which was to be reckoned as done rather upon maxims of
state than inclinations of mercy. He delivered himself up to a most
enormous course of vice, without any sort of restraint, even from
the consideration of the nearest relations: The most studied
extravagancies that way seemed, to the very last, to be much delighted
in, and pursued by him. He had the art of making all people grow fond
of him at first, by a softness in his whole way of conversation, as he
was certainly the best bred man of the age. But when it appeared how
little could be built on his promise, they were cured of the fondness
that he was apt to raise in them. When he saw young men of quality,
who had something more than ordinary in them, he drew them about him,
and set himself to corrupt them both in religion and morality; in
which he proved so unhappily successful, that he left _England_ much
changed at his death from what he had found it at his Restoration. He
loved to talk over all the stories of his life to every new man that
came about him. His stay in _Scotland_, and the share he had in the
war of _Paris_, in carrying messages from the one side to the other,
were his common topicks. He went over these in a very graceful manner;
but so often, and so copiously, that all those who had been long
accustomed to them grew weary of them: And when he entred on those
stories they usually withdrew: So that he often began them in a full
audience, and before he had done there were not above four or five
left about him: Which drew a severe jest from _Wilmot_, Earl of
_Rochester_. He said, he wondred to see a man have so good a memory
as to repeat the same story without losing the least circumstance, and
yet not remember that he had told it to the same persons the very day
before. This made him fond of strangers; for they hearkned to all
his often repeated stories, and went away as in a rapture at such an
uncommon condescension in a King.

His person and temper, his vices as well as his fortunes, resemble the
character that we have given us of _Tiberius_ so much, that it were
easy to draw the parallel between them. _Tiberius_'s banishment, and
his coming afterwards to reign, makes the comparison in that respect
come pretty near. His hating of business, and his love of pleasures;
his raising of favourites, and trusting them entirely; and his pulling
them down, and hating them excessively; his art of covering deep
designs, particularly of revenge, with an appear