Brutishness of head-ftrong will to do his king; and country juftice upon fuch public ftate thieves as would beggar a kingdom to enrich themfelves; thefe were the vermin whom, to his eternal honour, his pen was continually pricking and goading: a pen, if not fo happy in the fuccefs, yet as generous in the aim, as either the fword of Thefeus, or the club of Hercules; nor was it less sharp than that, or lefs weighty than this.

"If he did not take fo much care of him-, felf as he ought, he had the humanity, however, to wish well to others; and I think I may truly affirm, he did the world as much good by a right application of fatire, as he hurt himself by a wrong pursuit of pleasure."

In this amiable light has Mr. Wolfely drawn our author; and nothing is more certain than that it is a portraiture of the imagination, warmed with gratitude, or friendship, and bears but little or no refemblance to that of Rochefter. Can he whofe fatire is always levelled at particular perfons, be faid to be the terror of knaves, and the public foe of vice; when he himself has acknowledged that he fatirized only to gratify his resentment; for it was his opinion, that writing fatires without being in a rage, was like killing in cold blood-? Was his converfation inftructive whofe mouth was full of obscenity? and was he a friend to his country, who diffused a dangerous venom through his works to corI 6

rupt

rupt its members; in which, it is to be feared he has been but too successful? Did he ever fmooth the face of profperous villainy, as Mr. Wolfely expreffes it, the fcope of whofe life was to promote and encourage the moft licentious debauchery, and to unhinge all the principles of honour ?

Either Mr. Wolfely must be ftrangely miftaken, or all other writers who have given us accounts of Rochester must be fo; and, as his fingle affertions are not equal to the united authorities of fo many, we may reasonably a deviation from reject his teftimony as

truth.

We have now feen thofe fcenes of my lord Rochefter's life, in which he to little appears advantage. It is with infinite pleasure we can take a view of the brighter fide of his character; to do which we must attend him to his death-bed. Had he been the amiable man Mr. Wolfely reprefents him, he needed not have fuffered fo many pangs of remorse, nor felt the horrors of confcience, nor been driven almost to despair by his reflections on a mif-spent life.

Rochefter lived a profligate, but he died a penitent. He lived in defiance of all principles; but, when he felt the cold hand of death upon him, he reflected on his folly, and faw, that the portion of iniquity is, at laft, fure to be only pain and anguish.

Dr. Burnet,

Dr. Burnet, the excellent bishop of Sarum (however he may be reviled by a party) with many other obligations conferred upon the world, has added fome account of lord Rochefter in his dying moments. No ftate-policy, in this cafe, can be well fuppofed to have biaffed him; and when there are no motives to falfhood, it is fomewhat cruel to difcredit affertions. The doctor could not be influenced by views of intereft to give this, or any other, account of his lordship; and could certainly have no other incentive but that of ferving his country, by fhewing the inftability of vice, and, by drawing into light an illustrious penitent, adding one wreath more to the banners. of virtue.

Burnet begins with telling us, that an acci dent fell out in the early part of the earl's life which in its confequences confirmed him in the purfuit of vicious courses.

"When he went to fea, in the year 1665, there happened to be, in the fame fhip with him, Mr. Montague, and another gentleman of quality; these two, the former efpecially, feemed perfuaded that they fhould never return into England. Mr. Montague faid, he was fure of it; the other was not so positive; The earl of Rochester, and the last of these, entered into a formal engagement, not with out ceremonies of religion, that, if either of them died, he should appear and give the

other

other notice of the future state, if there was any; but Mr. Montague would not enter into the bond.

"When the day came that they thought to have taken the Dutch fleet in the port of Bergen, Mr. Montague, though he had fuch a ftrong prefage in his mind of his approaching. death, yet he bravely stayed all the while in the place of the greateft danger. The other gentleman fignalized his courage in the most undaunted manner till near the end of the action, when he fell, on a fudden, into fuch a trembling that he could scarce ftand; and Mr. Montague going to him to hold him up, as they were in each other's arms, a cannon-ball carried away Mr. Montague's belly, fo that he expired in an hour after."

The earl of Rochefter told Dr. Burnet, that thefe prefages they had in their minds, made fome impreffion on him that there were separate beings; and, that the foul, either by a natural fagacity, or fome fecret notice communicated to it, had a fort of divination. But: this gentleman's never appearing was a fnare to him during the rest of his life: though when he mentioned this, he could not but acknowledge, it was an unreasonable thing for him to think that beings in another state were not under fuch laws and limits that they could not command their motion but as the Supreme Power should order them; and, that one who

had

had fo corrupted the natural principles of truth as he had, had no reason to expect that miracles fhould be wrought for his convic tion.

He told Dr. Burnet another odd prefage of approaching death, in lady Ware, his mother-in-law's family.The chaplain had dreamed that fuch a day he should die; but being by all the family laughed out of the belief of it, he had almoft forgot it till the evening before at fupper; there being thirteen at table, according to an old conceit that one of the family muft foon die, one of the young ladies pointed to him, that he was the perfon. Upon this the chaplain, recalling to mind his dream, fell into fome diforder, and the lady Ware reproving him for his fuperftition, he faid, he was confident he was to die before morning; but he being in perfect health it was not much minded. It was Saturday night, and he was to preach next day. He went to his chamber, and fat up late, as appeared by the burning of his candle; and he had been preparing his notes for his fermon, but was found dead in his bed next morning.

These things, his lordship faid, made him incline to believe that the foul was of a subftance diftinct from matter; but that which convinced him of it was, that, in his laft fickness, which brought him fo near his death, when his fpirits were fo spent that he could

not