Part 19 (1/2)
Some of their Chiefs were Princes of the Land: In the first Rank of these did _Zimri_ stand: A man so various, that he seem'd to be Not one, but all Mankind's Epitome.
Stiff in Opinions, always in the wrong; Was Every thing by starts, and Nothing long: But, in the course of one revolving Moon, Was Chymist, Fidler, States-Man, and Buffoon: Then all for Women, Painting, Rhiming, Drinking; Besides ten thousand Freaks that dy'd in thinking.
Blest Madman, who coud every hour employ, With something New to wish, or to enjoy!
Railing and praising were his usual Theams; And both (to shew his Judgment) in Extreams: So over Violent, or over Civil, That every Man, with him, was G.o.d or Devil.
In squandring Wealth was his peculiar Art: Nothing went unrewarded, but Desert.
Begger'd by Fools, whom still he found too late: He had his Jest, and they had his Estate.
He laugh'd himself from Court; then sought Relief By forming Parties, but could ne'r be Chief: For, spight of him, the weight of Business fell On _Absalom_ and wise _Achitophel_: Thus, wicked but in Will, of Means bereft, He left not Faction, but of that was left.
72.
THE MARQUIS OF HALIFAX.
_George Savile, created Baron Savile and Viscount Halifax 1668, Earl of Halifax 1679, Marquis of Halifax 1682._
_Born 1633. Died 1695._
By BURNET.
I name Sir _George Saville_ last, because he deserves a more copious character. He rose afterwards to be Viscount, Earl, and Marquis of _Halifax_. He was a man of a great and ready wit; full of life, and very pleasant; much turned to satyr. He let his wit run much on matters of religion: So that he pa.s.sed for a bold and determined Atheist; tho' he often protested to me, he was not one; and said, he believed there was not one in the world: He confessed, he could not swallow down every thing that divines imposed on the world: He was a Christian in submission: He believed as much as he could, and he hoped that G.o.d would not lay it to his charge, if he could not disgest iron, as an ostrich did, nor take into his belief things that must burst him: If he had any scruples, they 20 were not sought for, nor cherished by him; for he never read an atheistical book. In a fit of sickness, I knew him very much touched with a sense of religion. I was then often with him. He seemed full of good purposes: But they went off with his sickness. He was always talking of morality and friends.h.i.+p. He was punctual in all payments, and just in all his private dealings. But, with relation to the publick, he went backwards and forwards, and changed sides so often, that in conclusion no side trusted him. He seemed full of Common-wealth notions: Yet he went into the worst part of King _Charles's_ reign. The liveliness of his imagination was always too hard for his judgment. A severe jest was preferred by him to all arguments whatsoever. And he was endless in consultations: For when after much discourse a point was settled, if he could find a new jest, to make even that which was suggested by himself seem ridiculous, he could not hold, but would study to raise the credit of his wit, tho' it made others call his judgment in question. When he talked to me as a philosopher of his contempt of the world, I asked him, what he meant by getting so many new t.i.tles, which I call'd the hanging himself about with bells and tinsel. He had no other excuse for it, but this, that, since the world were such fools as to value those matters, a man must be a fool for company: He considered them but as rattles: Yet rattles please children: So these might be of use to his family. His heart was much set on raising his family. But, tho' he made a vast estate for them, he buried two of his sons himself, and almost all his grandchildren. The son that survived was an honest man, but far inferior to him.
73.
SIR EDMUND SAUNDERS.
_Lord Chief Justice 1682. Died 1683._
By ROGER NORTH.
The Lord Chief Justice _Saunders_ succeeded in the Room of _Pemberton_. His Character, and his Beginning, were equally strange.
He was at first no better than a poor Beggar Boy, if not a Parish Foundling, without known Parents, or Relations. He had found a way to live by Obsequiousness (in _Clement's-Inn_, as I remember) and courting the Attornies Clerks for Sc.r.a.ps. The extraordinary Observance and Diligence of the Boy, made the Society willing to do him Good. He appeared very ambitious to learn to write; and one of the Attornies got a Board knocked up at a Window on the Top of a Staircase; and that was his Desk, where he sat and wrote after Copies of Court and other Hands the Clerks gave him. He made himself so expert a Writer that he took in Business, and earned some Pence by Hackney-writing. And thus, by degrees, he pushed his Faculties, and fell to Forms, and, by Books that were lent him, became an exquisite entering Clerk; and, by the same course of Improvement of himself, an able Counsel, first in special Pleading, then, at large. And, after he was called to the Bar, had Practice, in the _King's Bench_ Court, equal with any there. As to his Person, he was very corpulent and beastly; a mere Lump of morbid Flesh. He used to say, _by his Troggs_, (such an humourous Way of talking he affected) _none could say be wanted Issue of his Body, for he had nine in his Back_. He was a fetid Ma.s.s, that offended his Neighbours at the Bar in the sharpest Degree. Those, whose ill Fortune it was to stard near him, were Confessors, and, in Summer-time, almost Martyrs. This hateful Decay of his Carcase came upon him by continual Sottishness; for, to say nothing of Brandy, he was seldom without a Pot of Ale at his Nose, or near him. That Exercise was all he used; the rest of his Life was sitting at his Desk, or piping at home; and that _Home_ was a Taylor's House in _Butcher-Row_, called his Lodging, and the Man's Wife was his Nurse, or worse; but, by virtue of his Money, of which he made little Account, though he got a great deal, he soon became Master of the Family; and, being no Changling, he never removed, but was true to his Friends, and they to him, to the last Hour of his Life.
