he had fine talents, a natural eloquence, great quickness, a happy memory, and very extensive knowledge; but he was vain, much beyond the general run of mankind, timid, false, injudicious, and ungrateful; elate and insolent in power, dejected and servile in disgrace: few people ever believed him without being deceived, or trusted him without being betrayed: he was one to whom prosperity was no advantage, and adversity no instruction: he had brought affairs to that pass that he was almost as much distressed in his private fortune as desperate in his political views, and was upon such a foot in the world that no king would employ him, no party support him, and few particulars defend him; his enmity was the contempt of those he attacked, and his friendship a weight and reproach to those he adhered to. Those who were most partial to him could not but allow that he was ambitious without fortitude, and enterprising without resolution; that he was fawning without insinuation, and insincere without art; that he had admirers without friendship, and followers without attachment; parts without probity, knowledge without conduct, and experience without judgment. This was certainly his character and situation; but since it is the opinion of the wise, the speculative, and the learned, that most men are born with the same propensities, actuated by the same passions, and conducted by the same original principles, and differing only in the manner of pursuing the same ends, I shall not so far chime in with the bulk of Lord Bolingbroke's contemporaries as to pronounce he had more failings than any man ever had; but it is impossible to see all that is written, and hear all that is said of him, and not allow that if he had not a worse heart than the rest of mankind, at least he must have had much worse luck.

HERVEY, JOHN LORD, 1743? Memoirs of the Reign of George II, vol. 1, p. 71.

In the name of God, whom I humbly adore, to whom I offer up perpetual thanksgiving, and to the order of whose providence I am cheerfully resigned. This is the last Will and Testament of me, Henry St. John, in the Reign of Queen Anne, and by her grace and favour Viscount Bolingbroke, after more than thirty years' proscription, and after the immense

losses I have sustained by unexpected events in the course of it, by the injustice and treachery of persons nearest to me, by the negligence of friends, and by the infidelity of servants, as my fortune is so reduced at this time that it is impossible for me to make such disposition and to give such ample legacies as I always intended.- BOLINGBROKE, HENRY SAINTJOHN VISCOUNT, 1751, Will.

HERE LYES HENRY ST. JOHN,

IN THE DAYS OF QUEEN ANNE SECRETARY AT WAR, SECRETARY OF STATE, AND VISCOUNT BOLINGBROKE.

IN THE DAYS OF KING GEORGE THE FIRST AND KING GEORGE

THE SECOND

SOMETHING MORE AND BETTER. HIS ATTACHMENT TO QUEEN ANNE EXPOSED HIM TO A LONG AND SEVERE

PROSECUTION.

HE BORE IT WITH FIRMNESS OF MIND. HE PASSED THE LATTER PART OF HIS LIFE AT HOME,

THE ENEMY OF NO NATIONAL PARTY, THE FRIEND OF NO FACTION; DISTINGUISHED UNDER THE CLOUD OF A PROSCRIPTION

WHICH HAD NOT BEEN ENTIRELY TAKEN OFF, BY ZEAL TO MAINTAIN THE LIBERTY AND TO RESTORE THE ANCIENT PROSPERITY OF GREAT BRITAIN.

-BOLINGBROKE, HENRY SAINT-JOHN VISCOUNT, 1751? Epitaph, MS., British Museum.

I believe I have lost an enemy in Lord Bolingbroke. I am sure, Religion, and the State, has. I question whether we shall see any of his MSS. His "Apology for his Public Conduct," which I have seen, affects too many parties, to see the light; and his apology for his private opinions would shock the people too much, as dissolute as they are now grown. His "Letters concerning the use of reading History" (the best of his works, as his "Patriot King," I think, is the worst), I suppose we shall see, because there are printed copies of it in several hands. It is in two volumes, 8vo. It was this work which occasioned his aversion to me. There is a dissertation in it against the canon of Scripture, which I told Mr. Pope was full of absurdities and false reasoning, and would discredit the work: and,

at his desire, I drew up a paper of remarks upon it, which Lord Bolingbroke never forgave. He wrote an answer to it in great wrath and much acrimony; but, by the persuasion of a great man, suppressed it. It is possible it may now see the light.-WARBURTON, WILLIAM, 1751, Letters from a Late Eminent Prelate, Dec. 29, p. 94.

Lord Bolingbroke joined all the politeness, the manners, and the graces of a Courtier, to the solidity of a Statesman, and to the learning of a Pedant.-CHESTERFIELD, PHILIP DORMER STANHOPE EARL, 1752, Feb. 20, Letters to his Son.

