SAVAGE.

T has been obferved in all ages, that the ad

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vantages of nature or of fortune have contributed very little to the promotion of happinefs; and that thofe whom the fplendor of their rank, or the extent of their capacity, have placed upon the fummits of human life, have not often given any juft occafion to envy in those who look up to them from a lower fta. tion. Whether it be that apparent fuperiority incites great defigns, and great defigns are naturally liable to fatal miscarriages; or that the general lot of mankind is mifery, and the miffortunes of those whofe eminence drew upon them an universal attention, have been more carefully recorded, because they were more generally obferved, and have in reality been only more confpicuous than thofe of others, not more frequent, or more severe.

That affluence and power, advantages extrinfic and adventitious, and therefore easily fepab

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rable from thofe by whom they are poffeffed, fhould very often flatter the mind with expectations of felicity which they cannot give, raises no astonishment; but it seems rational to hope, that intellectual greatnefs fhould produce better effects; that minds qualified for great attainments fhould firft endeavour their own benefit; and that they who are most able to teach others the way to happiness, fhould with moft certainty follow it themselves.

But this expectation, however plaufible, has been very frequently difappointed. The heroes of literary as well as civil history have been very often no less 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 these mournful narratives, I am about to add the Life of Richard Savage, a man whofe writings intitle 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 Maccleffield, having lived for some 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

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