Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/226

216 Italy. In the courſe of his travels he, no doubt, made ſuch obſervations upon the government and genius of the people whom he viſited, as enabled him to make a juſt compariſon between foreign ſtates and his own country. In all probability, while he was in France and Italy, he conceived an abhorrence of deſpotic government, the effects of which he then had an opportunity more intimately to diſcern; for he returned home ſtill more confirmed in Whig principles, by which his political conduct was ever governed.

Our author in his early years became acquainted with ſome of the brighteſt geniuſes which then illuminated the regions of wit, ſuch as Dryden, Wycherly, Congreve, and Southern. Their converſation was in itſelf ſufficient to divert his mind from the acquiſition of any profitable art, or the exerciſe of any profeſſion. He ranked himſelf amongſt the wits, and from that moment held every attainment in contempt, except what related to poetry, and taſte.

Mr. Dennis, by the inſtances of zeal which he gave for the Proteſtant ſucceſſion in the reign of King William, and Queen Anne, obtained the patronage of the duke of Marlborough, who procured him the place of one of the Queen’s waiters in the Cuſtom-houſe, worth 120 l. per annum, which Mr. Dennis held for ſix years. During the time he attended at the Cuſtom-houſe, he lived ſo profuſely, and managed his affairs with ſo little oeconomy, that in order to diſcharge ſome preſſing demands, he was obliged to diſpoſe of his place. When the earl of Hallifax, with whom he had the honour of being acquainted, heard of Mr. Dennis’s deſign, he ſent for him, and in the moſt friendly manner, expoſtulated with him upon the folly, and raſhneſs of diſpoſing of his place, by which (ſays his lordſhip) you will ſoon become a beggar. Mr. Dennis repreſented his