230 LIFE OF MYTTON. 



never committed, and why should the sun be thus per- 

 mitted, and " falsely thus," to go down upon his 

 shame? It is true there is one mournful blemish 

 on his character, which, as has already been said, I 

 wish could be washed in Lethe and forgotten, as I 

 offer no extenuation for it but insanity. But if I 

 can have given the lie to one single calumny which 

 an ill-natured world has cast upon John Mytton 

 unjustly, I shall be satisfied. He is the best man, 

 says one of the best judges of mankind, that has the 

 fewest faults ; but he that has none is not to be found 

 on this earth.* Poor Mytton's faults were the faults 

 of the head, not of the heart, than which no man had 

 a sounder or a kinder. They were numerous, I 

 admit ; but let not their number be augmented, nei- 

 ther let his many virtues be forgotten ; and above all, 

 remember the years in which he suffered adversity ! 

 This part of his history, however, cannot be without 

 a useful moral. The contemplation of distress, no 

 matter how created, corrects the pride of prosperity, 

 softens the mind of man, and makes the heart better. 

 Indeed, it was by such representations to the public 



* Vitiis nemo sine nascitur ; optimus ille 

 Qui minimus urgetur. — HOR. 



