Page:Life of Edmond Malone.djvu/253

Rh wonted fortitude; and in this trying moment displays all the pious resignation of the Christian.

Beaconsfield, Sunday, 9th July, 1797.

Lord Charlemont, in a long letter, in August, thus notices him among other friends in a mortuary list sent by Malone. The allusion to his early circumstances must of course be taken, as no doubt is meant, with many grains of allowance; and his lordship’s politics speak for themselves. He occasionally flings a jocular sarcasm at the Tory propensities of his correspondent; and at the conclusion of this letter good-humouredly takes him to task on the subject at length. He complains also of the state of Ireland, of his poverty, of the poverty of those around him who have not the means to keep up their usual mode of living. Hence he begs that Malone will suspend his literary purchases for him for the present—“To which abstinence from the favourite food of my mind, you may be assured my poverty and not my will consents.”

Your list of deaths is indeed a sad one—Poor Burke! one of my oldest and best acquaintances and friends! I knew him intimately long before he was a politician, and when without a crown in his pocket he was a happy man. I knew him intimately at his first introduction to the political world, when also he was as happy as the adoration of his friends and a perfect rectitude of conduct could make him. I have also known him intimately when he was not quite so happy. His heart was excellent. His abilities were supernatural; and a deficiency in prudence and political wisdom (!) could alone have kept him within the rank of mortals.

Lord Orford, to whose kindness and friendship I have been early and long obliged, was undoubtedly the most