BOLINGBROKE, Henry St John, lord viscount, a great statesman, an indifferent philosopher, and an admirable writer, was descended from an ancient and noble family, and born about the year 1672. He had a regular and liberal education, and, by the time he left the university, was considered as a person of uncommon qualifications; but with great parts, he had,'as usually happens, strong passions, and these hurried him into many indiscretions and follies. Contrary to the inclinations of his family, he cultivated tory connections, and gained such an influence in the house of commons, that, in 1704, he was appointed secretary of war and of the marines. He was so closely united in all political measures with Mr Harley, that when the latter was removed from the seals in 1707, Mr St John resigned his employment; and in 1710, when Mr Harley was made chancellor of the exchequer, the post of secretary of state was given to Mr St John. In 1712 he was created Baron St John of Lediard-Tregoze in Wiltshire, and Viscount Bolingbroke. But being overlooked in the bestowal of vacant ribbons of the order of the garter, he resented the affront, renounced the friendship of Harley then earl of Oxford, and made his court to the whigs. Nevertheless on the accession of George I. the seals were taken from him; and being informed that a resolution was taken to pursue him to the scaffold, for his conduct regarding the treaty of Utrecht, he withdrew into France. Here he accepted an invitation to enter into the Pretender’s service, and received the seals as bis secretary; but he was as unfortunate in his new connections as in those which he had renounced; for the year 1715 had scarcely expired, when, at the same time that he was attainted of high treason at home, the seals and papers of his foreign secretary’s office were taken from him; and this was followed by an accusation from the Pretender and his party, of neglect, incapacity, and treachery. Such a complication of distressful events threw him into a state of reflection that produced a consolatio philosophica, in the manner of Seneca and of Boethius, which he wrote the same year under the title of Heflections upon Exile; and the following year he drew up a vindication of his conduct with respect to the tories, in the form of A Letter to Sir William Wyndham. About this time he espoused as his second wife a niece of the famous Madame Maintenon, and widow of the Marquis de Villette, with whom he received a very large fortune. In 1723, the king was prevailed on to grant him a free pardon, and he returned in consequence to England; but he was by no means satisfied with being a mere titular lord, and remaining excluded from the house of peers. This stigma operated to fix his hatred of Sir Robert Walpole, to whose secret enmity he attributed his not receiving the full extent of the kings clemency. Hence he distinguished himself by a multitude of political writings, chiefly directed against that minister, till the year 1735; when, being thoroughly convinced that the door was finally shut against him, he returned once more to France. In this foreign retreat he began his Letters on the Study and Use of History, for the use of the grandson of the celebrated Lord Clarendon, to whom they are addressed. Upon the death of his father, who lived to be extremely old, he settled at Battersea, the ancient seat of his family, where he passed the remainder of his life in philosophical retirement, uniting, as we are told by his admirers, the wit of Horace with the dignity of Pliny and the wisdom of Socrates. Pope and Swift, the one the greatest poet, the other the greatest wit of the time, were completely devoted to him; and it is well known that the former received from him the materials [7:4:741]for his Essay on Man. He died in 1751, and left the care and benefit of his MSS. to Mr Mallet, who published them, together with his formerly printed works, in 5 vols. 4to∙ They are also printed in 9 vols. 8vo.