"rather of delight than weight. There "needs no more be faid to extol the "excellence and power of his wit, and "pleafantnefs of his converfation, than "that it was of magnitude enough to "cover a world of very great faults; "that is, fo to cover them, that they 66 were not taken notice of to his re"proach; viz. a narrowness in his na"ture to the lowest degree; an abject"nefs and want of courage to fupport "him in any virtuous undertaking; an "infinuation and fervile flattery to the

height, the vainest and most impe

"rious nature could be contented with; "that it preferved and won his life from "thofe, who were most refolved to take "it; and in an occafion in which he

❝ought

"ought to have been ambitions to here loft it; and then preferved hy

66

from the reproach and contempt, that

was due to him, for fo preferving it, ." and for vindicating it at fuch a price;

that it had power to reconcile him to "thofe, whom he had most offended " and provoked; and continued to his

66

..66

age with that rare felicity, that his ..❝ company was acceptable, where his "fpirit was odious; and he was at least "pitied, where he was most detefted."

Such is the account of Clarendon; -on which it may not be improper to make fome remarks.

"He was very little known till he "had obtained a rich wife in the

"city."

He

He obtained the rich wife about the age of three-and-twenty; an age before which few men are confpicuous much to their advantage. He was known, however, in parliament and at court; and, if he spent part of his time in privacy, it is not unreasonable to fuppofe that he intended the improvement of his mind as well as of his fortune.

That Clarendon might misjudge the motive of his retirement is the more probable, because he has evidently miftaken the commencement of his poetry, which he fuppofes him not to have at tempted before thirty. As his firft pieces were perhaps not printed, the fucceffion of his compofitions was not known; and Clarendon, who cannot be imagined

to

to have been very ftudious of poetry, did not rectify his firft opinion by confulting Waller's book.

Clarendon obferves, that he was introduced to the wits of the age by Dr. Morley; but the writer of his Life relates that he was already among them, when, hearing a noise in the street, and enquiring the caufe, they found a fon of Ben Jonfon under an arreft. This was Morley, whom Waller fet free at the expence of one hundred pounds, took him into the country as director of his ftudies, and then procured him admiffion into the company of the friends. of literature. Of this fact, Clarendon had a nearer knowledge than the biographer,

grapher, and is therefore more to be

credited.

The account of Waller's parliamentary eloquence is feconded by Burnet, who, though he calls him " the delight "of the houfe," adds, that " he was "only concerned to say that, which "fhould make him be applauded, he "never laid the bufinefs of the house to "heart, being a vain and empty though

Of his infinuation and flattery it is not unreasonable to believe that the truth is told. Afcham, in his elegant defcription of thofe whom in modern language we term Wits, fays, that they are open flatterers, and privy mockers. Waller

fhewed