Woe to Lady Rochester--woe to the mother who trusted her son's innocence
in that vitiated court! Lord Rochester forms one of the many instances
we daily behold, that it is those most tenderly cared for, who often
fall most deeply, as well as most early, into temptation. He soon lost
every trace of virtue--of principle, even of deference to received
notions of propriety. For a while there seemed hopes that he would not
wholly fall: courage was his inheritance, and he distinguished himself
in 1665, when as a volunteer, he went in quest of the Dutch East India
fleet, and served with heroic gallantry under Lord Sandwich. And when he
returned to court, there was a partial improvement in his conduct. He
even looked back upon his former indiscretions with horror: he had now
shared in the realities of life: he had grasped a high and honourable
ambition; but he soon fell away--soon became almost a castaway. 'For
five years,' he told Bishop Burnet, when on his death-bed, 'I was never
sober.' His reputation as a wit must rest, in the present day, chiefly
upon productions which have long since been condemned as unreadable.
Strange to say, when not under the influence of wine, he was a constant
student of classical authors, perhaps the worst reading for a man of his
tendency: all that was satirical and impure attracting him most.
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