formation of our readers as to the authenticity of the publication; and infert one of his lordship's chivalrous adventures, for their entertainment: for though the work on the whole may be found neither much to intereft the paffions, or enlarge the understanding, yet it will ferve to afford no fmall insight into the romantic manners of that age in which the hero of it lived. Some years ago the following pages wou'd have been reckoned one of the greatest prefents which the learned world cou'd have received. The Life of the famous Lord Herbert of Cherbury, written by himfelf, wou'd have excited the curiofity of the whole republick of letters. Perhaps a lefs proportion of expectation may attend this it's late appearance. Not that the abilities of the noble writer have fallen into difesteem. His reign of Henry VIII. is allowed to be a masterpiece of hiftoric biography, But they were his fpeculative works, which, raifing a multitude of admirers or cenfors from their acuteness and fingularity, made lord Herbert's a name of the first importance. The many great men, who illuftrated the fucceeding period, have taken off fome of the public attention; for it is only a genius of the firft force, whofe faine dilates with ages, and can buoy itself up above the indifference which fteals upon mankind, as an author becomes lefs and lefs the subject of converfation. Speculative writers, however penetrating, however fublime their talents, feldom attain the feal of univerfal approbation, becaufe, of all the various abilities which Providence has bestowed on man, reafoning is not the power which has been brought to ftandard perfection. Poetry and eloquence have been so far perfe&cd, that the great mafters in thole branches ftill remain unequalled. But where is that book of human argumentation, where that fyftem of human opinions, which has not been partly confuted or exploded? Novelty itfelf in matters of metaphyfical inquiry often proves, in effect, a confutation of antecedent novelties. Opponents raife the celebrity of the doctrines they attack: newer doctrines ftifle that celebrity. This is a truth, which the bigots of lord Herbert's age wou'd not have liked to hear; but what has happened to many other great men, has been his fate too: they who meaned to wound his fame, extended it: when the cry of enthufiafts was drawn off to frefher game, his renown grew fainter. His moral character recovered it's luftre, but has fewer fpe&tators to gaze at it. • This introduction to his life may not be improper, though at first it may mislead the reader, who will hence perhaps expea from his own pen fome account of a perfon's creed, whom a few fottifh zealots once reprefented as having none at all. all. His lordship's thorough belief and awfull veneration of the Deity will clearly appear in thefe pages; but neither the unbeliever nor the monk will have farther fatisfaction. This life of a philofopher is neither a deduction of his opinions nor a table of philofophy-I will anticipate the reader's furprize, though it fhall be but in a word: to his aftonishment he will find, that the History of Don Quixote was the Life of Plato. The noble family, which gives thefe fheets to the world, is above the little prejudices which make many a race defraud the public of what was defigned for it by thofe, who alone had a right to give or withhold. It is above fupprefling what lord Herbert dared to tell. Foibles, paffions, perhaps fome vanity, furely fome wrongheadedness; thefe he fcorned to conceal, for he fought truth, wrote on truth, was truth: he honeftly told when he had miffed or mistaken it. His defcendants, not blind to his faults, but through them conducing the reader to his virtues, defire the world to make this candid obfervation with them, "That there must have been a wonderful fund of internal virtue, of ftrong refolution and manly philofophy, which in an age of fuch mistaken and barbarous galantry, of fuch abfurd ufages and falfe glory, cou'd enable lord Herbert to feek fame better founded, and cou'd make him reflect that there might be a more defirable kind of glory than that of a romantic duellift." None fhut their eyes fo obftinately against seeing what is ridiculous, as they who have attained a maftery in it: but that was not the cafe of lord Herbert. His valour made him a hero, be the heroism in vogue what it wou'd; his found parts made him a philofopher. Few men in truth have figured fo confpicuously in lights fo various; and his defcendants, though they cannot approve him in every walk of glory, wou'd perhaps injury his memory, if they fuffered the world to be ignorant, that he was formed to shine in every sphere, into which his impetuous temperament, or predominant reafon conducted him. As a foldier he won the esteem of thofe great captains the prince of Orange and the constable de Montmorency; as a knight, his chivalry was drawn from the pureft founts of the Fairy Queen. Had he been ambitious, the beauty of his perfon wou'd have carried him as far as any gentle knight can afpire to go. As a public minifter, he fupported the dignity of his country, even when it's prince difgraced it; and that he was qualified to write it's annals as well as to ennoble them, the hiftory I have mentioned proves, and must make us lament that he did not compleat, or that we have loft, the account he purposed to give of his embaffy. Thefe bufy fcenes were blended with, and terminated by meditation and philo phic inquiries. Strip each period of it's exceffes and errors, and it will not be eafy to trace out, or difpofe the life of a man of quality into a fucceffion of employments which wou'd better become him. Valour and military activity in youth; business of state in the middle age; contemplation and labours for the information of posterity in the calmer fcenes of clofing life this was lord Herbert: the deduction he will give himself. The MS. was in great danger of being loft to the world. Henry lord Herbert, grandfon of the author, died in 1691 without iffue, and by his will left his eftate to Francis Hèrbert of Oakly-park (father of the prefent earl of Powis) his fifter's fon. At Lymore in Montgomeryshire (the chief feat of the family after Cromwell had demolished Montgomery castle) was preferved the original manufcript. Upon the marriage of Henry Lord Herbert with a daughter of Francis Earl of Bradford, Lymore, with a confiderable part of the estate thereabouts, was allotted for her jointure. After his decease, lady Herbert usually refided there; fhe died in 1714. The MS. cou'd not then be found: yet while fhe lived there, it was known to have been in her hands. Some years afterwards it was discovered at Lymore among fome old papers, in very bad condition, feveral leaves being torn out, and others stained to fuch