ly brilliant,
and admirably adapted to coincide with, and display those of his
brother-in-law to the utmost advantage. Gibbon extols the "ease and
purity of Hamilton's inimitable style;" and in this he is supported by
Voltaire, although he adds the censure, that the Grammont Memoirs are,
in point of materials, the most trifling; he might also in truth have
said, the most improper. The manners of the court of Charles II. were,
to the utmost, profligate and abandoned: yet in what colours have they
been drawn by Hamilton? The elegance of his pencil has rendered them
more seductive and dangerous, than if it had more faithfully copied the
originals. From such a mingled mass of grossness of language, and of
conduct, one would have turned away with disgust and abhorrence; but
Hamilton was, to use the words of his admirer, Lord Orford, "superior to
the indelicacy of the court," whose vices he has so agreeably depicted;
and that superiority has sheltered such vices from more than half the
oblivion which would now have for ever concealed them.

The Count de Grammont died in 1707. Some years after the publication
of his Memoirs, Hamilton was engaged in a very different work: he
translated Pope's Essay on Criticism into French, and, as it should
seem, so much to that great poet's satisfaction, that he wrote a
very polite letter of thanks to him, which is inserted in Pope's
Correspondence. Hamilton's Essay was, I believe, never printed, though
Pope warmly requested to have that permission: the reign of Louis XIV.
had now ceased; and, for several years before his death, the character
of the old court of that prince had ceased also: profligacy and gaiety
had given way to devotion and austerity. Of Hamilton's friends and
literary acquaintance few were left: the Duke of Berwick was employed in
the field, or at Versailles: some of the ladies, however, continued at
St. Germain; and in their society, particularly that of his niece,
the Countess of Stafford (in whose name he carried on a lively
correspondence with Lady Mary Wortley Montague), he passed much of his
time. He occasionally indulged in poetical compositions, of a style
suited to his age and character; and when he was past seventy, he
wrote that excellent copy of verses, 'Sur l' Usage de la Vie dans
la Vieillesse'; which, for grace of style, justness, and purity of
sentiment, does honour to his memory.

Hamilton died at St. Germain, in April, 1720, aged about seventy-four.
His