and Greeks, prefers you to Sophocles and Euripides. After two fuck favourable Suffrages, you Surprize me to tell me your Reputation's attack'd in France. It is plain 'Mr. Waller did more than his Share in Pompey; which is fufficient to make us regret the Lofs of thofe Verfions. He continu'd to the laft in the full Vigour of his Genius. The Verfes he wrote when he was almoft fourfcore, before the Earl of Rofcommon's Tranflation of Horace's Art of Poetry, have not the leaft Marks of Age.

His Verfes on the Duke of Monmouth's Expedition to Scotland, fhew he was no Wellwifher to the Party which oppreft that Prince after his Succefs there.

But feeing Envy, like the Sun, does beat,
With Scorching Rays, on all that's high and great;
This, ill-requited Monmouth, is the Bough
The Mufes fend, to fhade thy conqu'ring Brow.
Lampoons, like Squibs, may make a prefent Blaze,
But Time and Thunder pay Respect to Bays.

Mr. Waller muft be above Fourfcore when he wrote the Poem, Entituled, A Prefage of the Ruin of the Turkish Empire, prefented to his Majefty King James II. on his Birth-Day. That Prince was very gracious to him: His natural Vivacity bore up against his Years, and made his Company agreeable to the laft. His Majefty one time order'd my Lord Sunderland to bid him fee him in the Afternoon: When he

came,

do

came, the King carry'd him into his Closet, and there ask'd him how he lik'd fuch a Picture. Sir, fays Mr. Waller, my Eyes are dim, and I know not who it is. The King reply'd, 'Tis the Princess of Orange. And, fays Mr Waller, be is like the greatest Woman in the World. Wha you call fo? anfwer'd the King. Queen Elizabeth, said he. I wonder, Mr. Waller, reply'd the King, you should think fo; but I must confefs fhe had a wife Council. And Sir, faid Mr. Waller, did your Majefty ever know a Fool chufe a wife One? It being known fome time after, that Mr. Waller refolved to marry his Daughter and Favourite to Dr. Birch, the King was prevail'd with to endeavour to hinder it, as the Doctor inform'd me himself, and for that end order'd a French Gentleman of Quality to tell him, that the King wonder'd he could have any Thoughts of marrying his Daughter to a Falling Church. He made Answer, Sir, the King does me very great Honour to take any Notice of my Domeftick Affairs; but I have liv'd long enough to observe, that this Falling Church has got a Trick of rifing again. It is not to be doubted but that he was in the Secret of the Revolution; for he would often fay, the King would be left like a Whale upon the Strand. But he charg'd fome about him not to meddle, 'till they faw the Prince of Orange actually landed, and his Son and Heir, Edmond Waller, Efq; then went in to the Prince.

'Twas now that he began to turn his Mufe towards Heaven, for which Flight his Soul had been preparing.

He

He wrote the fix Canto's of Divine Love, after he was Fourfcore: Two Canto's of Divine Poefie, occafion'd upon Sight of the 53d Chapter of Ifaiah turn'd into Verfe by Mrs. Wharton, the prefent Earl of Wharton's first Lady. Mr. Waller living in great Intimacy and Friendship with that Family, his Neighbours at Winchendon, he wrote on the Paraphrafe on the Lord's Prayer, written also by Mrs. Wharton, a Lady whofe Wit and Virtue render'd her the Admiration of both Sexes; and 'twas this excellent Paraphrase that induc'd him to write fome Reflections on the feveral Petitions in the fame Prayer. He intended to crown all his Labours with the Poem Of the laft Verfes in the Book, which can never be too much admir'd.

There is a very good Copy of Verses in Praise of it, in Mr. Dryden's Third Mifcellany; the four laft Lines of which are,

Still here remain, ftill on the Threshold ftand,
Still at this Distance view the promis'd Land:
Tho' thou may'ft feem, fo heav'nly is thy Senfe,
Not going thither, but new come from thence.

The next Poem to this, in the fame Mifcellany, By Mr. Talbot, on Mr. Waller's Divine Love, fpeaks alfo the Praife of the Divine Writer. However this was not his laft Poem, for at Fourfcore and Two, in 1687, he wrote Two Canto's of the Fear of God, which never yet appear'd in Print. He gave them to Mr. Thomas Elwood of Coleshill, whofe Love of Letters

and

and Humanity made his Converfation much defir'd by Mr. Waller, at that pleafant Village, where we could not pafs thro' the Woods without envying thofe Shades which Mr. Waller had fo often made happy with his Songs. He purchas'd a small Eftate there in his old Age, with a little Houfe, to which he frequently retir'd, but did not stay long. He was always inclinable to be paffionate, from his fiery Teinper; and this ill Habit grew upon him with Age; but by the Interpofition of his Friends he was foon pacify'd. Mr. Elwood read that Poem Of the Fear of God to him, the last time he faw him at his House at Beconsfield; but Sicknefs and Death follow'd fo close, that Mr. Waller had not time to revife and polish it, as otherwife he might perhaps have done in fome Places.

The Sickness, of which he dy'd, was a Dropfie. In the Summer of 1688 his Legs began to fwell, and being at Beconsfield he took Dr. Birch with him to Sir Charles Scarborough, firft Phytician to King James, then in Attendance at Windfor When he found him, he faid, He came to him as an Old Friend, as well as Phyfician, to ask him what that Swelling meant. Sir Charles faid plainly, Why, Sir, your Blood will run no longer. Upon which Mr. Waller repeated fome admirable Verfes out of Virgil, fuitable to the Occafion, about the Condition of Human Life, and receiv'd his Sentence very compofedly,

His laft Poems fhew us, that his latter Years were spent in Divine Studies, and that he had fortified himself againft this Hour by Spiritual Meditations, and making his Peace with Heaven. Finding his Distemper increase, he order'd

his Son-in-law, Dr. Birch, to defire all his Children to join with him, and to give him the Holy Sacrament: He at the fame time protef'd his Christian Faith, with great Earnettnefs telling them, he remember'd the Duke of Buckingham once talk'd profanely before King Charles, and that he told him, My Lord, I am a great deal Older than your Grace, and believe I have heard more Arguments for Atheism than ever Your Grace did, but I have liv'd long enough to fee there is nothing in them, and so I hope Your Grace will. He remov'd fome time before his Death from Beconsfield to London, where he dy'd. He being once carry'd to Coleshill to dine, faid, He should be glad to die like the Stag, where he was rouz'd: But he departed this Life in Autumn 1688, having often faid he should die at that Time of the Year.

Mr. Waller left feveral Children behind him, but of his former Eftate not above Twelve or Thirteen Hundred Pounds a Year, which he bequeathed to his Second Son, Edmond Waller, Efq; before mentioned: His Eldeft, Benjamin, being fo far from inheriting his Father's Wit, that he had not a common Portion; fo he was fent to Jersey, a Colony in the Weft-Indies, where he's ftill living in Obfcurity and Oblivion. His Third Son was Mr. William Waller, a Merchant of London; and his Fourth Dr. Stephen Waller, a famous Civilian, who was one of the Commiffioners appointed for the Union of the Two Kingdoms. A Fifth Son there was, but we cannot give any Account of him. The Infcription on his Monument informs us, that there were Five Sons and Eight Daughters by the Se

cond