Note 45 — DIALOGUE II. ON RETIREMENT.

The justness of this encomium on Lord Clarendon will hardly be disputed by any man, whose opinion is worth regarding.—What pity, that Mr. Cowley’s connexions with some persons, indevoted to the excellent Chancellor, kept him at a distance from a man, so congenial to himself, and for whom he could not but entertain the highest esteem! The Chancellor, though he could not be expected to take him out of the hands of his old patrons, seems, yet, to have been generous enough to Mr. Cowley, not to resent those connexions: as may be gathered from the handsome testimony paid to his merit, in the Continuation of the History of his own Life. Speaking of B. Jonson, he says—“He [Ben Jonson] was the best judge of, and fittest to prescribe rules to, poetry and poets, of any man who had lived with, or before him, or since; If Mr. Cowley had not made a flight beyond all men; with that modesty yet, to ascribe much of this, to the example and learning of Ben Jonson.”—Among the other infelicities of men of genius, ONE is, and not the least, that it rarely happens to them to have the choosing of the persons, to whom they would most wish to be obliged. The sensibility of their gratitude being equal to their other parts and virtues, the man, whose favour they chance first to experience, is sure of their constant services and attachment through life, how strongly soever their interest, and even their judgment, may draw another way.