Such was the end of this learned and ingenious prelate and poet, of whose works I have undertaken the revision, and in collecting the scattered memorials for whose biography, et etiam disjecta membra poetæ, I have, I hope not unprofitably to myself or others, employed some leisure hours. His person, if we may rely upon a fine portrait of him in the hall of Christ-Church, Oxford, was dignified, and his frame above the common size: one of his companions[31] says he had A face that might heaven to affection draw: and Aubrey says, he had heard that “he had an admirable grave and venerable aspect.” In no record of his life is there the slightest trace of malevolence or tyranny: “he was,” says Fullers[32], “of a courteous carriage, and no destructive nature to any who offended him, counting himself plentifully repaired with a jest upon him.” Benevolent, generous and spirited in his public character; sincere, amiable, and affectionate in private life; correct, eloquent, and ingenious as a poet; he appears to have deserved and enjoyed through life the patronage and friendship of the great, and the applause and estimation of the good. Apology is not necessary for his writings, or it might be urged that they were not intended for publication by their author. “His merits are disclosed,” and, at the distance of near a century and a half, are now again submitted to the censure of the public. His panegyric is liberal without grossness, and complimentary without servility: his satires on the Puritans, a pestilent race which Corbet fortunately did not live to see ascendant, and which soon after his decease sunk literature and the arts in “the Serbonian bog” of ignorance and fanaticism, evince his skill in severe and ludicrous reproof; and the addresses to his son and his parents, while they are proofs of his filial and parental regard, bear testimony to his command over the finer feelings. But the predominant faculty of his mind was wit, which he employed with most success when directed ironically: of this the address “to the Ghost of Wisdome,” and “the Distracted Puritane,” are memorable examples. Indeed he was unable to overcome his talent for humour, even when circumstance and character concurred to repress its indulgence. Of this propensity the following anecdotes, copied _verbatim_ from Aubrey’s MSS. in Mus. Ashmole[33], are curious proofs, and may not improperly close this account of a character which they tend forcibly to illustrate.