thought impoffible, fince national corruptions were to be purged by national calamities; but he was refolved to lend his feeble affiftance, to ftem the torrent that was pouring in. With this spirit he wrote that excellent piece, which is intituled, "The Idea of a Patriot King;" in which he describes a monarch uninfluenced by party, leaning to the fuggeftions neither of whigs nor tories, but equally the friend and the father of all. Some time after, in the year 1749, after the conclufion of the peace two years before, the measures taken by the administration feemed not to have been repugnant to his notions of political prudence for that juncture; in that year he wrote his laft production, containing reflections on the then state of the nation, principally with regard to her taxes and debts, and on the causes and confequences of them. This undertaking was left unfinished, for death fnatched the pen from the hand of the writer. Having paffed the latter part of his life in dignity and fplendour, his rational faculties improved by reflection, and his ambition kept under by disappointment, his whole aim feemed to have been to leave the stage of life, on which he had acted fuch various parts, with applaufe. He had long wifhed to fetch his laft breath at Batterfea, the place where he was born; and fortune, that had through life feemed to traverfe all his aims, at laft indulged him in this. He had long been troubled with a cancer in his cheek, by which excruciating difeafe he died on the verge of fourfcore years of age. He was confonant with himself to the laft, and those principles which he had all along avowed, he confirmed with his dying breath, having given orders that none of the clergy should be permitted to trouble him in his latest moments. His body was interred in Batterfea church with those of his ancestors; and a marble monument erected erected to his memory, with the following excellent infcription. Here lies HENRY ST. JOHN, In the Reign of Queen Anne In the Days of King George I. and King Something more and better. His Attachment to Queen Anne He died the 12th of December, 1751, In this manner lived and died Lord Bolingbroke; ever active, never depreffed, ever pursuing fortune, and as conftantly difappointed by her. In whatever light we view his character, we fhall find him an object rather properer for our wonder, than our imitation, more to be feared than efteemed, and gaining our admiration without our love. His ambition ever aimed at the fummit of power, and nothing feemed capable of fatisfying his immoderate defires, but the liberty of governing all things without a rival. With as much ambition, as great abilities, and more acquired knowledge than Cæfar, he wanted only his courage to be as fuccefsful; but the fchemes his head dictated his heart often refufed to execute; and he he loft the ability to perform, juft when the great oc cafion called for all his efforts to engage. The fame ambition that prompted him to be a politician, actuated him as a philofopher. His aims were equally great and extenfive in both capacities: unwilling to fubmit to any in the one, or any authority in the other, he entered the fields of fcience with a thorough contempt of all that had been established before him, and feemed willing to think every thing wrong, that he might fhew his faculty in the reformation. It might have been better for his quiet as a man, if he had been content to act a fubordinate character in the ftate; and it had certainly been better for his memory as a writer, if he had aimed at doing less than he attempted. Wifdom in morals, like every other art or fcience, is an accumulation that numbers have contributed to increase; and it is not for one fingle man to pretend, that he can add more to the heap, than the thousands that have gone before him. Such innovations more frequently retard, than promote knowledge; their maxims are more agreeable to the reader, by having the glofs of novelty to recommend them, than those which are trite, only because they are Such men are therefore followed at firft with avidity, nor is it till fome time that their difciples begin to find their error. They often, though too late, perceive that they have been following a fpeculative enquiry, while they have been leaving a practical good; and while they have been practifing the arts of doubting, they have been lofing all firmness of principle, which might tend to establish the rectitude of their private conduct. As a mora lift therefore Lord Bolingbroke, by having endeåvoured at too much, feems to have done nothing: but as a political writer few can equal and none can exceed him. As he was a practical politician, true. his writings are lefs filled with those fpeculative illufions, which are the refult of folitude and feclufion. He wrote them with a certainty of their being oppofed, fifted, examined, and reviled; he therefore took care to build them up of fuch materials, as could not be eafily overthrown: they prevailed at the fimes in which they were written, they ftill continue to the admiration of the prefent age, and will probably last for ever. THE |