a degree as to make it fcarcely legible. Under thefe circumftances, inquiry was made of the Herberts of Ribbisford (defcended from Sir Henry Herbert a younger brother of the author-lord) in relation to a duplicate of the Memoirs, which was confidently said to be in their cuftody. It was allowed that fuch a duplicate had exifted; but no one could recollect what was become of it. At last, about the year 1737, this book was fent to the earl of Powis by a gentleman, whofe father had purchased an eftate of Henry Herbert of Ribbifford (fon of Sir Henry Herbert abovementioned) in whom was revived in 1694, the title of Cherbury, which had extinguished in 1691. By him (after the fale of the estate) fome few books, pictures and other things, were left in the house, and remained there to 1737. This manufcript was amongst them; which not only by the contents (as far as it was poffible to collate it with the original) but by the fimilitude of the writing, appeared to be the duplicate, so much sought after. Being written when lord Herbert was paft fixty, the work was probably never compleated. The fpelling is in general given as in the MS. but fome obvious mistakes it was neceffary to correct, and a few notes have been added, to point our the most remarkable perfons mentioned in the text. The ftyle is remarkable good for that age, which coming between the the nervous and expreffive manlinefs of the preceding century, and the purity of the present standard, partook of neither. His lordship's obfervations are new and acute; fome very fhrewd, as that to the duc de Guise, p. 149; his discourse on the Reformation very wife. To the French confeffor his reply, P. 170, was fpirited; indeed his behaviour to Luynes and all his conduct, gave ample evidence of his conftitutional fire. But nothing is more marked than the air of veracity or perfuafion which runs through the whole narrative. If he makes us wonder, and wonder makes us doubt, the charm of his ingenuous integrity difpels our hesitation. The whole relation throws fingular light on the manners of the age, though the gleams are tranfient. In thofe manners nothing is more ftriking than the ftrange want of police in this country. I will not point out inftances, as I have already perhaps too much opened the contents of a book, which if it gives other readers half the pleasure it afforded me, they will own themfelves extraordinarily indebted to the noble perfon, by whose favour I am permitted to communicate to them so great a curiofity.' To this, we fhall fubjoin the circumftances of an attack made on lord Herbert, in confequence of the jealousy of Sir John Ayres, knt. who had entertained an unjuft fufpicion of this nobleman, concerning a supposed affair of gallantry with his wife. Finding he cou'd take no advantage againft me, then in a treacherous way he resolved to affaffinate me in this manner; hearing I was to come to Whitehall on horseback with two lackies only, he attended my coming back in a place called Scotland-Yard, at the hither end of Whitehall, as you come to it from the Strand, hiding himself here with four men armed on purpose to kill me. I took horse at Whitehall gate and paffing by that place, he being armed with a sword and dagger, without giving me so much as the least warning, ran at me furiously, but instead of me wounded my horse in the brisket, as far as his fword cou'd enter for the bone; my horfe hereupon starting afide, he ran him again in the fhoulder, which thô it made the horse more timorous, yet gave me time to draw my fword; his men thereupon encompassed me and wounded my horfe in three places more; this made my horse kick and fling in that manner as his men durft not come near me, which advantage I took to ftrike at Sir John Ayres with. all my force, but he warded the blow both with his fword and dagger inftead of doing him harm, I broke my fword within a foot of the hilt; hereupon fome paffenger that knew me, and obferving my horfe bleeding in fo many places, and fo Dd 3 many many men affaulting me, and my fword broken, cried to me feveral times, ride away, ride away; but I fcorning a bafe flight upon what terms foever, inftead thereof alighted as well as I cou'd from my horfe; I had no fooner put one foot upon the ground, but Sir John Ayres purfuing me, made at my horfe again, which the horfe perceiving preffed on me on the fide I alighted, in that manner that he threw me down, fo that I remained flat upon the ground, only one foot hanging in the ftirrop, with that piece of a fword in my right hand; Sir John Ayres hereupon ran about the horfe and was thrufting his fword into me, when I finding myfelf in this danger I did with both my arms reaching at his legs pull them towards me, 'till he fell down backwards on his head; one of my footmen hereupon, who was a little Shropshire boy, freed my foot out of the stirrop, the other which was a great fellow having run away as foon as he faw the firft affault; this gave me time to get upon my legs, and to put myfelf in the best posture I cou'd with that poor remnant of a weapon: Sir John Ayres by this time likewife was got up, ftanding betwixt me and fome part of Whitehall, with two men on each side of him, and his brother behind him, with at leaft twenty or thirty perfons of his friends or attendants of the earl of Suffolk; obferving thus a body of men standing in oppofition against me, thô to speak truly I faw no fwords drawn but by Sir John Ayres and his men, I ran violently against Sir John Ayres, but he knowing my fword had no point, held his fword and dagger over his head, as believing I cou'd ftrike rather than thruft, which I no fooner perceived but I put a home thrust to the middle of his breaft, that I threw him down with fo much force, that his head fell firft to the ground, and his heels upwards; his men. hereupon affaulted me, when one Mr. Manfel, a Glamorganfhire gentleman, finding fo many fet against me alone, closed with one of them, a Scotch gentleman alfo clofing with another, took him off alfo; all I cou'd well do to those two which remained, was to ward their thrufts, which I did with that refolution that I got ground upon them. Sir John Ayres was now got up a third time, when I making towards him with intention to clofe, thinking that there was otherwise no safety for me, put by a thruft of his with my left hand, and fo coming within him, received a ftab with his dagger on my right fide, which ran down my ribs as far as my hip, which I feeling did with my right elbow force his hand together with the hilt of the dagger fo near the upper part of my right fide, that I made him leave hold. The dagger now sticking in me, Sir Henry Cary afterwards lord of Faulkland and lord deputy of Ireland, finding the dagger thus in my body fnatcht it out thi |