The present earl of Carlisle is his grandson, and may boast a more copious and correct vein of poetry, but cannot surpass in moral observation or physical truth, the force of the following precepts, directed to the author's eldest son a short time before his own decease.

"TO MY SON THE LORD MORPETH.
"If in these lawns and woods thus form'd,

If in those shady walks adorn'd,

Thou takest some delight;

Let him who did perform the same,
Who peace of mind preferr'd to fame,
Stand present to thy sight.

"To the long labours, to the care
And thoughts of thee who art his heir,
Some thanks perchance are due ;

If then his wish thou wouldst fulfil,
If thou wouldst execute his will,

The like design pursue.

"His care for thee in this he shows,
He recommends the life he chose,
Where health and peace abound;
He did from long experience find
That true content, a quiet mind,
Seldom in courts are found.

"Fly then from thence-the city leave,
Thy very friends will thee deceive,

Virtue does there offend;

In this retreat safe shalt thou be,
From all those certain mischiefs free

That do on courts attend.

"Nor think that in this lonely shade, For ease, for quiet chiefly made,

Inactive thou must be;

Occasions often will present,

Whereby vile deeds thou may'st prevent,

Justice will call on thee.

"The bold oppressor thou shalt awe,

The violator of the law

Shall feel thy heavy hand;

To the distress'd and needy poor
Thy ready charitable door

Shall ever open stand.

"A glorious kindness thou must show, Favours and bounties still bestow

On them who most deserve;

The innocent thou shalt protect,

The neediest thou shalt not neglect,

In safety all preserve.

"Then think on those who are to come,

Think on thy darling, blooming son,
Thus for his good provide;

Show him the life that thou hast led,
Instruct him in those paths to tread;
Be thou his faithful guide.

"Thus for thy own, and for his sake,
That his abode he there may make,

New works for him prepare;
What then for thee thy father's done,
Do thou the like for thy dear son,

For him show equal care.

"The time will come, nought can prevent, From these green shades thou shalt be sent

To darker far below;

On yon green hill a dome does stand,

Erected by thy father's hand,

Where thou and I must go.

"To thee what comfort then 't will be!
The like also 't will be to me

When our last breath we yield;

That some good deeds we here have done,
A fruitless course we have not run,
When thus we quit the field."]

CATHARINE SEDLEY,

DUCHESS OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE,

[A NATURAL daughter of James the second by Catharine Sedley, afterwards countess of Dorchester, was born in 1681, married first to James, earl of Anglesey; and secondly to John, duke of Buckinghamshire, whom she long survived. Her grace is here introduced from having (according to the report of Pope) written

"A Character of Herself."

This character she showed to the bard of Twickenham in its blots, and pressed him, by all the adjurations of friendship, to give her his sincere opinion of it, which he honestly did. The duchess seemed to take it patiently, and upon many exceptions being made, engaged him to select out of the whole just as much as he judged might remain, and return her the copy. This he also did; and some time afterwards her grace exhibited the extract in Pope's hand-writing as a composition of his own in her praise 2.

The character itself seems indeed to display a more masterly style than an unpractised hand could supply; and was probably finished therefore, if not designed by Pope, as the following passages appear to indicate: "With her first husband she exercised the virtues of patience and suffering, as long as there was any

See Warburton's edition of Pope, vol. ix. p. 220.

hope of doing good by either; with the latter, all other conjugal virtues. The man of finest sense and sharpest discernment she had the happiness to please; and in that found her only pleasure. When he died, it seemed as if his spirit was only breathed into her, to fulfil what he had begun, to perform what he had concerted, and to preserve and watch over what he had left, his only son: in the care of whose health, the forming of whose mind, and the improvement of whose fortune, she acted with the conduct and sense of the father, soften'd, but not overcome, with the tenderness of the mother. Her understanding was such as must have made a figure, had it been in a man; but the modesty of her sex threw a veil over its lustre, which nevertheless suppressed only the expression, not the exertion of it; for her sense was not superior to her resolution, which when once she was in the right, preserv'd her from making it only a transition to the wrong, the frequent weakness of the best woWhat person soever she found worthy of her esteem, she would not give up for any power on earth; and the greatest on earth whom she could not esteem, obtain'd from her no farther tribute than decency. Her love and aversion, her gratitude and resentment, her esteem and neglect, were equally open and strong, and alterable only from the alteration of the persons who created them. Her mind was too noble to be insincere, and her heart too honest to stand in need of it so that she never found cause to repent her conduct either to a friend or an enemy.

men.

"Her person was most amiably majestic; the