Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 1.djvu/209

Rh cause, who is embarked on our bottom. Depend upon it, that I will never neglect any opportunity of showing that true esteem, that sincere affection, and honest friendship for you, which fills the breast of your faithful servant,

" ."

But the light in which he considered lord Bolingbroke, will best appear from his own account of him, in a piece written in the year 1715, entitled, "An Inquiry into the Behaviour of the Queen's last Ministry, &c." "It happens to very few men, in any age or country, to come into the world with so many advantages of nature and fortune, as the late secretary Bolingbroke: descended from the best families in England, heir to a great patrimonial estate, of a sound constitution, and a most graceful, amiable person. But all these, had they been of equal value, were infinitely inferiour in degree to the accomplishments of his mind, which was adorned with the choicest gifts that God hath yet thought fit to bestow on the children of men: a strong memory, a clear judgment, a vast range of wit and fancy, a thorough comprehension, an invincible eloquence, with a most agreeable elocution. He had well cultivated all these talents by travel and study; the latter of which he seldom omitted, even in the midst of his pleasures, of which he had indeed been too great and criminal a pursuer. For, although he was persuaded to leave off intemperance in wine, which he did for some time to such a degree, that he seemed rather abstemious; yet he was said to allow himself other liberties, which can by no means be reconciled to " religion