ed talents peculiarly 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