348 LIFE OF COTTON. 



Of the elder Charles we learn from unquestionable 

 authority, that he was, even when young, a person 

 of distinguished parts and accomplishments ; for in 

 the enumeration of those eminent persons whom Mr. 

 Hyde, afterwards the lord chancellor Clarendon, 

 chose for his friends and associates, while a student 

 of the law, we find Mr. Cotton mentioned ; toge- 

 ther with Ben Jonson ; Mr. Selden ; Mr. John 

 Vaughan, afterwards lord chief justice; Sir Kenelm 

 Digby ; Mr. Thomas May, the translator of Lucan ; 

 and Thomas Carew, the poet. The characters of 

 these several persons are exhibited, with the usual ele- 

 gance and accuracy of their author in the Life of 

 Edward^ earl of Clarendon , written by himself, and 

 lately published: that of Mr. Cotton here follows: 



u CHARLES COTTON was a gentleman born to a 



c competent fortune, and so qualified in his person 



* c and education, that for many years he continued 



' the greatest ornament of the town, in the esteem 



cc of those who had been best bred. His natural 



* ' parts were very great, his wit flowing in all the parts 



c of conversation : the superstructure of learning not 



* c raised to a considerable height ; but having passed 



" some years in Cambridge, and then, in France, 



cc and conversing always with learned men, his ex- 



c pressions were, ever, proper and significant, and 



u gave great lustre to his discourse upon any argu- 



" ment ; so that he was thought by those who were 



" not intimate with him, to have been much better 



e acquainted with books than he was. He had all 



" those qualities, which in youth raise men to the 



16 reputation of being fine gentlemen; such a plea- 



u santness and gaiety of humour, such a sweet- 



' ness and gentleness of nature, and such a civility 



*' and delightfulness in conversation, that no man, in 



6 the court or out of it, appeared a more accomplished 



c person ; all these extraordinary qualifications being 



<c supported by, as extraordinary, a clearness of cou- 



his being descended, by the mother's side, from the family of Mae 

 ff^Hliatnsvfith Collins' s account of Sir John Stanhope, in his 

 under the article STANHOPE, Earl of Chesterfield. 



