Page:The Story of Nell Gwyn.djvu/96

80 amending those ways, and that she may not find Whitehall surrounded by water." Nothing but his character, as Sir Robert Walpole observed of Sir William Yonge, could keep down his parts, and nothing but his parts support his character.

His mistresses were as different in their humours as in their looks. He did not care to choose for himself, so that, as Halifax observes, it was resolved generally by others whom he should have in his arms as well as whom he should have in his councils. Latterly he lived under the traditional influence of his old engagements; and though he had skill enough to suspect, he had wit enough not to care. His passion for Miss Stuart, as I have already said, was a stronger feeling of attachment than he is thought to have entertained for any body else.

His understanding was quick and lively; but he had little reading, and that tending to his pleasures more than to instruction. He had read men rather than books. The Duke of Buckingham happily characterised the two brothers in a conversation with Burnet:—"The King," he said, "could see things if he would, and the Duke would see things if he could." Nor was the observation of Tom