they may be true; but do not easily trust them, because they may be false.' The state both of England and Ireland was at this time such, 8 that he who was absent from either country had very little temptation to return; and therefore Roscommon when he left Caen travelled into Italy, and amused himself with its antiquities, and particularly with medals, in which he acquired uncommon skill. At the Restoration, with the other friends of monarchy, he 9 came to England, was made captain of the band of pensioners, and learned so much of the dissoluteness of the court that he addicted himself immoderately to gaming, by which he was engaged in frequent quarrels, and which undoubtedly brought upon him its usual concomitants, extravagance and distress. After some time a dispute about part of his estate forced him 10 into Ireland, where he was made by the duke of Ormond captain of the guards, and met with an adventure thus related by Fenton : 'He was at Dublin as much as ever distempered with the same 11 fatal affection for play, which engaged him in one adventure that well deserves to be related. As he returned to his lodgings from a gaming-table, he was attacked in the dark by three ruffians, who were employed to assassinate him. The earl defended himself with so much resolution that he dispatched one of the aggressors; whilst a gentleman, accidentally passing that way, interposed, and disarmed another; the third secured himself by flight. This generous assistant was a disbanded officer, of a good family and fair reputation; who, by what we call the partiality of fortune, to avoid censuring the iniquities of the times, wanted even a plain suit of cloaths to make a decent appearance at the castle. But ch. 13. See also Boswell's Johnson, i. 405: 'Jan. 6, 1661-2. This evening, according to custom, his Majesty opened the revels of that night by throwing the dice himself in the privychamber, where was a table set on purpose, and lost his £100. (The year before he won £1,500.) The ladies also played very deep. I came away when the Duke of Ormond had won about £1,000.' EVELYN, Diary, i. 381. Jan. 8, 1667-8. I saw deep and prodigious gaming at the GroomPorter's, vast heaps of gold squandered away in a vain and profuse manner.' Ib. ii. 35. 12 13 his lordship, on this occasion, presenting him to the Duke of Ormond, with great importunity prevailed with his grace that he might resign his post of captain of the guards to his friend; which for about three years the gentleman enjoyed, and, upon his death, the duke returned the commission to his generous benefactor.' When he had finished his business he returned to London; was made Master of the Horse to the Dutchess of York; and married the Lady Frances, daughter of the Earl of Burlington', and widow of Colonel Courteney. He now busied his mind with literary projects, and formed the plan of a society for refining our language, and fixing its standard; 'in imitation,' says Fenton, 'of those learned and polite societies with which he had been acquainted abroad 3. In this design his friend Dryden is said to have assisted him *. 14 The same design, it is well known, was revived by Dr. Swift in the ministry of Oxford; but it has never since been publickly mentioned, though at that time great expectations were formed, by some, of its establishment and its effects. Such a society might perhaps without much difficulty be collected; but that it would produce what is expected from it may be doubted ❝. 1 Pepys, on April 29, 1667, records 'a match for my Lord Hinchingbroke to a daughter of my Lord Burlington's, where there is great alliance, £10,000 portion; a civil family, and relation to my Lord Chancellor, whose son hath married one of the daughters.' Diary, iv. 29. 2 After the praise of refining the taste of a nation the highest eulogy, perhaps, which can be bestowed upon any author is to say that he corrupted it.' ADAM SMITH, Moral Sentiments, 1812, p. 342. 3 Fenton's Waller,1744: Observations, &c., p. 140. Ante, MILTON, 25 n. Sprat speaks of 'a proposal for erecting an English Academy.' Hist. of the Royal Soc. 1667, p. 40. Pattison says of this period:-'In France Academies were still in all the freshness of youth, and had not yet become mere empty titles of honour, or clubs for the publication of Transactions.' Essays, i. 257. 'The project of forming a high court of letters for France was no dream. Richelieu in great measure fulfilled it.' M. ARNOLD, Essays in Criticism, 1884, p. 46. See also 4 Dryden, in the Dedication of his Rival Ladies (Works, ii. 134; post, DRYDEN, 16), says:-‘I am sorry that (speaking so noble a language as we do) we have not a more certain measure of it, as they have in France, where they have an Academy erected for that purpose, and endowed with large privileges by the present King.' 5 Post, SWIFT, 40. See also post, PRIOR, 14. 'It [our language] never wanted this care more than at that period; nor could two men have been found more proper to execute most parts of that plan than Dryden, the greatest master of the powers of language, and Roscommon, whose judgment was sufficient to correct the exuberances of his associate. Since them chaster writers have by degrees refined our tongue.... Such authors fix a standard by their writings. . . . Academies and dictionaries are impotent authorities: who that thinks Machiavel an incompetent guide would The Italian academy seems to have obtained its end. The 15 language was refined, and so fixed that it has changed but little. The French academy thought that they refined their language, and doubtless thought rightly: but the event has not shewn that they fixed it; for the French of the present time is very different from that of the last century 1. In this country an academy could be expected to do but little. 