and rewarded him as became a great man. But the humour of that time wrought fo much on him, that he broke off the course of his ftudies, to which no means could ever effectually recal him, till, when he was in Italy, his governor, Dr. Balfour, a learned and worthy man, afterwards a celebrated phyfician in Scotland, his native country,drew him to read fuch books as were most likely to bring him back to love learning and study: and he often acknowledged to me, in particular three days before his death, how much he was obliged to love and honour this his governor, to whom he thought he owed more than to all the world, next after his parents, for his great fidelity and care of him while he was under his trust. But no part of it affected him more fenfibly than that he engaged him by many tricks (fo he expreffed it) to delight in books and reading; fo that ever after he took occafion, in the intervals of thofe woful extravagances that confumed moft of his time, to read much; and, though the time was generally but indifferently employed, for the choice of the subjects of his ftudies was not always good, yet the habitual love of knowledge, together with these fits of study, had much awakened his understanding, and prepared him for better things, when his mind fhould be fo far changed as to relish them.

He came from his travels in the eighteenth year of his age, and appeared at court with as great ad

vantages

vantages as moft ever had. He was a graceful and well-fhaped perfon, tall, and well made, if not a little too flender: he was exactly well bred; and, what by a modeft behaviour natural to him, what by a civility become almoft as natural, his converfation was eafy and obliging. He had a ftrange vivacity of thought and vigour of expreffion; his wit had a fubtilty and fublimity both, that it was fcarce imitable. His tile was clear and ftrong; when he ufed figures, they were lively, and yet far enough out of the common road. He had made himself mafter of the ancient and modern wit, and of the modern French and Italian as well as the English. He loved to talk and write of fpeculative matters; and did it with fo fine a thread, that even thofe, who hated the subjects that his fancy ran upon, yet could not but be charmed with his way of treating them. Boileau among the French, and Cowley among the English, wits, were those he admired moft. Sometimes other men's thoughts mixed with his compofures; but that flowed rather from the impreffions they made on him when he read them, by which they came to return on him as his own thoughts, than that he fervilely copied from any; for few men had a bolder flight of fancy, more steadily governed by judgment, than he had. No wonder a young man fo made and fo improved was very acceptable in

a court.

Soon

Soon after his coming thither, he laid hold on the firft occafion that offered to shew his readiness to hazard his life in the defence and fervice of his country. In winter, 1665, he went with the earl of Sandwich to fea, when he was fent to lie for a Dutch Eaft-India fleet; and was in the Revenge, commanded by fir Thomas Tiddiman, when the attack was made on the port of Bergen in Norway, the Dutch fhips ha-ving got into that port. It was as desperate an attempt as ever was made. During the whole action, the earl. of Rochefter fhewed as brave and as refolute a courage as was poffible: a perfon of honour told me he heard the lord Clifford, who was in the fame fhip, often magnify his courage at that time very highly. Nor did the rigours of the season, the hardnefs of the voyage, and the extreme danger he had been in, deter him from running the like on the very next occafion; for the fummer following he went to fea again, without communicating his defign to his neareft relations. He went on-board the ship commanded by fir Edward Spragge, the day before the great fea-fight of that year. Almost all the volunteers that were in the fame fhip were killed. Mr. Middleton (brother to fir Hugh Middleton) was fhot in the arm. During the action, fir Edward Spragge, not being fatisfied with the behaviour of one of his captains, could not eafily find a person that would cheerfully venture through so much danger to carry

his

his commands to that captain. This lord offered himself to the fervice; and went in a little boat, through all the shot, and delivered his meffage, and returned back to fir Edward; which was much commended by all that faw it. He thought it neceffary to begin his life with thefe demonftrations of courage, in an element and way of fighting which is acknowledged to be the greatest trial of clear and undaunted valour.

He had fo entirely laid down the intemperance that was growing on him before his travels, that at his return he hated nothing more; but, falling into company that loved thefe exceffes, he was, though not without difficulty, and by many steps, brought back to it again; and the natural heat of his fancy, being inflamed by wine, made him fo extravagantly pleafant, that many, to be more diverted by that humour, ftudied to engage him deeper and deeper in intemperance; which at length did fo entirely fub- ̄ due him, that, as he told me, for five years together he was continually drunk; not all the while under the vifible effects of it, but his blood was fo inflamed, that he was not, in all that time, cool enough to be perfectly mafter of himself. This led him to say and do many wild and unaccountable things: by this, he faid, he had broken the firm conftitution of his health, that feemed fo ftrong that nothing was too hard for it; and he had fuffered fo much in his repu

tation,

tation, that he almost despaired to recover it. There were two principles in his natural temper that, being heightened by that heat, carried him to great exceffes: a violent love of pleasure, and a difpofition to extravagant mirth. The one involved him in great fenfuality; the other led him to many odd adventures and frolics, in which he was oft in hazard of his life: the one being the fame irregular appetite in his mind that the other was in his body, which led him to think nothing diverting that was not extravagant. And though, in cold blood, he was a generous and good-natured man, yet he would go far, in his heats, after any thing that might turn to a jeft or matter of diverfion. He faid to me, he never improved his intereft at court to do a premeditate mifchief to other perfons. Yet he laid out his wit very freely in libels and fatires, in which he had a peculiar talent of mixing his wit with his malice, and fitting both with such apt words, that men were tempted to be pleafed with them: from thence his compofures came to be eafily known, for few had fuch a way of tempering thefe together as he had ; fo that, when any thing extraordinary that way came out, as a child is fathered fometimes by its refemblance, fo it was laid at his door as its parent and author.

These exercises in the course of his life were not always equally pleasant to him; he had often fad intervals

B