HENRY ST. JOHN, first Viscount Bolingbroke, was born in London, October 1st, 1678. His father, Sir Henry St. John, set him an example of dissipated living and in his earlier life he followed it at the expense of remarkable talents which might otherwise have given him the first place in the literature of his age. He was the intimate of Dryden and the friend of Swift and Pope. His prose style has many of the merits of the best masters of the time of Queen Anne, but lacks the simplicity of Addison. He was greatly celebrated in his generation as an orator, but none of his speeches were reported, and all are now hopelessly lost. When he entered Parliament in 1701 it was as a Tory, and he soon became a leader of his party, serving as Secretary of War and of State. He was created Viscount Bolingbroke in 1714. After the death of Queen Anne he opposed the succession of the House of Hanover and fled to France, where he joined the Pretender. In 1724 he was allowed to return to England where he co-operated with Wyndham and Pulteney against the Walpole ministry. His essays in the Craftsman gave it a circulation exceeding that of the Spectator, but they were on subjects of less general interest and the Craftsman is now forgotten.

  Bolingbroke died in London, December 12th, 1751, and his works were so much out of fashion with the succeeding generation that it was asked, “Who now reads Bolingbroke?” The nineteenth century has been more just, however, and his best works have been repeatedly republished in popular editions. His “Letters on the Study of History” are among the best and most useful of his essays.