The late lord Bolingbroke, and the lord Carteret, afterwards earl of Granville. But as I know not enough of them to be very particular in their characters, I shall only describe them as they were generally spoken of. They were universally esteemed of the greatest genius for parts and knowledge of any men of the age; the latter thought to be the better scholar, and to have formed his eloquence more upon the ancients, and to have more of their spirit in it, than the former, but the first was far the better writer, and had been a very lively and able speaker in both houses of parliament. He was thought to have more knowledge and skill in the affairs of Europe from his long experience abroad and intimacy there with men of the first rank for business and capacity. But neither of them were thought to know enough for the real temper and constitution of their own country, altho' lord Bolingbroke wrote much on that subject, they were both of them of unbounded spirit and ambition, impatient of restraint, contemning the notion of equality with others in business, and even disdaining to be anything if not the first and highest in power. They were not famed for what is called personal courage, but in the conduct of affairs were deemed bold if not rash, and the lord Bolingbroke was of a temper to overturn kingdoms to make way for himself and his talents to govern the world; whilst the other in projecting the plans of his administration, thought much more of raising a great name to himself all over Europe, and having that continued by historians to all posterity, than of any present domestic popularity or renown. whatsoever.-ONSLOW, ARTHUR, C1752,

Remarks on Various Parts of Sir Robert Walpole's Conduct, and Anecdote of the Principal Leaders of the Opposition; Coxe, Memoir of Sir Robert Walpole, vol. II, p. 567.

Sir, he was a scoundrel and a coward: a scoundrel, for charging a blunderbuss against religion and morality; a coward, because he had not resolution to fire it off himself, but left half a crown to a beggarly Scotchman, to draw the trigger after his death!-JOHNSON, SAMUEL, 1754, Life by Boswell, ed. Hill, vol. 1, p. 312.

I own I have small regard for Lord Bolingbroke as an author, and the highest contempt for him as a man. He came into the world greatly favored both by nature and fortune, blest with a noble birth, heir to a large estate, endowed with a strong constitution, and, as I have heard, a beautiful figure, high spirits, a good memory, and a lively apprehension, which was cultivated by a learned education: all these glorious advantages being left to the direction of a judgment stifled by unbounded vanity, he dishonored his birth, lost his estate, ruined his reputation, and destroyed his health, by a wild pursuit of eminence even in vice and trifles.-MONTAGU, LADY MARY WORTLEY, 1755, Letter to the Countess of Bute, July 20.

There are some characters that seemed formed by Nature to take delight in struggling with opposition, and whose most agreeable hours are passed in storms of their own creating. The subject of the present sketch was, perhaps, of all others, the most indefatigable in raising himself enemies, to shew his power in subduing them; and was not less employed in improving his superior talents, than in finding objects on which to exercise their activity. His life was spent in a continual conflict of politics, and as if that was too short for the combat, he has left his memory as a subject of lasting contention.

Nature seemed not less kind to him in her external embellishments, than in adorning his mind. With the graces of an handsome person, and a face in which dignity was happily blended with sweetness, he had a manner of address that was very engaging. His vivacity was always awake, his apprehension was quick, his wit refined, and his memory amazing:

his subtlety in thinking and reasoning was profound, and all these talents were adorned with an elocution that was irresistible. . . In whatever light we view his character, we shall find him an object rather properer for our wonder, than our imitation, more to be feared than esteemed, and gaining our admiration without our love. His ambition ever aimed at the summit of power, and nothing seemed capable of satisfying his immoderate desires but the liberty of governing all things without a rival. With as much ambition, as great abilities, and more acquired knowledge than Cæsar, he wanted only his courage to be as successful; but the schemes his head dictated, his heart often refused to execute: and he lost the ability to perform, just when the great occasion called for all his efforts to engage.-GOLDSMITH, OLIVER, 1770, Life of Lord Bolingbroke.

The eloquence and ostentation of Bolingbroke could never impose on Arbuthnot: he told his son (whom I once had the honour to converse with at Richmond), that he knew Bolingbroke was an infidel, and a worthless vain man.-BEATTIE, JAMES, 1785, Letter to Mrs. Montagu, Jan. 31; Beattie's Life by Forbes, vol. 11, p.357.

Mr. Burke told me a few days ago that the first Lord Lyttleton informed him, that Lord Bolingbroke never wrote down any of his works but dictated them to a secretary. This may account for their endless tautology. In company, according to Lord Lyttleton, he was very eloquent, speaking with great fluency and authority on every subject, and generally in the form of harangue rather than colloquial table talk. His company all looked up to him, and very few dared to interrupt or contradict him.-MALONE, EDMOND, 1787, Maloniana, ed. Prior, p. 375.

