Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/57

Rh the morning; believe that no man loves you better, or is more faithfully yours, &c. ‘BOLINGBROKE.’ There are ſeveral other letters from Bolingbroke to Prior, which, were it neceſſary, we might inſert as evidences of his eſteem for him; but Mr. Prior was in every reſpect ſo great a man, that the eſteem even of lord Bolingbroke cannot add much to the luſtre of his reputation, both as a ſtateſman, and a poet. Mr. Prior is repreſented by thoſe who knew, and have wrote concerning him, as a gentleman, who united the elegance and politeneſs of a court, with the ſcholar, and the man of genius. This repreſentation, in general, may be juſt, yet it holds almoſt invariably true, that they who have riſen from low life, ſtill retain ſome traces of their original. No cultivation, no genius, it ſeems, is able entirely to ſurmount this: There was one particular in which Mr. Prior verified the old proverb.

The ſame woman who could charm the waiter in a tavern, ſtill maintained her dominion over the embaſſador at France. The Chloe of Prior, it ſeems, was a woman in this ſtation of life; but he never forſook her in the heighth of his reputation. Hence we may obſerve, that aſſociations with women are the moſt laſting of all, and that when an eminent ſtaton raiſes a man above many other acts of condeſcenſion, a miſtreſs will maintain her influence, charm away the pride of greatneſs, and make the hero who rights, and the patriot who ſpeaks, for the liberty of his country, a ſlave to her. One would imagine however, that this woman, who was a Butcher’s wife, muſt either have been very handſome, or have had ſomething about her ſuperior to people of her rank: but it ſeems the caſe was otherwiſe, and no better reaſon