om from all pressing or domestick engagements.

His discernment was quick, and, therefore, he soon found in every
person, and in every affair, something that deserved attention; he was
supported by others, without any care for himself, and was, therefore,
at leisure to pursue his observations.

More circumstances to constitute a critick on human life could not
easily concur; nor indeed could any man, who assumed from accidental
advantages more praise than he could justly claim from his real merit,
admit an acquaintance more dangerous than that of Savage; of whom,
likewise, it must be confessed, that abilities really exalted above the
common level, or virtue refined from passion, or proof against
corruption, could not easily find an abler judge, or a warmer advocate.

What was the result of Mr. Savage's inquiry, though he was not much
accustomed to conceal his discoveries, it may not be entirely safe to
relate, because the persons whose characters he criticised are powerful;
and power and resentment are seldom strangers; nor would it, perhaps, be
wholly just, because what he asserted in conversation might, though true
in general, be heightened by some momentary ardour of imagination, and,
as it can be delivered only from memory, may be imperfectly represented;
so that the picture at first aggravated, and then unskilfully copied,
may be justly suspected to retain no great resemblance of the original.

It may, however, be observed, that he did not appear to have formed very
elevated ideas of those to whom the administration of affairs, or the
conduct of parties, has been entrusted; who have been considered as the
advocates of the crown, or the guardians of the people; and who have
obtained the most implicit confidence, and the loudest applauses. Of one
particular person, who has been at one time so popular as to be
generally esteemed, and, at another, so formidable as to be universally
detested, he observed, that his acquisitions had been small, or that his
capacity was narrow, and that the whole range of his mind was from
obscenity to politicks, and from politicks to obscenity.

But the opportunity of indulging his speculations on great characters
was now at an end. He was banished from the table of lord Tyrconnel, and
turned again adrift upon the world, without prospect of finding quickly
any other harbour. As prudence was not one of the virtues by which he
was distinguished, he had made no provision against a misfort