Page:Diary of the times of Charles II Vol. I.djvu/104

xcii with the Parliament, and utterly at a loss to know what to do. In this time of difficultly Charles treated him with perfect confidence; and then it was that, to relieve him from his troubles, he proposed to him that new and strange scheme of government which was the last great act of his political life— the plan of a great council of thirty of the most eminent men of all opinions and all parties. The plan, as might have been expected, proved a complete failure; jealousies and quarrels ensued; Temple himself gradually withdrew from their meetings; and at length, with Lord Essex and others, he was struck out of the list of Privy Councillors.

From this time, Temple, who had sate as member for the University of Cambridge, retired altogether from public life, and passed the rest of his days between Sheen and Moor Park, bidding the world farewell in these words: "And so I take leave of all those airy visions which have so long busied my head about mending the world, and at the same time of all those shining toys and follies that employ the thoughts of busy men, and shall turn them wholly to mend myself; and, as far as consists with a private condition, still pursue that old and excellent counsel of Pythagoras—that