[453]Letter 23, "to his sons at Rome," XVIII. 133.
[454]Scott's "Life of Dryden," I. 449.
[455]"Essay on Satire," XIII. 80.
[456]Preface to the Fables, VI. 238.
[457]Ibid.
[458]Ibid. XI. 209.
[459]Charles II.
[460]The Duke of Monmouth.
[461]The Earl of Shaftesbury:
"Of these the false Achitophel was first,
A name to all succeeding ages curst:
For close designs and crooked counsels fit,
Sagacious, bold and turbulent of wit—
Restless, unfixed in principles and place,
In power unpleased, impatient of disgrace;
A fiery soul, which working out its way,
Fretted the pigmy body to decay
And o'er-informed the tenement of clay.
A daring pilot in extremity,
Pleased with the danger, when the waves went high,
He sought the storm; but, for a calm unfit,
Would steer too nigh the sands to boast his wit.
Great wits are sure to madness near allied
And thin partitions do their bounds divide;
Else, why should he, with wealth and honour blest,
Refuse his age the needful hours of rest?
Punish a body which he could not please,
Bankrupt of life, yet prodigal of ease?
And all to leave what with his toil he won,
To that unfeathered two-legged thing, a son,
Got, while his soul did huddled notions try,
And born a shapeless lump, like anarchy,
In friendship false, implacable in hate,
Resolved to ruin or to rule the state."
[462]The Duke of Buckingham.