or streams, and all sorts of plants usual in the climate and pleasant to the eye, the smell, or the taste; or else employed like our parks for enclosure and har

bour of all sorts of wild beasts, as well as for the pleasure of riding and walking: and so they were of more or less extent, and of differing entertainment, according to the several humours of the princes that ordered and enclosed them.

'Semiramis is the first we are told of in story that brought them in use through her empire, and was so fond of them as to make one wherever she built, and in all or most of the provinces she subdued, which are said to have been from Babylon as far as India. The Assyrian kings continued this custom and care, or rather this pleasure, till one of them brought in the use of smaller gardens: for having married a wife he was fond of out of one of the provinces where such Paradises and gardens were much in use, and the country-lady not well bearing the air or enclosure of the palace of Babylon to which the Assyrian Kings used to confine themselves, he made her Gardens, not only within the palaces, but upon terraces raised with earth over the arched roofs, and even upon the top of the highest tower; planted them with all sorts of fruit-trees, as well as other plants and flowers the most pleasant of that country; and thereby made at least the most airy gardens, as well as the most costly, that have been heard of in the world. This lady may probably have been a native of the provinces of Chasimir or of Damascus, which have in all times been the happiest region for fruits of all the east by the excellence of soil, the position of mountains, and the frequency of streams, rather than the advantage of climate. And it is a great pity we do not yet see the History of Chasimir,' which Monsieur Bernier assured me he had translated out of Persian, and intended to pub