GEORGE,

EARL OF BERKELEY,

THE first earl of that ancient line, distinguished his piety by bestowing on the public li brary of Sion college, for the use of the city clergy3, a valuable library collected by sir Robert Coke; and by the following religious tract,

"Historical Applications and occasional Meditations upon several Subjects. Written by a Person of Honour, 1670." 12mo. 4.

[And thirteenth lord Berkeley, having greatly manifested his loyalty to Charles the second, in the Restoration, was advanced to the dignity of viscount Dursley and earl of Berkeley in 1679. He died on October 14, 1698, aged seventy-one, and was buried at Cranford in Middlesex, where a monument was erected to his memory, of which Collins has given the inscription. Vide Peerage, vol. iii. p. 465.]

* Vide Collins in Berkeley. [Where the letter of thanks from the president and head of the college may be seen.]

[To this publication Flecknoe appears to allude in the following lines, addressed "To the lord George Berkeley." "Since as by clear experience we see

Virtue is onely true nobility;

There's none gives greater proof of it than you

(My lord) that your nobility is true:

And that 't may so continue, you provide

By adding to 't true piety beside.

For piety is but vertue dyed in grain,

Can ne'er change colour, nor take spot or stain.

This uncommon little book came out of the library of John Vaughan, earl of Carberry, who had written in the title-page the name of the author. It was purchased by Mr. Whiston, to whom I am obliged for it, and who was assured by one of the family, that it was certainly lord. Berkeley's, of which the piece itself contains some slight collateral proofs. The dedication, signed Constans, is addressed to the lady Harmonia 5, in whose name the author writes an epistle to himself, which concludes the book, and in which she is made to call him, "

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my lord." A copy of verses by Waller (printed, I think,

Such courtiers Heav'n desires, and such kings shou'd
Desire too, if they 'd have them great and good:
Happy the whilst (my lord) are such as you,

Fit both for th' heavenly court, and earthly too."

Epig. 1670.]

5 [Supposed to be Mary, countess of Warwick, the daughter of Richard Boyle, earl of Cork. See p. 215 of this volume.]

"[Some of the verses run as follow:

"Bold is the man that dares ingage

For piety, in such an age:

Who can presume to find a guard

From scorn, when Heav'n's so little spar'd?

Divines are pardon'd; they defend

Altars on which their lives depend:

But the prophane impatient are,

When nobler peers make this their care.

in none of his works") is prefixed, calls the. author's a noble pen, and says, " he drew his well-known pedigree from kings." Robert Fitzharding, the direct ancestor of the earl of Berkeley, was of the royal house of Denmark.

[Lord Berkeley also published

"A Speech to the Levant Company at their annual Election, 9 Feb. 1680,"

in one sheet, quarto. See Wood's Athenæ, vol. ii. p. 1038. Lord Orford was mistaken, as Dr. Lort and Mr. Reed observe, in supposing that "Waller's copy of verses was printed in none of his works." It occurs in the edition by Fenton, who has added the following interesting and curious information: "The book to which this poem is prefixed was written by George lord Berkeley, created earl of Berkeley by king Charles the second. He was a person of strict virtue and piety; and of such an undistinguishing affability to men of all ranks and parties, that I have been told Mr. Wycherley strained his character into that of lord Plausible in the Plain Dealer. The founder of this

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High birth and fortune, warrant give
That such men write what they believe:
And, feeling first what they indite,

New credit give to antient light."]

[It appeared in the tenth edition, 1722, 12mo. where lord Berkeley's name is at the bottom. Dr. Lort.]

noble family is said to have been a younger son to one of the Danish kings who attended the duke of Normandy, and settled in England after the conquest."

The earl of Berkeley's scarce little book, entitled, "Historical Applications," had passed to a third edition in 1680, and was then reprinted, as the titlepage announces, "with additions." It serves to confirm the account of his lordship's amiable character which was given by Mr. Fenton; and though much enriched by selected passages from other writers, has many valuable sentiments intermingled by the noble moralist. The following instances may be adduced :

"A title to honour and honourable actions is to be preferred before a title of honour unaccompanied with just and noble deeds. For though it be a happiness and a blessing to be descended of a vertuous and ancient family, yet if they who are thus descended shall degenerate from the worth of their ancestours, their faults are aggravated by not following so good and great examples; and they are generally more despised then the vulgar and ignoble vicious persons. For (as Boëtius says) if there be any good in nobility, I judge it to be onely, or chiefly this, that it seems there is a necessity imposed upon those that are nobly born, not to degenerate from the vertue of their ancestours. Lords and nobles, who stand on the higher ground for doing good, should endeavour to excell others more in generous and just actions, then they do in high

• Obs. on Waller's Poems, p. cxliii.

For a copy of which I am under obligation to Mr. Brand,