16 If an academician's place were profitable it would be given by interest; if attendance were gratuitous it would be rarely paid, and no man would endure the least disgust. Unanimity is impossible, and debate would separate the assembly. But suppose the philological decree made and promulgated, 17 what would be its authority? In absolute governments there is sometimes a general reverence paid to all that has the sanction of power and the countenance of greatness. How little this is the state of our country needs not to be told. We live in an age in which it is a kind of publick sport to refuse all respect that cannot be enforced. The edicts of an English academy would probably be read by many, only that they might be sure to disobey them. That our language is in perpetual danger of corruption cannot 18 be denied; but what prevention can be found? The present manners of the nation would deride authority, and therefore nothing is left but that every writer should criticise himself3. All hopes of new literary institutions were quickly suppressed 19 obey the Crusca.' HORACE WALPOLE, Works, i. 518. The Accademia della Crusca is the Italian Academy. Boswell's Johnson, i. 298, 443. 'Grimm wrote in 1755-Ils [les philosophes] s'imaginent que la langue dépend absolument de la littérature, et de l'état des arts et des lettres dans un pays. C'est le peuple qui la parle qui est le maître de la langue, et non pas les gens de lettres qui l'écrivent. Mémoires historiques, &c., 1814, i. 152. Poets that lasting marble seek Must carve in Latin or in Greek; We write in sand; our language grows, And, like the tide, our work o'erflows.' WALLER, Eng. Poets, xvi. 173. 2 'Johnson burst forth, "Subordination is sadly broken down in this age. No man, now, has the same authority which his father had,—excepta gaoler. No master has it over his servants; it is diminished in our colleges; nay, in our grammar schools." Boswell's Johnson, iii. 262. 3 'If an Academy should be established for the cultivation of our style, which I, who can never wish to see dependence multiplied, hope the spirit of English liberty will hinder or destroy,' &c. JOHNSON, Works, v. 48. See also John. Misc. i. 436. The deterrent effect of the Académie [des Sciences] on the spread of Evolution in France has been most striking. Even at the present day [1887] a member of the Institute does not feel quite happy in owning to a belief in Darwinism. indeed be thankful that we are void of such a blessing." Life of Charles Darwin, 1892, p. 261. We may de 20 by the contentious turbulence of King James's reign; and Roscommon, foreseeing that some violent concussion of the State was at hand, purposed to retire to Rome, alleging that it was [would be] best to sit near [next] the chimney when the chamber smoaked1; a sentence of which the application seems not very clear. His departure was delayed by the gout, and he was so impatient either of hinderance or of pain that he submitted himself to a French empirick, who is said to have repelled the disease into his bowels. 21 At the moment in which he expired he uttered, with an energy of voice that expressed the most fervent devotion, two lines of his own version of Dies Ira: 22 'My God, my Father, and my Friend, Do not forsake me in my end 2.' He died in 16843; and was buried with great pomp in Westminster-Abbey. His poetical character is given by Mr. Fenton : 4 'In his writings,' says Fenton,' we view the image of a mind which [that] was naturally serious and solid; richly furnished and adorned with all the ornaments of learning [art and science, and those ornaments] unaffectedly disposed in the most regular and elegant order. His imagination might have probably been more fruitful and sprightly if his judgement had been less severe. But that severity (delivered in a masculine, clear, succinct style) contributed to make him so eminent in the didactical manner, that no man with justice can affirm he was ever equalled by any of our [own] nation, without confessing at the same time that he is inferior to none. In some other kinds of writing his genius seems to have wanted fire to attain the point of perfection; but who can attain it?' 23 From this account of the riches of his mind, who would not imagine that they had been displayed in large volumes and ' Fenton's Waller: Observations, &c., p. 141. "Where is my uncle?" asked Morton. "In Edinburgh," replied Alison; "the honest man thought it was best to gang and sit by the chimley when reek rase. Old Mortality, Tales of my Landlord, (1818), vol. iii. 292. See also Woodstock (1871), p. 270. 2 The first line of the triplet is :Prostrate my contrite heart I rend.' Eng. Poets, xv. 123. Roscommon's is certainly a free version of 'Oro supplex et acclinis, 3 His will was made January 4, 1684-5, and proved the latter end of that month.' Prior's Malone, p. 404. Fenton's Waller: Observations, &c., p. 141. numerous performances? Who would not, after the perusal of this character, be surprised to find that all the proofs of this genius, and knowledge, and judgement are not sufficient to form a single book, or to appear otherwise than in conjunction with the works of some other writer of the same petty size1? But thus it is that characters are written: we know somewhat, and we imagine the rest. The observation, that his imagination would probably have been more fruitful and spritely if his judgement had been less severe, may be answered, by a remarker somewhat inclined to cavil, by a contrary supposition, that his judgement would probably have been less severe if his imagination had been more fruitful. It is ridiculous to oppose judgement to imagination; for it does not appear that men have necessarily less of one as they have more of the other. We must allow of Roscommon, what Fenton has not mentioned 24 so distinctly as he ought, and what is yet very much to his honour, that he is perhaps the only correct writer in verse before Addison 2; and that if there are not so many or so great beauties in his compositions as in those of some contemporaries, there are at least fewer faults. Nor is this his highest praise; for Mr. Pope has celebrated him as the only moral writer of King Charles's reign: 'Unhappy Dryden! in all Charles's days, His great work is his Essay on Translated Verse; of 25 'They were published together with those of Duke in an octavo volume in 1717.' Johnson's Works, ed. 1787, ii. 211. 2 Post, ADDISON, 157; PRIOR, 71; POPE, 30. 'Roscommon is one of the most renowned writers in the reign of Charles II, but one of the most careless too.' HORACE WALPOLE, Works, i. 518. 3 Imit. Hor., Epis. ii. 1. 213. Pope praises him also in the Essay on Criticism, 1. 725, as 'not more learn'd than good, With manners gen'rous as his noble blood; To him the wit of Greece and Rome was known, And ev'ry author's merit but his own.' 'Of all the considerable writers |