So much for his Person and Education. As for his Parts, none had them more lively than he. Wit and Repartee, in an affected Rusticity, were natural to him. He was ever ready, and never at a Loss; and none came so near as he to be a Match for Serjeant _Mainard_. His great Dexterity was in the Art of special Pleading, and he would lay Snares that often caught his Superiors who were not aware of his Traps. And he was so fond of Success for his Clients that, rather than fail, he would set the Court hard with a Trick; for which he met sometimes with a Reprimand, which he would wittily ward off, so that no one was much offended with him. But _Hales_ could not bear his Irregularity of Life; and for that, and Suspicion of his Tricks, used to bear hard upon him in the Court. But no ill Usage from the Bench was too hard for his Hold of Business, being such as scarce any could do but himself. With all this, he had a Goodness of Nature and Disposition in so great a Degree that he may be deservedly styled a _Philanthrope_.
He was a very _Silenus_ to the Boys, as, in this Place, I may term the Students of the Law, to make them merry whenever they had a Mind to it. He had nothing of rigid or austere in him. If any, near him at the Bar, grumbled at his Stench, he ever converted the Complaint into Content and Laughing with the Abundance of his Wit. As to his ordinary Dealing, he was as honest as the driven Snow was white; and why not, having no Regard for Money, or Desire to be rich? And, for good Nature and Condescension, there was not his Fellow. I have seen him, for Hours and half Hours together, before the Court sat, stand at the Bar, with an Audience of Students over against him, putting of Cases, and debating so as suited their Capacities, and encouraged their Industry.
And so in the _Temple_, he seldom moved without a Parcel of Youths hanging about him, and he merry and jesting with them.
It will be readily conceived that this Man was never cut out to be a Presbyter, or any Thing that is severe and crabbed. In no Time did he lean to Faction, but did his Business without Offence to any. He put off officious Talk of Government or Politicks, with Jests, and so made his Wit a Catholicon, or s.h.i.+eld, to cover all his weak Places and Infirmities. When the Court fell into a steddy Course of using the Law against all Kinds of Offenders, this Man was taken into the King's Business; and had the Part of drawing, and Perusal of almost all Indictments and Informations that were then to be prosecuted, with the Pleadings thereon if any were special; and he had the settling of the large Pleadings in the _Quo Warranto_ against _London_. His Lords.h.i.+p had no sort of Conversation with him, but in the Way of Business, and at the Bar; but once, after he was in the King's Business, he dined with his Lords.h.i.+p, and no more. And then he shewed another Qualification he had acquired, and that was to play Jigs upon an Harpsichord; having taught himself with the Opportunity of an old Virginal of his Landlady's; but in such a Manner, not for Defect but Figure, as to see him were a Jest. The King, observing him to be of a free Disposition, Loyal, Friendly, and without Greediness or Guile, thought of him to be the Chief Justice of the _King's Bench_ at that nice Time. And the Ministry could not but approve of it. So great a Weight was then at stake, as could not be trusted to Men of doubtful Principles, or such as any Thing might tempt to desert them. While he sat in the Court of _King's Bench_, he gave the Rule to the general Satisfaction of the Lawyers. But his Course of Life was so different from what it had been, his Business incessant, and, withal, crabbed; and his Diet and Exercise changed, that the Const.i.tution of his Body, or Head rather, could not sustain it, and he fell into an Apoplexy and Palsy, which numbed his Parts; and he never recovered the Strength of them. He out-lived the Judgment on the _Quo Warranto_; but was not present otherwise than by sending his Opinion, by one of the Judges, to be for the King, who, at the p.r.o.nouncing of the Judgment, declared it to the Court accordingly, which is frequently done in like Cases.
74.
TWO GROUPS OF DIVINES.
BENJAMIN WHITCHCOT or WHICHCOTE (1609-83), Provost of King's College, Cambridge, 1645. RALPH CUDWORTH (1617-88), Master of Clare College, Cambridge, 1645, and Christ's College, 1654. JOHN WILKINS (1614-72), Warden of Wadham College, Oxford, 1648; Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, 1659; Bishop of Chester, 1668. HENRY MORE (1614-87), Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge, 1639. JOHN WORTHINGTON (1618-71), Master of Jesus College, Cambridge, 1650.