the mind with expectations of felicity which they cannot give, raises no astonishment; but it seems rational to hope, that intellectual greatness fhould produce better effects; that minds qualified for great attainments should first endeavour their own benefit; and that they, who are most able to teach others the way to happiness, should with most certainty follow it themselves.

But this expectation, however plaufible, has been very frequently disappointed. The heroes of literary as well as civil history have been very often no lefs remarkable for what they have atchieved; and volumes have been written only to enumerate the miseries of the learned, and relate their unhappy lives, and untimely deaths.

To thefe mournful narratives, I am about to add the Life of Richard Savage, a man whose writings entitle him to an eminent rank in the claffes of learning, and whofe misfortunes claim a degree of compaffion, not always due to the unhappy, as they were often the confequences of the crimes of others, rather than his own.

In the year 1697, Anne Countess of Macclesfield, having lived for fome time upon very uneafy terms with her husband, thought a public confeffion of adultery the most obvious and expeditious method of obtaining her liberty; and therefore declared, that the child, with which fhe was then great, was begotten by the Earl Rivers. This, as may be imagined, made her husband no lefs defirous of a feparation than herself, and he profecuted his defign in the most effectual manner; for he applied not to the ecclefiaftical courts for a divorce, but to the parliament for an act, by which Lis marriage might be diffolved, the nuptial contract annulled,

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annulled, and the children of his wife illegitimated. This act, after the ufual deliberation, he obtained, though without the approbation of fome, who confidered marriage as an affair only cognizable by ecclefiaftical judges; and on March 3d was separated from his wife, whofe fortune, which was very great, was repaid her, and who having, as well as her husband, the liberty of making another choice, was in a fhort time married to Colonel Brett.

While the earl of Macclesfield was profecuting this affair, his wife was, on the 10th of January 1697-8, delivered of a fon, and the Earl Rivers, by appearing to confider him as his own, left none any reason to doubt of the fincerity of her declaration; for he was his godfather, and gave him his own name, which was by his direction inferted in the register of St. Andrew's parish in Holborn, but unfortunately left him to the care of his mother, whom, as fhe was now set free from her husband, he probably imagined likely to treat with great tenderness the child that had contributed to so pleasing an event. It is not indeed eafy to dif cover what motives could be found to over-balance that natural affection of a parent, or what intereft could be promoted by neglect or cruelty. The dread

* This year was made remarkable by the diffolution of a marriage folemnized in the face of the church. SALMON'S REVIEW. The following proteft is registered in the books of the House of Lords.

Diffentient.

Because we conceive that this is the first bill of that nature that hath paffed, where there was not a divorce first obtained in the Spiritual Court; which we look upon as an ill precedent, and may be of dangerous confequence in the future,

HALIFAX.

ROCHESTER.

of

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of shame or of poverty, by which fome wretches have been incited to abandon or to murder their children, cannot be supposed to have affected a woman who had proclaimed her crimes and folicited reproach, and on whom the clemency of the legislature had undeservedly bestowed a fortune, which would have been very little diminished by the expences which the care of her child could have brought upon her. It was therefore not likely that he would be wicked without temptation; that he would look upon her fon from his birth with a kind of refentment and abhorrence; and, inftead of fupporting, affifting, and defending him, delight to fee him ftruggling with misery, or that she would take every opportunity of aggravating his miffortunes, and obftructing his refources, and with an implacable and reftlefs cruelty continue her perfecution from the first hour of his life to the last.

But whatever were her motives, no fooner was her fon born, than fhe discovered a resolution of disowning him; and in a very fhort time removed him from her fight, by committing him to the care of a poor woman, whom the directed to educate him as her own, and injoined never to inform him of his true parents.

Such was the beginning of the life of Richard Savage. Born with a legal claim to honour and to affluence, he was in two months illegitimated by the parliament, and difowned by his mother, doomed to poverty and obfcurity, and launched upon the ocean of life, only that he might be swallowed by its quickfands, or dashed upon its rocks.

His mother could not indeed infect others with the fame cruelty. As it was impoffible to avoid the inquiries which the curiofity or tenderness of her rela

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tions made after her child, fhe was obliged to give fome account of the measures she had taken; and her mother, the Lady Mafon, whether in approbation of her defign, or to prevent more criminal contrivances, engaged to tranfact with the nurse, to pay her for her care, and to fuperintend the education of the child.

In this charitable office fhe was affifted by his godmother Mrs. Lloyd, who, while fhe lived, always looked upon him with that tenderness which the barbarity of his mother made peculiarly neceffary; but her death, which happened in his tenth year, was another of the misfortunes of his childhood; for though she kindly endeavoured to alleviate his lofs by a legacy of three hundred pounds; yet, as he had none to profecute his claim, to fhelter him from oppreffion, or call-in law to the affiftance of juftice, her will was eluded by the executors, and no part of the money was ever paid,

He was, however, not yet wholly abandoned. The Lady Mason still continued her care, and directed him to be placed at a small grammar-school near St, Alban's, where he was called by the name of his nurfe, without the least intimation that he had a claim to any other.

Here he was initiated in literature, and passed through feveral of the claffes, with what rapidity or what applause cannot now be known, As he always fpoke with refpect of his master, it is probable that the mean rank, in which he then appeared, did not hinder his genius from being distinguished, or his induftry from being rewarded; and if in fo low a state. he obtained diftinction and rewards, it is not likely that they were gained but by genius and industry.

It is very reasonable to conjecture, that his application was equal to his abilities, because his improvement was more than proportioned to the opportun itie which he enjoyed; nor can it be doubted, that if his earliest productions had been preferved, like those of happier students, we might in fome have found vigorous fallies of that fprightly humour which diftinguishes The Author to be let, and in others ftrong touches of that ardent imagination which painted the folemn fcenes of The Wanderer.

While he was thus cultivating his genius, his father the Earl of Rivers was feized with a diftemper, which in a fhort time put an end to his life. He had frequently inquired after his fon, and had always been amufed with fallacious and evafive answers; but, being now in his own opinion on his death-bed, he thought it his duty to provide for him among his other natural children, and therefore demanded a positive account of him, with an importunity not to be diverted or denied. His mother, who could no longer refuse an answer, determined at least to give fuch as should cut him off for ever from that happiness which competence affords, and therefore declared that he was dead; which is perhaps the first inftance of a lye invented by a mother to deprive her fon of a provifion which was defigned him by another, and which the could not expect herself, though he should lofe it.

This was therefore an act of wickednefs which could not be defeated, because it could not be fufpected; the Earl did not imagine there could exift in a human form a mother that would ruin her fon without enriching herself, and therefore bestowed upon fome other perfon fix thousand pounds, which he had in his will bequeathed to Savage.

The