Henry lord Bolingbroke was one of the great ornaments of the beginning of the present century. He has been admired as a statesman, an orator, a man of letters and a philosopher. Pope, in the eagerness of his reverence and devotion, foresaw the time when his merits would be universally acknowledged, and assured the world that the "sons" of his personal adversaries, would "blush" for the malignity and injustice of "their fathers." But Pope, though a poet, was no prophet.

We every day hear Bolingbroke spoken of by one man or another, with as much contempt as could have been expressed by the most rancorous of his political rivals.— GODWIN, WILLIAM, 1797, Of Posthumous Fame, The Enquirer p. 295.

Bolingbroke had beheld the decay of Dryden, and the rise of Pope. It was his fortune to view also the progress of, perhaps, a yet more extraordinary genius. Voltaire was now giving early proofs of those talents which were afterwards to astonish his age in their development, and to disappoint it by their perversion. The English philosopher seems to have been peculiarly successful in winning the confidence and affections of the young. He was regarded by Voltaire with scarcely less esteem and admiration than by Pope. In his society these two illustrious men felt and acknowledged a superior genius; and if he had no claim to excellence in poetry, the art in which they were so preeminent, he surpassed them both in the philosophy which they so admired. . Bolingbroke's private, like his public life, offers much subject both for praise and blame. His passions were as fiery as his genius; and in his youth he disdained to control the one, or to regulate the other. Although eminently gifted with those shining qualities which captivate and ensnare, he took little pains to improve the opportunities he possessed; and his intrigues were rather numerous than select. He was not very fastidious in choosing his companions of either sex; but no man was more careful in the selection of a friend. There were few men whom he ever admitted to this distinction, and of these none ever deserted or betrayed him. The ambition which would allow him to brook no equal in the administration of government, prompted him to domineer in private: his friendship was offered only to those whose kindred genius marked them as his equals, and even by these he could never believe that he was loved until he was implicitly obeyed. The estimation in which his friendship was held, appears from the readiness with which the superiority he assumed was conceded: even Pope and Swift owned in him a master.-COOKE, GEORGE WINGROVE, 1835, Memoirs of Lord Bolingbroke, vol. II, pp. 36, 279.

He looked through the characters of

others with a keen and searching eye. His eloquence, both commanding and rewarding the attention of his hearers, was ready, full, and gushing; according to his own beautiful illustration, it flowed like a stream that is fed by an abundant spring, and did not merely spout forth, like a frothy water, on some gaudy day. His genius was vast and lofty, yet able to contract itself at will-scarcely anything too great for its grasp, and scarcely anything too minute for its care. With such splendid abilities, such active ambition, he might have been the greatest and most useful statesman of his, or, perhaps, of any age. But he utterly wanted virtue. He was no believer in revealed religion, whose tenets he attempted to sap in his writings, and disregarded in his life. He had early rushed into pleasure with an eagerness and excess that might have been forgiven his youth and his ardent passions, had he not afterwards continued them from a miserable personal vanity. He aimed at being the modern Alcibiades a man of pleasure at the same time as a man of business; sitting up one night to reel at a drunken orgy,-sitting up the next to compose a despatch on which the fate of Europe might hang; at one hour dealing forth his thunderbolts of eloquence to the awe-struck senate,-at another whispering soft words at the ear of yielding beauty! In this unworthy combination he lost all dignity of mind. There ceased to be any consistency between his conduct and his language. man ever spoke more persuasively of the fatigues of business, yet no man was ever more fretful and uneasy, in retirement. For him, activity was as necessary as air for others. When excluded from public life, there were no intrigues, however low and grovelling, to which he did not stoop in order to return to it. Yet all his writings breathe the noblest principles of independence.-STANHOPE, PHILIP HENRY EARL, 1836-54, History of England from the Peace of Utrecht to the Peace of Versailles, vol. 1, p. 26.

No

The opinions of posterity as to his character are likely to be as much divided as were those of his contemporaries; and the safe conclusion that can be arrived at is, that he possessed an extraordinary mixture of good and evil, of greatness and meanness, of that which ennobles, as well

as that which disgraces morality. His extraordinary talents forced themselves into general notice; his prodigous strength of memory and quick apprehension, his dashing and brilliant style, was the admiration of his friends, and his social disposition rendered their affection equal to their admiration. Formed

to excel in whatever he might undertake, he soon became as notorious for his excesses, as he was afterwards eminent for his genius and learning.-TIMPERLEY, C. H., 1842, ed., Encyclopædia of Literary and Typographical Anecdote, Compiled and Condensed from Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, etc., p. 681.

