quality's houfe, he would never fit down, till he was thrice bid, and then upon the corner of the most distant chair. His whole demeanor was formal and ftarched ; which adhered fo close, that he could never shake it off in his higheft promotion.

His Lord was now in high employment at court, and attended by him with the most abject affiduity; and his fifter being gone off with child to a private lodging, my Lord continued his graces to Corufodes, got him to be a chaplain in ordinary, and in due time a parish in town, and a dignity in the church.

He paid his curates punctually, at the loweft falary, and partly out of the communion-money; but gave them good advice in abundance. He married a citizen's widow, who taught him to put out fmall fums at ten per cent, and brought him acquainted with jobbers in 'Change alley. By her dexterity he fold the clerkship of his parifh, when it became vacant.

He kept a miferable house: but the blame was laid wholly upon Madam; for the good Doctor was always at his books, or vifiting the fick, or doing other offices of charity and piety in his parish.

He treated all his inferiors of the clergy with a moft fanctified pride; was rigorously and univerfally cenforious upon all his brethren of the gown. on their firft appearance in the world, or while they continued meanly preferred; but gave large allowance to the laity of high rank or great riches, ufing neither eyes nor ears for their faults. He was never fenfible of the leaft corruption in courts, parliaments, or miniftries, but made the most favourable conftructions of all public proceedings; and power, in whatever hands, or whatever party, was always fecure of his most charitable opinion. He had many wholefome maxims, ready to excufe all mifcarriages of ftate: Men are but men; Erunt vitia donec homines; and, quod fupra nos, nil ad nos; with feveral others of equal weight.

Ir would lengthen my paper beyond measure, to trace out the whole fyftem of his conduct; his dreadful appre. henfions of Popery; his great moderation towards Diffenters of all denominations; with hearty wishes, that, by yielding fomewhat on both fides, there might be a

general

general union among Proteftants; his fhort, inoffenfive fermons, in his turns at court, and the matter exactly fuited to the prefent juncture of prevailing opinions; the arts he used to obtain a mitre, by writing against Epifcopacy; and the proofs he gave of his loyalty, by palliating or defending the murder of a martyred prince.

ENDUED with all these accomplishments, we leave him in the full career of fuccefs, mounting faft towards the top of the ladder ecclefiaftical, which he hath a fair probability to reach; without the merit of one fingle virtue; moderately stocked with the least valuable parts of erudition; utterly devoid of all tafte, judgment, or genius; and, in his grandeur, naturally chufing to hawl up others after him, whofe accomplishments most resemble his own; except his beloved fons, nephews, or other kindred, be in competition; or, laftly, except his inclinations be diverted by thofe who have power to mortify or farther advance him.

EUGENIO fet out from the fame univerfity, and about the fame time with Corufodes. He had the reputation of an arch lad at fchool, and was unfortunately possesfed with a talent for poetry; on which account he recei ved many chiding letters from his father, and grave advice from his tutor. He did not neglect his collegelearning; but his chief ftudy was the authors of antiquity, with a perfect knowledge in the Greek and Roman tongues. He could never procure himfelf to be chosen fellow for it was objected against him, that he had written verfes, and particularly fome, wherein he glanced at a certain Reverend Doctor, famous for dulnefs; that he had been seen bowing to ladies, as he met them in the streets; and it was proved, that once he had been found dancing, in a private family, with half a dozen of both fexes.

He was the younger fon to a gentleman of a good birth, but small eftate; and his father dying, he was driven to London to feek his fortune. He got into orders, and became reader in a parish church at twenty pounds a year, was carried by an Oxford friend to Will's coffee-houfe, frequented in those days by men of wit, where in fome time he had the bad luck to be diftinguished. His fcanty falary compelled him to run

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deep

deep in debt for a new gown and caffock, and now and then forced him to write fome paper of wit or humour, or preach a fermon for ten fhillings, to fupply his neceffities. He was a thousand times recommended by his poetical friends to great perfons, as a young man of excellent parts, who deferved encouragement, and received a thousand promises: but his modefty, and a generous fpirit, which difdained the flavery of continual application and attendance, always difappointed him; making room for vigilant dunces, who were fure to be never out of fight.

He had an excellent faculty in preaching, if he were not fometimes a little too refined, and apt to trust too much to his own way of thinking and reasoning.

