One of the men of most brilliant and versatile genius of the age, whose abilities were marred by his erratic character. He belonged, indeed, rather to the type of the knight-errant of the Middle Ages, than to the prosaic age of Queen Anne The sympathy between him and Swift was immediate and lasting. He possessed the keen wit, if not the literary gifts, of Bolingbroke; and was free from the affectation which lessened the admiration with which Bolingbroke was regarded by Swift. See Swift's verses on him in Vol. II. of this collection.