I

THE LIFE OF

JOHN WILMOT.

T is an obfervation founded on experience, that the poets have, of all other men, been moft addicted to the gratifications of appetite, and have pursued pleasure with more unwearied application than men of other characters. In this refpect they are indeed unhappy, and have ever been more fubject to pity than envy. A violent love of pleasure, if it does not deftroy, yet, in a great measure, enervates all all other good qualities with which a man may be endowed: and, as no men have ever enjoyed higher parts from nature than the poets, fo few, from this unhappy attachment to pleafure, have effected fo little good by thofe amazing powers. Of the truth of this observation, the nobleman, whofe Memoirs we are now to prefent to the reader, is a strong and indelible inftance; for few ever had more ability, and more frequent opportunities, for promoting the interefts of fociety; and none ever prostituted the gifts of Heaven to a more inglorious purpose.

Lord Rochester was not more remarkable for the fuperiority of his parts, than the extraordinary

ordinary debauchery of his life; and, with his diffipation of pleafure, he fuffered fometimes malevolent principles to govern him and was equally odious for malice and envy, as for the boundlefs gratifications of his appetites.

This is, no doubt, the character of his lord, fhip, confirmed by all who have tranfmitted any account of him; but, if his life was fu premely wicked, his death was exemplary pious: before he approached to the conclufion of his days, he faw the follies of his former pleasures; he lived to repent with the feveret Contrition; and charity obliges all men to be lieve, that he was as fincere in his protefta tions of penitence, as he had been before in libertine indulgence. The apparent forrow he felt, arifing from the ftings and compunetions of confcience, entitle him to the reader's compaflion, and has determined us to reprefent his errors with all imaginable tenderness ;which, as it is agreeable to every benevolent man, fo his lord hip has a right to this indulgence, fince he obliterated his faults by his penitence, and became fo confpicuous an evidence on the fide of virtue, by his important declarations against the charms of wice,

Lord Rochester was fon of the gallant Henry lord Wilmot, who engaged with great zeal in the fervice of king Charles I. during the civilwars; and was fo much in favour with Charles II. that he entrusted his perfon to him, after the unfortunate battle of Worcester; which truft.

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truft he difcharged with fo much fidelity and addrefs, that the young king was conveyed out of England into France, chiefly by his care, application, and vigilance.

The mother of our author was of the antient family of the St. Johns, in Wiltshire, and has been celebrated both for her beauty and parts.

In the year 1648, diftinguished to pofterity by the fall of Charles I. who fuffered on a fcaffold erected before the window of his own palace, our author was born at Dichley, near Woodstock, in the fame county, the scene of many of his pleafures and of his death.

His lordship's father had the misfortune to reap none of the rewards of faffering loyalty, for he died in 1660, immediately before the reftoration, leaving his fon, as the principal part of his inheritance, his titles, honours, and the merit of thofe extraordinary services. he had done the crown; but, though lord Wilmot left his fon but a fmall eftate, yet he did not fuffer in his education by these means; for the economy of his mother fupplied that deficiency, and he was educated fuitable to his quality.

When he was at fchool, it is agreed by all his biographers, he gave early inftances of a readinefs of wit; and thofe thining parts which have fince appeared with so much luftre, began then to thew themselves. He acquired the Latin to fuch perfection, that,

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to his dying day, he retained a great relish for the mafculine firmnefs, as well as more elegant beauties, of that language; " and was," fays Dr, Burnet," exactly verfed in those authors who were the ornaments of the court of Auguftus, which he read often with the peculiar delight which the greateft wits have often found in those studies."

"When he went to the univerfity, the general joy which over ran the nation upon his majefty's return, amounted to fomething like distraction, and foon spread a very malignant influence through all ranks of life. His lordfhip tafted the pleafures of libertinism, which then broke out in a full tide, with too acute a relifb, and was almoft overwhelmed in the abyss of wantonnefs.

His tutor was Dr. Blandford, afterwards promoted to the fees of Oxford and Worcester; and under his infpection he was committed to the more immediate care of Phinehas Berry, fellow of Whadham-college, a man of learning and probity, whom his lord fhip afterwards treated with much refpe&t, and rewarded as became a great man; but, notwithstanding the care of his tutor, he had fo deeply engaged in the diffipations of the general jubilee, that he could not be prevailed upon to renew his ftudies, which were totally loft in the joys more agreeable to his inclination. He never thought of refuming again the purfuit of knowledge, till the fine addrefs of his goverH 4

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nor, Dr. Balfour, won him in his travels, by degrees, to thofe charms of fludy which he had, through youthful levity, forfaken; and, being feconded by reafon, now more strong, and a more mature tafte of the pleasure of learning, which the doctor took care to place in the most agreeable and advantageous light, he became enamoured of knowledge, in the purfuit of which he often fpent thofe hours he fometimes ftole from the witty and the fair.

He returned from his travels in the eighteenth year of his age, and appeared at court with as great advantage as any young nobleman ever did. He had a graceful and wellproportioned perfon, was mafter of the moft refined breeding, and poffeffed a very obliging and eafy manner. He had a vaft vivacity of thought, and a happy flow of expreffion; and all who conversed with him entertained the highest opinion of his understanding; and indeed it is no wonder he was fo much careffed at a court which abounded with men of wit, countenanced by a merry prince, who relifhed nothing fo much as brilliant converfa tion,

Soon after his lordship's return from his travels, he took the firft occafion that offered to hazard his life in the fervice of his coun try.

In the winter of the year 1665, he went to fea with the earl of Sandwich, when he was

fent