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    A Character of King Charles the Second
    A Character of King Charles the Second
    A Character of King Charles the Second
    Ebook110 pages1 hour

    A Character of King Charles the Second

    By George Savile Halifax

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 25, 2013
    A Character of King Charles the Second

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      A Character of King Charles the Second - George Savile Halifax

      The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Character of King Charles the Second, by George Savile, Marquis of Halifax

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

      almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

      re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

      with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

      Title: A Character of King Charles the Second

      Author: George Savile, Marquis of Halifax

      Release Date: March 29, 2011 [eBook #35708]

      Language: English

      Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

      ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CHARACTER OF KING CHARLES THE SECOND***

      E-text prepared by Bryan Ness

      and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team

      (http://www.pgdp.net)

      from scanned images of public domain material

      generously made available by the

      Google Books Library Project

      (http://books.google.com/)

      A

      CHARACTER

      OF

      KING CHARLES

      THE SECOND:

      AND

      Political, Moral and Miscellaneous

      Thoughts and Reflections.

      By GEORGE SAVILE,

      Marquis of Halifax,

      LONDON:

      Printed for J. and R. Tonson and S. Draper

      in the Strand. M DCC L.

      ADVERTISEMENT.

      The following Character of King Charles the Second, with the Political, Moral and Miscellaneous Thoughts and Reflections were written by George Savile Marquis of Halifax, and were taken from his original Manuscripts, in the Possession of his Grand-daughter Dorothy Countess of Burlington.

      CONTENTS.

      A

      CHARACTER

      OF

      KING CHARLES II.

      I. Of his Religion.

      A Character differeth from a Picture only in this, every Part of it must be like, but it is not necessary that every Feature should be comprehended in it as in a Picture, only some of the most remarkable.

      This Prince at his first entrance into the World had Adversity for his Introducer, which is generally thought to be no ill one, but in his case it proved so, and laid the foundation of most of those Misfortunes or Errors, that were the causes of the great Objections made to him.

      The first Effect it had was in relation to his Religion.

      The ill-bred familiarity of the Scotch Divines had given him a distaste of that part of the Protestant Religion. He was left then to the little Remnant of the Church of England in the Fauxbourg St. Germain; which made such a kind of figure, as might easily be turn’d in such a manner as to make him lose his veneration for it. In a refined Country where Religion appeared in Pomp and Splendor, the outward appearance of such unfashionable Men was made an Argument against their Religion; and a young Prince not averse to rallery, was the more susceptible of a contempt for it.

      The Company he kept, the Men in his Pleasures, and the Arguments of State that he should not appear too much a Protestant, whilst he expected Assistance from a Popish Prince; all these, together with a habit encouraged by an Application to his Pleasures, did so loosen and untie him from his first Impressions, that I take it for granted, after the first Year or two, he was no more a Protestant. If you ask me what he was, my answer must be, that he was of the Religion of a young Prince in his warm Blood, whose Enquiries were more applied to find Arguments against believing, than to lay any settled Foundations for acknowledging Providence, Mysteries, &c. A General Creed, and no very long one, may be presumed to be the utmost Religion of one, whose Age and Inclination could not well spare any Thoughts that did not tend to his Pleasures.

      In this kind of Indifference or Unthinkingness, which is too natural in the beginnings of Life to be heavily censured, I will suppose he might pass some considerable part of his Youth. I must presume too that no Occasions were lost, during that Time, to insinuate every thing to bend him towards Popery. Great Art without intermission against Youth and Easiness, which are seldom upon their guard, must have its Effect. A Man is to be admired if he resisteth, and therefore cannot reasonably be blamed if he yieldeth to them. When the critical Minute was, I’ll not undertake to determine; but certainly the inward Conviction doth generally precede the outward Declarations: At what distances, dependeth upon Mens several Complexions and Circumstances; no stated Period can be fixed.

      It will be said that he had not Religion enough to have Conviction; that is a vulgar Error. Conviction indeed is not a proper word but where a Man is convinced by Reason; but in the common acceptation, it is applied to those who cannot tell why they are so: If Men can be at least as positive in a Mistake as when they are in the right; they may be as clearly convinced when they do not know why, as when they do.

      I must presume that no Man of the King’s Age, and his Methods of Life, could possibly give a good reason for changing the Religion in which he was born, let it be what it will. But our Passions are much oftener convinced than our Reason. He had but little Reading, and that tending to his Pleasures more than to his Instruction. In the Library of a young Prince, the solemn Folios are not much rumpled, Books of a lighter Digestion have the Dog’s Ears.

      Some pretend to be very precise in the time of his Reconciling; The Cardinal de Retz, &c. I will not enter into it minutely, but whenever it was, it is observable that the Government of France did not think it adviseable to discover it openly; upon which such obvious Reflections may be made, that I will not mention them.

      Such a Secret can never be put into a place which is so closely stopt, that there shall be no Chinks. Whispers went about, particular Men had Intimations: Cromwell had his Advertisements in other things, and this was as well worth his paying for. There was enough said of it to startle a great many, though not universally diffused; So much, that if the Government here, had not crumbled of

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