340 LIFE, TIMES, AND SCIENTIFIC LABOURS 



own want of wisdom. Had the Marquis suddenly 

 dropped from the clouds, or sprung from the earth, he 

 could not have been in himself a much greater pheno 

 menon than he appeared to the virtuosi (as the learned 

 were called) of his day. Such a prodigy had never been 

 heard of, and perhaps will never again appear, as that 

 of a secluded scholar, studying all his life, suddenly 

 coming to light with unheard-of knowledge. If true, 

 he was a Leviathan, and compared with him all must 

 have acknowledged a sense of painful inferiority. The 

 Marquis on his part appears to have acted with unsus 

 pecting confidence and modesty, as one quite uncon 

 scious of the intellectual disparity between himself and 

 the professors of mechanical science in his day. 

 However, he neither sought nor formed new acquaint 

 ances ; he seems to have rested satisfied with his early 

 associates, or his own immediate connexions ; so that 

 no one was gratified by his condescension, or induced 

 to proffer advice, through any application on his part. 

 Indeed he mainly looked to the Crown for efficient 

 support ; but the luxurious and gay monarch sought 

 only youth and beauty, the banquet, the ball-room, 

 or the tennis-court, and was not to be disturbed 

 in his pleasures by aged philosophy propounding 

 mechanical experiments, and smoky steam-engines. The 

 King carried &quot; Hudibras&quot; in his breast, and might 

 perchance have a copy of the &quot; Century&quot; in some remote 

 cabinet. Need we be surprised that his Lordship s 

 confidence in succour from such a source was every 

 way misplaced ? His treaties with the business world, 

 it is to be feared, ran counter to all accepted forms, the 

 talented philosopher being no plodding trader ; so that 

 act as he might for the best, it nevertheless appears to 

 have been his uniform misfortune neither to acquire 

 friends nor conciliate enemies, a posture of affairs not 

 uncommon to fallen greatness. 



