cause of triumph to them, if they find that what Roscommon and Oxford
attempted in vain, shall be carried into execution, in the most
masterly manner, by a private gentleman, unassisted, and unpensioned.
The world has just reason to hope this from the publication of an
English Dictionary, long expected, by Mr. Johnson; and no doubt a
design of this sort, executed by such a genius, will be a lasting
monument of the nation's honour, and that writer's merit.

Lord Roscommon's intended retreat into Italy, already mentioned, on
account of the troubles in James the IId's reign, was prevented by the
gout, of which he was so impatient, that he admitted a repellent
application from a French empyric, by which his distemper was driven
up into his bowels, and put an end to his life, in 1684.

Mr. Fenton has told us, that the moment in which he expired, he cried
out with a voice, that expressed the most intense fervour of devotion,

My God! my father, and my friend!
Do not forsake me, at my end.

Two lines of his own version of the hymn, Dies irae, Dies illa.

The same Mr. Fenton, in his notes upon Waller, has given Roscommon a
character too general to be critically just. 'In his writings, says
he, we view the image of a mind, which was naturally serious and
solid, richly furnished, and adorned with all the ornaments of art and
science; and those ornaments unaffectedly disposed in the most regular
and elegant order. His imagination might have probably been fruitful
and sprightly, if his judgment had been less severe; but that severity
(delivered in a masculine, clear, succinct stile) contributed to make
him so eminent in the didactical manner, that no man with justice can
affirm he was ever equalled by any of our nation, without confessing
at the same time, that he is inferior to none. In some other kinds of
writing his genius seems to have wanted fire to attain the point of
perfection: but who can attain it?'

From this account of the riches of his mind, who would not imagine
that they had been displayed in large volumes, and numerous
performances? Who would not, after the perusal of this character, be
surprized to find, that all the proofs of this genius, and knowledge
and judgment, are not sufficient to form a small volume? But thus it
is, that characters are generally written: We know somewhat, and we
imagine the rest. The observation that his imagination would have
probably been more fruitful and sprightly, if his ju