No wonder we could attract De Grammont and Saint Evremond to
our court; and own, somewhat to our discredit be it allowed, Rochester
and Beau Fielding. Every reign has had its wits, but those in Charles's
time were so numerous as to distinguish the era by an especial
brilliancy. Nor let it be supposed that these annals do not contain a
moral application. They show how little the sparkling attributes herein
pourtrayed conferred happiness; how far more the rare, though certainly
real touches of genuine feeling and strong affection, which appear here
and there even in the lives of the most thoughtless 'Wits and Beaux,'
elevate the character in youth, or console the spirit in age. They prove
how wise has been that change in society which now repudiates the 'Wit'
as a distinct class; and requires general intelligences as a
compensation for lost repartees, or long obsolete practical jokes.
'Men are not all evil:' so in the life of George Villiers, we find him
kind-hearted, and free from hypocrisy. His old servants--and the fact
speaks in extenuation of one of our wildest Wits and Beaux--loved him
faithfully. De Grammont, we all own, has little to redeem him except his
good-nature: Rochester's latest days were almost hallowed by his
penitence.
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