ACCOUNT OF BOOKS. 491
Oen to abridge his own Hay in that to expel his benefaftor. The earl
ifland ; his threatening that he had a folemn tincture of religion,
wouidmake theearthtremble- under of which his enemies availed them-
him ; his boaiting of one hundred felves to work him to the greateft
and twenty lords devoted to him; ' blemilh of his life, the difco'.erv
hi, popularity ; hi importunity for of the abettors of his rafli de-
his friends; and his paying court to fign. He had fcarce a fault befides
her fucceflbr, probably exaggerated which did not fiow from the roble-
to her by Sir Robert Cecil, who nefs of his nature. Sir Henry
v/as ten times more guilty in that Wotton fays he was delicate in his
refped ; all this had alienated her baths ; it was a flight luxury, and
tendernef-, and imprinted an afpe- proceeded fo little from any effe-
rity, which it feems even his death minacy in his perfon, that fie read
could not foften. letters and attended to fuitors the
On a review of his charafter, it whole time he wa- dreffing. Bruta-
appears that if the qjeen's par- ];ty of manners is not elTentially
tiality had not inflated him, he necefi'ary to courage : Lecdatus
would have made one of the brav- one of Alexander's generals, no
ell generals, one of th:^ moft aflive unmanly fchool, in all the marches
ftateCmen, and the brighteft * Tviae- of the arm v, was followed by camels
cenas of that accomplilhed age. loaded with fand, which he o-ot
With the zeal, though without the from Egypt, to rub his body for
difcretion of Burleigh, he had no- his gymnafiic exercifes. EiTex was
thing of the dark foul of Leicefter. gallant, romantic, ar,d oltentaticus -
Raleigh excelled him in abilities, his fhooting matches in the eve of
but came not near him in generofi- the city gained him great popiijari-
ty. It war no fmail merit to have cy ; the ladies and the people never
infifted on giving Bacon to that ceafed to adore him. His genius
orb, from which one of Bacon's for fhows, and thofe pleafures that
firil employments was to contribute carry an image of war, was as re-
Eflfcx but two thoiifand five hundred foot ?nd three hundred horfej vet Tir Oen had liiicovered evident marks of dreading the Engl'fn ; and as the eari had re- ceived fiich unufual powe.s in his commiinon, it behoved him to do a litti'e more than patch up a treaty with the Ir!fh. There even appeared on his trial lome fympfoms of too ambitions d'riigns in his union with Fir «^en. Sir Chriltopher Blount, fuiher-in law of Elfex, confefTed that there had been fome mention of tranlportmg part of tiie Irifh army into Er.giami, that they meditited no hurt to the queen, yet rather than milcarry, they would hive drawn blood even from herlelf. Baron papers, 'vol. 2. p. 4.93. I fear, no priCtic-s of his enemies cculd juftify ElTex in luch views ! if it is true, that Sir Robert Ce il, to draw him into an unwarrantable and hafty journey to Englani^, flopped ail vclTcls but one which was to fpread a falfe report cf 'he qu.ens death, CeciPs art was equal to his iniquity. The paltry account he gives of Effex's inlurreclion in a ktter to Sir G. Carew, is by no means of a piece with fuch capacity, ib. p. 468.
- As an inftance of his affciSlion for learning, he gave to the univerfity of Ox-
ford his fiiare of the library of the celebrated Biftiop Oforius, which his lordihip got at the plunder of Faro. E aeon paper 5 ^ I'd. 2. /. 58.
markable
