Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 4.djvu/319

Rh 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 or morals; whereof, I have reason to believe, he began to be sensible. But he was fond of mixing pleasure and business, and of being esteemed excellent at both; upon which account, he had a great respect for the characters of Alcibiades and Petronius, especially the latter, whom he would be gladly thought to resemble. His detractors charged him with some degree of affectation, and, perhaps, not altogether without grounds; since it was hardly possible for a young man, with half the business of the nation upon him, and the applause of the whole, to escape some tincture of that infirmity. He had been early bred to business, was a most artful negotiator, and perfectly understood foreign affairs. But what I have often wondered at, in a man of his temper, was, his prodigious application whenever he thought it necessary; for he would plod whole days and nights, like the lowest clerk in an office. His talent of speaking in publick, for which he was so very much celebrated, I know nothing of, except from the informations of others; but understanding men of both parties have assured me, that, in this point, in their memory and judgment, he was never equalled.

The earl of Oxford, is a person of as much virtue, as can possibly consist with the love of power: and his love of power, is no greater, than what is common to men of his superiour capacities; neither did Rh