he is a very agreeable and deserving writer; not argumentative or deep,
but very ingenious and entertaining, and his stile is peculiarly
elegant, so as to deserve being ranked in that respect with Addison's,
and is superior to most of the other English writers. His Memoirs of the
Orrery Family and the Boyle's, is the most indifferent of his
performances; though the translations of Phalaris's Epistles in that
work are done with great spirit and beauty.

As to his brothers, the second, Gilbert, was thought a man of deeper
learning and better judgment when he was young than our author, but was
certainly inferior to him in his appearance in life; and, 'tis thought,
greatly inferior to him in every respect. He was author of a pretty Copy
of Verses in the VIIIth Vol. of the Spectators, Numb, 591, which begins
thus,

Conceal, fond man, conceal the mighty smart,
Nor tell Corinna she has fir'd thy heart.

And it is said that it was a repulse from a lady of great fortune, with
whom he was desperately in love whilst at Oxford, and to whom he had
addressed these lines, that made him disregard himself ever after,
neglect his studies, and fall into a habit of drinking. Whatever was the
occasion of this last vice it ruined him. A lady had commended and
desired to have a copy of his Verses once, and he sent them, with these
lines on the first leaf--

Lucretius hence thy maxim I abjure
Nought comes from nought, nothing can nought procure.

If to these lines your approbation's join'd,