WHEN, upon the vacancy of preferment, he was hardly drawn to attend upon fome promifing lord, he received the ufual anfwer, that he came too late, for it had been given to another the very day before. And he had only this comfort left, that every body faid, it was a thousand pities fomething could not be done for poor Mr Eugenio.

THE remainder of this ftory will be dispatched in a few words. Wearied with weak hopes, and weaker purfuits, he accepted a curacy in Derbyshire, of 30 pounds a-year; and when he was five and forty, had the great felicity to be preferred by a friend of his father's to a vicarage worth annually fixty pounds, in the most defert parts of Lincolnshire; where his fpirit quite funk with thofe reflections that folitude and disappointments bring, he married a farmer's widow, and is ftill alive, utterly undiftinguished and forgotten; only fome of the neighbours have accidentally heard, that he had been a notable man in his youth.

An

An ESSAY on MODERN EDUCATION*.

FR

ROM frequently reflecting upon the course and method of educating youth in this and a neighbouring kingdom, with the general fuccefs and confequence thereof, I am come to this determination, that education is always the worse in proportion to the wealth and grandeur of the parents : nor do I doubt in the least, that if the whole world were now under the dominion of one monarch (provided I might be allowed to chufe where he should fix the feat of his empire), the only fon and heir of that monarch would be the worft educated mortal that ever was born fince the creation; and I doubt the fame proportion will hold thro' all degrees and titles, from an Emperor downwards to the common gentry.

I do not say that this has been always the cafe for in better times it was directly otherwife; and a fcholar may fill half his Greek and Roman fhelves with authors of the nobleft birth, as well as highest virtue. Nor do I tax all nations at prefent with this defect; for I know there are fome to be excepted, and particularly Scotland, under all the difadvantages of its climate and foil, if that happiness be not rather owing even to thofe very difadvantages. What is then to be done, if this reflection must fix on two countries, which will be most ready to take offence, and which of all others it will be leaft prudent or fafe to offend?

Bur there is one circumftance yet more dangerous and lamentable for if, according to the peftulatum already laid down, the higher quality any youth is of, he is in greater likelihood to be worfe educated; it behoves me to dread, and keep far from the verge of fcandalum

magnatum.

RETRACTING therefore that hazardous poftulatum, I fhall venture no further at prefent than to fay, that perhaps fome additional care in educating the fons of nobility and principal gentry might not be ill employed. If R 3

this

This Effay was alfo printed in the Intelligencer, No. 9.

See vol. iii. p. 344.

this be not delivered with foftnefs enough, I must for the future be filent.

In the mean time, let me afk only two questions which relate to England. I ask firft, How it comes about, that, for above fixty years paft, the chief conduct of affairs hath been generally placed in the hands of new men, with very few exceptions? The nobleft blood of England having been fhed in the grand rebellion, many great families became extinct, or were fupported only by minors. When the King was reftored, very few of thofe Lords remained, who began, or at least had improved, their education under the reigns of King James, or King Charles I.; of which Lords the two principal were the Marquis of Ormond, and the Earl of Southampton. The minors had, during the rebellion and ufurpation, either received too much tincture of bad principles from thofe fanatic times, or coming to age at the restoration, fell into the vices of that diffolute reign.

I date from this æra the corrupt method of education among us, and the confequences thereof, the neceffity the crown lay under of introducing new men into the chief conduct of public affairs, or to the office of what we now call prime minifters; men of art, knowledge, application, and infinuation; merely for want of a fupply among the nobility. They were generally (tho not always) of good birth, fometimes younger brothers, at other times fuch, who altho' inheriting good eftates, yet happened to be well educated, and provided with learning Such under that King were, Hyde, Bridgeman, Clifford, Ofborn, Godolphin, Ashley-Cooper. Few or none under the short reign of King James II. Under King William, Sommers, Montague, Churchill, Vernon, Boyle, and many others. Under the Queen, Harley, St John, Harcourt, Trevor; who indeed were perfons of the beft private families, but unadorned with titles. So in the following reign, Mr Robert Walpole was for many years prime minifter, in which poft he ftill happily continues: his brother Horace is Ambaffador-extraordinary to France, Mr Addifon and Mr Craggs, without the leaft alliance to fupport them, have been focretaries of state.

IF