Page:Life of William Shelburne (vol 1).djvu/41

Rh ninety-nine out of a hundred never bestowing a thought upon the subject tells a volume in regard to mankind, and opens a very extraordinary view of the world, accounting for a great deal of otherways unaccountable matter. I had no enlightened person to give me a lift. I was left to grope my own way, and consequently lost a great deal of two years till at last I made up my own mind, and have never since had an anxious thought upon the subject. I was afterwards much struck with Machiavel's Discourses on Livy, Demosthenes, and by the law of nature more than the law of nations. I attended Blackstone's lectures with great care, and profited considerably by them. I got little or no knowledge of the world, however. I came full of prejudices. My tutor added to those prejudices by connecting me with the anti-Westminsters, who were far from the most fashionable part of the college, and a small minority.

"Dr. Gregory succeeded Dr. Conybeare, and was very kind to me, conversed familiarly and frequently with me, had kept good company, was a gentleman, though not a scholar, and gave me notions of people and things which were afterwards useful to me. I likewise fell into habits with Dr. King, President of St. Mary Hall, a Tory and Jacobite, but a gentleman and an orator. He had a great deal of historical knowledge and of anecdote, having been intimately connected with the heads of the Tory party from the reign of Queen Anne.

"I was likewise much connected during all the time I was at college with, afterwards Earl of Cork. As to the rest, the college was very low: a proof of it is, that no one who was there in my time has made much figure either as a publick man or man of