He lived in the centre of intrigues which were to shake thrones, and perhaps to form them. He became habituated to the idea that everything could be achieved by dexterity, and that there was no test of conduct except success. To dissemble and to simulate; to conduct confidential negotiations with contending powers and parties at the same time; to be ready to adopt any opinion and to possess none; to fall into the public humour of the moment and to evade the impending catastrophe; to look upon every man as a tool, and never to do anything which had not a definite though circuitous purpose, these were his political accomplishments; and, while he recognised them as the best means of success, he found in their exercise excitement and delight. To be the centre of a maze of manoeuvres was his empyrean. Recklessness with him was a principle of action. He trusted always to his fertile expedients if he failed, and ran the risk in the meanwhile of paramount success the fortune of those who are entitled to be rash. With all his audacity, which was nearly equal to his craft, he had no moral courage.-DISRAELI, BENJAMIN, (LORD BEACONSFIELD), 1847, Tancred, ch. vi.

Bolingbroke survived Pope fourteen years. He had resided at Battersea after the death of his father, and here, in 1750, he brought her, who, he said, "had been the comfort of his life," to die.

He had lost one who thoroughly admired, comprehended, and loved him. Their tenderness had been signal. The charm of her society, her broken English, her eloquent French, were long remembered by those who knew Lady Bolingbroke. The experience for thirty years of her virtues had shown Lord Bolingbroke the value of woman. A little trait of Lady Bolingbroke, shows her clear perception of the change which came over her once brilliant husband in later days. Walking with her in his own grounds, accompanied by a friend, Bolingbroke began to relate some of the gallantries of his younger days. "He reminds me," said his lady to the friend with them, "of a fine old Roman aqueduct; but, alas! it is in ruins, the water has ceased to flow."-THOMSON, KATHERINE (GRACE WHARTON), 1861, Celebrated Friendships, vol. II, pp. 210, 211.

In this English Alcibiades, what restless, but what rich vitality!-LYTTON, EDWARD BULWER LORD, 1863-68, Caxtoniana, Miscellaneous Prose Works, vol. III, p. 88.

Excessive drinking, profane swearing, and loose conversation were not even the worst. It must be confessed that the Secretary outraged the decencies of his situation still more grossly. Though his wife was devotedly attached to him, and though they still lived under the same roof, he was as licentious as in the days of his early youth, when it had been his boast to rival the wild exploits of Rochester. The House of Commons, the War Office, the studies in his country retirement, the development of his genius, the Secretary of State's office, the rivalry with Harley, all the promptings of a high and justifiable ambition had not rendered his life purer than that of the lowest rake about London. On the news of St. John's appointment as Secretary of State spreading through the town, an ancient lady who presided over a mansion of easy virtue, exclaimed with delight, "Five thousand a year, my girls, and all for us!" It is not from his political enemies, from Steele, Addison, or Walpole that we have the most explicit details of St. John's

habitual debaucheries. The Secretary's friends have been the most candid. A handsome woman, they all admit, sometimes jestingly and sometimes sadly, was a temptation he never could resist. Rank made no difference whatever in his appreciation. With the same ardour he would make love to a maid of honour about the person of the Queen, or follow in broad daylight a common woman of the town, whose appearance might happen to please him, as he was walking with some friends in the Mall. After this it was an edifying sight to behold the Secretary at his prayers.-MACKNIGHT, THOMAS, 1863, The Life of Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke, p. 213.

Three years of eager unwise power, the thirty-five of sickly longing and impotent regret, such, or something like it, will ever be in this cold modern world the fate of an Alcibiades.-BAGEHOT, WALTER, 1863, Bolingbroke as a Statesman, Works, ed. Morgan, vol. III, p. 221.

Bolingbroke was capable of intrigue, but not of action. He could cabal with the backstairs, worry his colleagues, negotiate with the men of letters who were of his party, and debauch as far as possible the House of Commons.ROGERS, JAMES E. THOROLD, 1869, Historical Gleanings, First series, vol. 1, p. 36.

A sceptic and cynic, minister in turn to Queen and Pretender, disloyal alike to both, a trafficker in consciences, marriages, and promises, who had squandered his talent in debauch and intrigues, to TAINE, H. A., 1871, History of English end in disgrace, impotence, and scorn. Literature, tr. Van Laun, vol. II, bk. iii, ch. iii, p. 47.

In conversation he developed that versatility and fire, which distinguish him as a writer; and perhaps he was altogether born rather to be a writer than a statesman. RANKE, LEOPOLD VON, 1875, A History of England, vol. v, p. 348.

Adored by Pope-whom he attended on his death-bed, and who considered him the first writer, as well as the greatest man, of his age; hated by Walpole as a political rival; lauded by Swift and Smollett; despised as "a scoundrel and a coward" by Dr. Johnson. His youth had been so wild that his father's congratulation when he was created a viscount was, "Ah,