company with him, defired him to exchange coats with him, and to let him have his blue ribbon, and undertook to muffle himself up in fuch a manner that he fhould be mistaken for the Duke, The Duke immediately caught him in his arms, faying, that he could not accept of fuch an offer from a nephew whofe life he valued as highly as his own,

The following Letter from the Duke of Buckingham to James the First, I believe, is not in print. In most of his letters he appears an abject flatterer of the King, and fhews a childish affection expreffed in very low language; in this, however, he writes in a manly style. He would have recommended a fervant of his to fome place, but the King had previously disposed of it.

"God forbid that for eyther me or anie of mine your promis fhould be forced; my man ❝is not in miferie; his master by your favour is ❝ in estate not to let him want; he is younge,

yett patient, and your meanes manie to benefitt "him fome other way, an his honeftie can de"ferve it; I will anfwere he will. So both I " and he are humble futers that you please your "felfe, in which doeing you content all. So "cravinge your bleffings, I ende your humble flave and doge,

“STEENIE,"

LORD BACON.

THIS great man has been accused of deserting his friend and patron the Earl of Effex in his diftrefs. Fuller thus attempts to exculpate him:

"Lord Bacon," fays he, " was more true to "the Earl than the Earl was to himfelf; for "finding him prefer destruction before displeasing "counfel, he fairly forfook (not his person, whom "his pity attended to the grave, but) his prac❝tices, and herein was not the worse friend for "being the better fubject."

Lord Bacon's Effays, which, as he fays, will be more read than his other works, "coming "home to men's business and bofoms," have been the text-book of myriads of Effay-Writers, and comprehend fuch a condensation of wisdom and learning, that they have very fairly been wire-drawn by his fucceffors. Dr. Rowley, his Chaplain, gives the following account of his method of study, and of fome of his domestic habits.

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"He was," fays he, no plodder upon "works; for though he read much, and that "with great judgment and rejection of imperti"nences incident to many authors, yet he would ❝ufe fome relaxation of mind with his ftudies

❝ as

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as gently walking, coaching, flow riding, playing at bowls, and other fuch like exercises. "Yet he would lofe no time; for upon his first "return he would immediately fall to reading

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or thinking again; and fo fuffered no moment "to be loft and paft by him unprofitably. You might call his table a refection of the ear as "well as of the stomach, like the Noctes Attica, or "entertainments of the Deipnofophists, wherein a man might be refreshed in his mind and "understanding no lefs than in his body. I have known fome men of mean parts that have profeffed to make use of their note-books "when they have rifen from his table. "never took a pride (as is the humour of fome) in putting any of his guests, or those that dif"courfed with him, to the blufh, but was ever "ready to countenance their abilities, whatever "they were. Neither was he one that would "appropriate the discourse to himself alone, but

He

left a liberty to the rest to speak in their turns, "and he took a pleasure to hear a man speak in his own faculty, and would draw him on " and allure him to difcourfe upon different fubjects and for himself, he despised no man's “obfervations, but would light his torch at any "man's candle."

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i

Mr. Ofborn, who knew Lord Bacon perfonally, in his "Advice to his Son," thus de

fcribes

1

fcribes him :-" Lord Bacon, Viscount St. Al"ban's, in all companies did appear a good pro❝ficient (if not a master) in those arts entertained "for the subject of every one's discourse; so as "I dare maintain, without the least affectation "of flattery or hyperbole, that his most casual "task deserveth to be written, as I have been "told that his firft or fouleft copies required no

great labour to render them competent for "the niceft judgments; a high perfection, at❝tainable only by use, and treating with every "man in his respective profeffion, and what he "was most verfed in. So as I have heard him "entertain a Country Lord in the proper terms "relating to hawks and dogs, and at another ❝ time outcant a London Chirurgeon. Thus he "did not only learn himself, but gratify fuch as

taught him, who looked upon their callings "as honourable through his notice. Nor did "an eafie falling into arguments (not unjustly ❝ taken for a blemish in the moft) appear lefs ❝ than an ornament in him ; the ears of the "hearers receiving more gratification than trou❝ble, and (fo) no lefs forry when he came to “conclude, than difpleased with any that did "interrupt him. Now this general know"ledge he had in all things, husbanded by his "wit, and dignified by fo majestical a carriage

he was known to owe, ftrook fuch an awful reverence in thofe he queftioned, that they

" durft

"durft not conceal the most intrinfick part of "their mysteries from him, for fear of appearing

..

ignorant or faucy; all which rendered him no "lefs neceffary than admirable at the Council"table, where, in reference to Impofitions, Mo

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nopolies, &c. the meanest manufactures were "an usual argument; and (as I have heard) did "in this baffle the Earl of Middlesex, that was "born and bred a citizen, &c. yet without any great (if at all) interrupting his other ftudies, is not hard to be imagined of a quick ap“prehenfion, in which he was admirable.”

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Lord Bacon is buried in a fmall obfcure churchin St. Alban's, where the gratitude of one of his fervants, Mr. Meatys, has raised a monument to him; a gratitude, which fhould be imitated on a larger fcale, and in a more illuftrious place of fepulture, by a great and opulent Nation, who may well boaft of the honour of having had fuch an ornament to human nature born among them. In this age of liberality, diftinguished as well by poffeffing lovers of the arts as great artists them. felves, foreigners fhould no longer look in vain for the just tribute of our veneration to the me mory of this great man, and that of Mr. Boyle and Mr. Locke, in our magnificent repofitories of the dead; and now indeed by the opening of St. Paul's to monuments to Dr. Johnfon and Mr. Howard, and by the wife and liberal regula