Page:The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, Volume 2.djvu/310

304 The love of learning and poetry made him not the less fit for business, and nobody applied himself closer to it; when it required his attendance. The late duke of Queensberry, when he was secretary of state, made him his secretary for publick affairs; and when that truly great man came to know him well, he was never so pleased as when Mr. Rowe was in his company. After the duke's death, all avenues were stopped to his preferment; and, during the rest of that reign, he passed his time with the Muses and his books, and sometimes the conversation of his friends.

When he had just got to be easy in fortune, and was in a fair way to make it better, death swept him away, and in him deprived the world of one of the best men, as well as one of the best geniuses, of the age. He died like a Christian and a philosopher, in charity with all man kind, and with an absolute resignation to the will of God. He kept up his good humour to the last; and took leave of his wife and friends, immediately before his last agony, with the same tranquillity Rh