s greatness and
felicity was very unwilling to have any part in the divisions of it_.
And towards the end: _After almost two years unsuccessful endeavours at
some Union, or at least some allay of the Heats and Distempers between
the King and his Parliament, I took the Resolution of having no more to
do with Affairs of State_. Which Resolution it seems was taken about the
beginning of the Year 1681. when he sent the King word he _would pass
the remainder of his life like as good a private Subject as any he had_,
&c. as is to be seen in the Epistle. Yet for all this Mons. _De Cros_,
who knows his thoughts better than himself, or than his Actions can
inform us, says, _Never did man desire more to have a hand in Affairs_.
Why here he shews us the silly _Bubble_ again, and the wise way he takes
to fulfil this impatient Desire; 'Tis by going to his House in the
Country, where he stays five years, as he tells us in one of his Essays,
without so much as ever seeing the Town: and since (as I am inform'd) to
avoid so much Resort at that smaller distance from the City, he goes to
another of his Houses of a much greater in the Country; which was an
admirable wise Contrivance to satisfie his Longings to get again into
Business: Truly I my self could have helpt him to a Better: For could he
not like other men of such a craving Kidney, have still buzzed about the
Court, knocked at every dore there, and when one was deaf and would not
open, go to another; and at the worst have grown so troublesome, that
some body would at last bring him into Employment, tho it were but to
be rid of him? Or, if this Contrivance had failed, he might have herded
among the Factious and Discontented about the Town; gone to the
Coffee-houses, railed at the Ministers, and quarrelled with the
Government, till they would be glad to have hired him at the expence of
an Employment to hold his Tongue: And I am sure if he talks as well as
he writes, he might very well have gone this way to work, and with as
much likelihood to succeed as _Others have done, or pretend to do_. Tho
a Common Reader would be apt to think the Author of these _Memoirs_
might have found some other ways, either of preserving himself in
Business, or of getting in when he was out; at least in so easy a Court
as that of King _Charles_ the Second's is taken to have been. Or if
these Endeavours had miscarried, he might yet have made some shift or
other to have obtained his Desire upon such a Revolut