Waller," are dim, and I do not know it." The king faid, it was the princefs of Orange. "She is," faid Waller, "like the greatest “woman in the world." The King afked who was that? and was anfwered, Queen Elizabeth. "I wonder," faid the King, 66 you "fhould think fo; but I must confefs the "had a wife council." 66 And, Sir," faid Waller, "did "did you ever know a fool chufe a "wife one?" Such is the ftory, which I once heard of fome other man. Pointed axioms, and acute replies, fly loose about the world, and are affigned fucceffively to those whom it may be the fashion to celebrate.

When the King knew that he was about to marry his daughter to Dr. Birch, a clergyman, he ordered a French gentleman to tell him, that the King wondered he could "think of marrying his daughter to a fall,

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ing church." The King," fays Waller, "does me great honour, in taking notice of 66 my domeftick affairs; but I have lived long "enough to obferve that this falling church "has got a trick of rifing again."

He

He took notice to his friends of the King's conduct; and faid, that he would be left "like a whale upon the strand." Whether he was privy to any of the transactions which ended in the Revolution, is not known. His heir joined the prince of Orange.

Having now attained an age beyond which the laws of nature seldom fuffer life to be extended, otherwife than by a future ftate, he feems to have turned his mind upon preparation for the decifive hour, and therefore confecrated his poetry to devotion. It is pleafing to discover that his piety was without weakness; that his intellectual powers continued vigorous; and that the lines which he compofed when he, for age, could neither read nar write, are not inferior to the effufions of his youth.

Towards the decline of life, he bought a fmall house, with a little land, at Colfhill; and faid, “he should be glad to die, like the "ftag, where he was roufed." This, how ever, did not happen. When he was at Beaconsfield, he found his legs grow tumid:

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he went to Windfor, where Sir Charles Scarborough then attended the King, and requested him, as both a friend and physician, to tell him, what that fwelling meant. Sir," answered Scarborough," your blood will run "no longer." Waller repeated fome lines of Virgil, and went home to die.

As the difeafe increafed upon him, he compofed himself for his departure; and calling upon Dr. Birch to give him the holy fa, crament, he defired his children to take it with him, and made an earnest declaration of his faith in Chriftianity. It now appeared, what part of his conversation with the great could be remembered with delight. He related, that being prefent when the duke of Buckingham talked profanely before King Charles, he faid to him, "My Lord, I am "a great deal older than your grace, and ❝ have, I believe, heard more arguments for "atheism than ever your grace did; but I "have lived long enough to fee there is "nothing in them; and fo, I hope, your grace will."

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He

He died October 21, 1687, and was buried at Beaconsfield, with a monument erected by his fon's executors, for which Rymer wrote the inscription, and which I hope is now rescued from dilapidation.

He left several children by his fecond wife; of whom, his daughter was married to Dr. Birch. Benjamin, the eldest fon, was disinherited, and fent to New Jersey, as wanting common understanding. Edmund, the fecond fon, inherited the eftate, and reprefented Agmondesham in parliament, but at laft turned Quaker. William, the third son, was a merchant in London. Stephen, the fourth, was an eminent Doctor of Laws, and one of the Commiffioners for the Union. There is faid to have been a fifth, of whom no account has defcended.

The character of Waller, both moral and intellectual, has been drawn by Clarendon, to whom he was familiarly known, with nicety, which certainly none to whom he was not known can presume to emulate. It is therefore inferted here, with fuch remarks

as others have supplied; after which, nothing remains but a critical examination of his poetry.

"Edmund Waller," fays Clarendon, “was “born to a very fair estate, by the parsimony, or frugality, of a wife father and mother:

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and he thought it fo commendable an ad

vantage, that he refolved to improve it with "his utmost care, upon which in his nature "he was too much intent; and, in order to

that, he was fo much referved and retired, "that he was fcarce ever heard of, till by his address and dexterity he had gotten a very rich wife in the city, against all the recommendation and countenance and authority of the Court, which was thoroughly engaged on the behalf of Mr. Crofts; and

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which ufed to be fuccefsful in that age,

against any oppofition. He had the good "fortune to have an alliance and friendship with Dr. Morley, who had affifted and inftructed him in the reading many good books, to which his natural parts and promptitude inclined him, especially the pocts; and at the age when other men "ufed to give over writing yerfes (for he was

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