My Lord D[artmouth][24] is a man of letters, full of good sense, good nature and honour, of strict virtue and regularity in life; but labours under one great defect, that he treats his clerks with more civility and good manners, than others, in his station, have done the Qu[een].[25] Omitting some others, I will close this character of the present ministry, with that of Mr. S[t. John],[26] who from his youth applying those admirable talents of nature and improvements of art to public business, grew eminent in court and Parliament at an age when the generality of mankind is employed in trifles and folly. It is to be lamented, that he has not yet procured himself a busy, important countenance, nor learned that profound part of wisdom, to be difficult of access. Besides, he has clearly mistaken the true use of books, which he has thumbed and spoiled with reading, when he ought to have multiplied them on his shelves:[27] not like a great man of my acquaintance, who knew a book by the back, better than a friend by the face, though he had never conversed with the former, and often with the latter. [Footnote 1: No. 26 in the reprint. [T.S.]] [Footnote 2: Writing to Stella, under date February 3rd, 1710/1, Swift says: "They are plaguy Whigs, especially the sister Armstrong [Mrs. Armstrong, Lady Lucy's sister], the most insupportable of all women pretending to wit, without any taste. She was running down the last 'Examiner,' the prettiest I had read, with a character of the present ministry" (vol. ii., p. 112 of present edition.) [T.S.]] [Footnote 3: "For that is true glory and praise for noble deeds that deserve well of the state, when they not only win the approval of the best men but also that of the multitude." [T.S.]] [Footnote 4: It was reported that the author of "The Examiner" was Matthew Prior, late under-secretary of state. [T.S.]] [Footnote 5: To Stella Swift wrote in his "Journal," under date February 9th:--"The account you give of that weekly paper [_i.e._ 'The Examiner,'] agrees with us here. Mr. Prior was like to be insulted in the street for being supposed the author of it, but one of the last papers cleared him. Nobody knows who it is, but those few in the secret. I suppose the ministry and the printer" (vol. ii., p. 116 of present edition).] [Footnote 6: The Duke of Marlborough. See "The Examiner," No. 28, p. 177. [T.S.]] [Footnote 7: The Duchess of Marlborough. [T.S.]] [Footnote 8: Earl of Wharton, notorious for his profligacy. [T.S.]] [Footnote 9: This may refer to Godolphin. [T.S.]] [Footnote 10: Probably Earl Cowper. [T.S.]] [Footnote 11: This applies to the paper. "The Examiner" had existed for six months, but Swift had written it for only three months, at this time. [T.S.]]