cohabited was a despicable drab of the lowest species. One of his
wenches, perhaps Chloe, while he was absent from his house, stole
his plate and ran away, as was related by a woman who had been his
servant. Of his propensity to sordid converse, I have seen an
account so seriously ridiculous, that it seems to deserve insertion.

"I have been assured that Prior, after having spent the evening with
Oxford, Bolingbroke, Pope, and Swift, would go and smoke a pipe and
drink a bottle of ale with a common soldier and his wife in Long
Acre before he went to bed, not from any remains of the lowness of
his original, as one said, but I suppose that his faculties -


"'--strained to the height,
In that celestial colloquy sublime,
Dazzled and spent, sunk down, and sought repair.'"


Poor Prior; why was he so STRAINED, and in such WANT OF REPAIR,
after a conversation with men not, in the opinion of the world, much
wiser than himself? But such are the conceits of speculatists, who
STRAIN their FACULTIES to find in a mine what lies upon the surface.
His opinions, so far as the means of judging are left us, seem to
have been right; but his life was, it seems, irregular, negligent,
and sensual.


Prior has written with great variety, and his variety has made him
popular. He has tried all styles, from the grotesque to the solemn,
and has not so failed in any as to incur derision or disgrace. His