"dictate to him;" and it is not likely, that in his earlier years he received admonitions with more calmnefs.

He was likewife inclined to refent fuch expectations, as tending to infringe his liberty, of which he was very jealous, when it was neceffary to the gratification of his paffions; and declared, that the request was still more unreasonable, as the company to which he was to have been confined was infupportably disagreeable. This affertion affords 'another inftance of that inconfiftency of his writings with his converfation, which was so often to be obferved. He forgot how lavishly he had, in his Dedication to The Wanderer, extolled the delicacy and penetration, the humanity and generofity, the candour and politeness of the man, whom, when he no longer loved him, he declared to be a wretch without understanding, without good-nature, and without juftice; of whofe name he thought himfelf obliged to leave no trace in any future edition of his writings; and accordingly blotted it out of that copy of The Wanderer which was in his hands.

During his continuance with the Lord Tyrconnel, he wrote The Triumph of Health and Mirth, on the recovery of Lady Tyrconnel from a languishing illness. This performance is remarkable, not only for the gaiety of the ideas, and the melody of the numbers, but for the agreeable fiction upon which it is formed. Mirth, overwhelmed with forrow for the fickness of her favourite, takes a flight in queft of her fifter Health, whom he finds reclined upon the brow of a lofty mountain, amidst the fragrance of perpetual spring, with the breezes of the morning fporting about her. Being folicited by her fifter Mirth, she readily promises her affiftance,

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affiftance, flies away in a cloud, and impregnates the waters of Bath with new virtues, by which the sickness of Belinda is relieved.

As the reputation of his abilities, the particular circumstances of his birth and life, the splendour of his appearance, and the distinction which was for fome time paid him by Lord Tyrconnel, intitled him to familiarity with perfons of higher rank than thofe to whose converfation he had been before admitted; he did not fail to gratify that curiofity, which induced him to take a nearer view of those whom their birth, their employments, or their fortunes, neceffarily place at a distance from the greatest part of mankind, and to examine whether their merit was magnified or diminished by the medium through which it was contemplated; whether the splendour with which they dazzled their admirers was inherent in themselves, or only reflected on them by the objects that furrounded them; and whether great men were felected for high stations, or high ftations made great men.

For this purpose he took all opportunities of converfing familiarly with those who were most confpicu-. ous at that time for their power or their influence; he watched their looser moments, and examined their domestick behaviour, with that acutenefs which nature had given him, and which the uncommon variety of his life had contributed to increase, and that inquifitiveness which muft always be produced in a vigorous mind, by an abfolute freedom from all preffing or domestick engagements. His difcernment was quick, and therefore he foon found in every perfon, and in every affair, fomething that deferved attention; he

was supported by others, without any care for himself, and was therefore at leisure to pursue his obfervations.

More circumstances to conftitute a critick on human life could not eafily concur; nor indeed could any man, who affumed from accidental advantages more praise than he could justly claim from his real merit, admit an acquaintance more dangerous than that of Savage; of whom likewise it must be confeffed, that abilities really exalted above the common level, or virtue refined from paffion, or proof against corruption, could not easily find an abler judge, or a warmer advocate.

What was the refult of Mr. Savage's enquiry, though he was not much accustomed to conceal his difcoveries, it may not be entirely fafe to relate, because the perfons whofe characters he criticised are powerful; and power and refentment are seldom ftrangers; nor would it perhaps be wholly juft, because what he afferted in converfation might, though true in general, be heightened by fome momentary ardour of imagination, and, as it can be delivered only from memory, may be imperfectly reprefented; fo that the picture at firft aggravated, and then unskilfully copied, may be justly fufpected to retain no great refemblance of the original.

It may however be obferved, that he did not appear to have formed very elevated ideas of thofe to whom the administration of affairs, or the conduct of parties, has been intrufted; who have been confidered as the advocates of the crown, or the guardians of the people; and who have obtained the most implicit confidence, and the loudeft applaufes. Of one particular perfon, who has been at one time fo popular as to be generally esteemed, and at another fo formidable as to

be

be univerfally detefted, he observed, that his acquifitions had been fmall, or that his capacity was narrow, and that the whole range of his mind was from obfcenity to politicks, and from politicks to obscenity.

But the opportunity of indulging his fpeculations on great characters was now at an end. He was banished from the table of Lord Tyrconnel, and turned again adrift upon the world, without prospect of finding quickly any other harbour. As prudence was not one of the virtues by which he was distinguished, he had made no provision against a misfortune like this. And though it is not to be imagined but that the separation must for fome time have been preceded by coldness, peevishness, or neglect, though it was undoubtedly the confequence of accumulated provocations on both fides; yet every one that knew Savage will readily believe, that to him it was fudden as a stroke of thunder; that, though he might have tranfiently fufpected it, he had never suffered any thought fo unpleafing to fink into his mind, but that he had driven it away by amusements, or dreams of future felicity and affluence, and had never taken any meafures by which he might prevent a precipitation from plenty to indigence.

This quarrel and feparation,, and the difficulties to which Mr. Savage was expofed by them, were foon known both to his friends and enemies; nor was it long before he perceived, from the behaviour of both, how much is added to the luftre of genius by the ornaments of wealth.

His condition did not appear to excite much compaffion; for he had not always been careful to use the advantages which he enjoyed with that moderation which

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ought

ought to have been with more than ufual caution preferved by him, who knew, if he had reflected, that he was only a dependant on the bounty of another, whom he could expect to fupport him no longer than he endeavoured to preferve his favour by complying with his inclinations, and whom he nevertheless fet at defiance, and was continually irritating by negligence or encroachments,

Examples need not be fought at any great distance to prove, that fuperiority of fortune has a natural tendency to kindle pride, and that pride feldom fails to exert itself in contempt and infult; and if this is often the effect of hereditary wealth, and of honours enjoyed only by the merit of others, it is fome extenuation of any indecent triumphs to which this unhappy man may have been betrayed, that his profperity was heightened by the force of novelty, and made more intoxicating by a sense of the mifery in which he had fo long languifhed, and perhaps of the infults which he had formerly borne, and which he might now think himself entitled to revenge. It is too common for those who have unjustly fuffered pain, to inflict it likewife in their turn with the fame injuftice, and to imagine that they have a right to treat others as they have themselves been treated.

That Mr. Savage was too much elevated by any good fortune, is generally known; and fome paffages of his Introduction to The Author to be let fufficiently fhew, that he did not wholly refrain from fuch fatire as he afterwards thought very unjuft, when he was expofed to it himself; for, when he was afterwards ridiculed in the character of a diftreffed poet, he very easily difcovered, that diftrefs was not a proper fubject for