the little good that was in him, to the
friendships and conversation he had still been used to, of the most
excellent men in their several kinds that lived in that age; by whose
learning, and information, and instruction, he formed his studies,
and mended his understanding, and by whose gentleness and sweetness
of behaviour, and justice, and virtue, and example, he formed his
manners, subdued that pride and suppressed that heat and passion he
was naturally inclined to be transported with.' He used often to say,
he continues, that 'he never was so proud, or thought himself so good
a man, as when he was the worst man in the company'. He cultivated
his friendships, it is true, with an eye to his advancement; but it
is equally true that he had a nature which invited friendships. He
enjoyed to the full the pleasure of living and seeing others live,
and a great part of his pleasure consisted in observing how men
differed in their habits and foibles. He tells how Ben Jonson did
not understand why young Mr. Hyde should neglect the delights of his
company at the call of business; how Selden, with all his stupendous
learning, was never more studious of anything than his ease; how
Earle gave a wrong impression by the negligence of his dress and
mien, whereas no man was more wary and cultivated in his behaviour and
discourse; how Chillingworth argued for the pleasure of arguing and
thereby irritated his friends and at last grew confident of nothing;
how Hales, great in scholarship but diminutive in stature, liked to be
by himself but had a very open and pleasant conversation in congenial
company; how Waller nursed his reputation for ready wit by seeming
to speak on the sudden what he had thoroughly considered. In all his
accounts of the friends of his youth Clarendon is in the background,
but we picture him moving among them at ease, conscious of his
inferiority in learning and brilliance and the gentler virtues,
yet trusting to his own judgement, and convinced that every man
worth knowing has a pronounced individuality. In these happy and
irresponsible days, when he numbered poets among his friends, he
himself wrote poetry. Little of it is preserved. He contributed
introductory verses to Davenant's _Albovine_, and composed verses on
the death of Donne. His poetry was well enough known for Dryden to
allude to it during his Lord Chancellorship, in the address presented
to him at the height of his power in 1662:

The _Muses_, who