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his companions eagerly encouraged him in excess, and he willingly indulged it:; till, as he confeffed to Dr. Burnet, he was for five years together continually drunk, or fo much inflamed by frequent ebriety, as in no interval to be mafter of himself.

In this ftate he played many frolicks, which it is not for his honour that we fhould remember, and which are not now distinctly known. He often purfued low amours in mean difguifes, and always acted with great exactness and dexterity the characters which he affumed.

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He once erected a stage on Towerhill, and harangued the populace as a mountebank; and, having made phy

fick part of his ftudy, is faid to have practifed it fuccefsfully..

He was fo much in favour with king, Charles, that he was made one of the. gentlemen of the bedchamber, and comptroller of Woodstock Park..

Having an active and inquifitive mind,、 he never, except in his paroxyfms of intemperance, was wholly negligent of study; he read what is confidered as polite. learning fo much, that he is mentioned. by Wood as the greatest scholar of allthe nobility. Sometimes he retired into the country, and amufed himself with writing libels, in which he did not pretend to confine himself to truth..

His favourite author in French was Boileau, and in English Cowley..

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Thus in a courfe of drunken gaiety, and grofs fenfualty, with intervals of study perhaps yet more criminal, with an avowed contempt of all decency and order, a total difregard to every moral, and a refolute denial of every religious obligation, he lived worthlefs and ufelefs, and blazed out his youth and his health in lavish voluptuoufnefs; till, at the age of one and thirty, he had exhaufted the fund of life, and reduced himself to a ftate of weaknefs and decay.

At this time he was led to an acquaintance with Dr. Burnet, to whom he laid open with great freedom the tenour of his opinions, and the courfe of his life, and from whom he received fuch conviction

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viction of the reasonableness of moral duty, and the truth of Chriftianity, as

produced a total change both of his manners and opinions. The account of thofe falutary conferences is given by Burnet, in a book intituled, Same PafJages of the Life and Death of John earl of Rochefter; which the critick ought to read for its elegance, the philofopher for its arguments, and the faint for its piety. It were an injury to the reader to offer him an abridgement.

He died July 26, 1680, before he had completed his thirty-third year; and was fo worn away by a long illness, that life went out without a struggle.

Lord Rochefter was eminent for the vigour of his colloquial wit, and re

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markable for many wild pranks, and fallies of extravagance. The glare of his general character diffused itself upon his writings; the compofitions of a man whose name was heard so often, were certain of attention, and from many readers certain of applaufe. This blaze of reputation is not yet quite extinguished, and his poetry still retains fome fplendour beyond that which genius has bestowed.

Wood and Burnet give us reafon to believe, that much was imputed to him which he did not write. I know not by whom the original collection was made, or by what authority its genuineness was afcertained. The first edition was published in the year of his death, with an

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