If a King should be born with more Tenderness than might suit with his Office, he would in time be hardned.  The Faults of his Subjects make Severity so necessary, that by the frequent Occasions given to use it, it comes to be habitual, and by degrees the Resistance that Nature made at first groweth fainter, till at last it is in a manner quite extinguished.

In short, this Prince might more properly be said to have Gifts than Virtues, as Affability, Easiness of Living, Inclinations to give, and to forgive:  Qualities that flowed from his Nature rather than from his Virtue.

He had not more Application to any thing than the Preservation of his Health; it had an intire Preference to any thing else in his Thoughts, and he might be said without Aggravation to study that, with as little Intermission as any Man in the World.  He understood it very well, only in this he failed, that he thought it was more reconcilable with his Pleasures, than it really was.  It is natural to have such a Mind to reconcile these, that ’tis the easier for any Man that goeth about it, to be guilty of that Mistake.

This made him overdo in point of Nourishment, the better to furnish to those Entertainments; and then he thought by great Exercise to make Amends, and to prevent the ill Effects of his Blood being too much raised.  The Success he had in this Method, whilst he had Youth and Vigour to support him in it, encouraged him to continue it longer than Nature allowed.  Age stealeth so insensibly upon us, that we do not think of suiting our way of Reasoning to the several Stages of Life; so insensibly that not being able to pitch upon any precise Time, when we cease to be young, we either flatter ourselves that we always continue to be so, or at least forget how much we are mistaken in it.

63.

By BURNET.

The King was then thirty years of age, and, as might have been supposed, past the levities of youth and the extravagance of pleasure.  He had a very good understanding.  He knew well the state of affairs both at home and abroad.  He had a softness of temper that charmed all who came near him, till they found how little they could depend on good looks, kind words, and fair promises; in which he was liberal to excess, because he intended nothing by them, but to get rid of importunities, and to silence all farther pressing upon him.  He seemed to have no sense of religion:  Both at prayers and sacrament he, as it were, took care to satisfy people, that he was in no sort concerned in that about which he was employed.  So that he was very far from being an hypocrite, unless his assisting at those performances was a sort of hypocrisy, (as no doubt it was:) But he was sure not to encrease that by any the least appearance of religion.  He said once to my self, he was no atheist, but he could not think God would make a man miserable only for taking a little pleasure out of the way.  He