le filled the
neighbourhood with honest merriment.

In the autumn of 1712 his health declined; he grew weaker by degrees,
and died on Christmas Day. Though his life had not been without
irregularity, his principles were pure and orthodox, and his death was
pious.

After this relation it will be naturally supposed that his poems
were rather the amusements of idleness than efforts of study; that he
endeavoured rather to divert than astonish; that his thoughts seldom
aspired to sublimity; and that, if his verse was easy and his images
familiar, he attained what he desired. His purpose is to be merry; but
perhaps, to enjoy his mirth, it may be sometimes necessary to think well
of his opinions.

HALIFAX.

The life of the Earl of Halifax was properly that of an artful and
active statesman, employed in balancing parties, contriving expedients,
and combating opposition, and exposed to the vicissitudes of advancement
and degradation; but in this collection poetical merit is the claim to
attention; and the account which is here to be expected may properly be
proportioned, not to his influence in the State, but to his rank among
the writers of verse.

Charles Montague was born April 16, 1661, at Horton, in
Northamptonshire, the son of Mr. George Montague, a younger son of
the Earl of Manchester. He was educated first in the country, and then
removed to Westminster, where, in 1677, he was chosen a King's Scholar,
and recommended himself to Busby by his felicity in extemporary
epigrams. He contracted a very intimate friendship with Mr. Stepney; and
in 1682, when Stepney was elected at Cambridge, the election of Montague
being not to proceed till the year following, he was afraid lest by
being placed at Oxford he might be separated from his companion, and
therefore solicited to be removed to Cambridge, without waiting for the
advantages of another year.

It seemed indeed time to wish for a removal, for he was already a
schoolboy of one-and-twenty.

His relation, Dr. Montague, was then Master of the college in which he
was placed a Fellow-Commoner, and took him under his particular care.
Here he commenced an acquaintance with the great Newton, which continued
through his life, and was at last attested by a legacy.

In 1685 his verses on the death of King Charles made such an impression
on the Earl of Dorset that he was invited to town, and introduced by
that universal patron to the other wits. In 1687 he joined with