_George Savile, created Baron Savile and Viscount Halifax 1668, Earl
of Halifax 1679, Marquis of Halifax 1682._
_Born 1633. Died 1695._
By BURNET.
I name Sir _George Saville_ last, because he deserves a more copious
character. He rose afterwards to be Viscount, Earl, and Marquis of
_Halifax_. He was a man of a great and ready wit; full of life,
and very pleasant; much turned to satyr. He let his wit run much
on matters of religion: So that he passed for a bold and determined
Atheist; tho' he often protested to me, he was not one; and said, he
believed there was not one in the world: He confessed, he could not
swallow down every thing that divines imposed on the world: He was
a Christian in submission: He believed as much as he could, and he
hoped that God would not lay it to his charge, if he could not disgest
iron, as an ostrich did, nor take into his belief things that must
burst him: If he had any scruples, they 20 were not sought for, nor
cherished by him; for he never read an atheistical book. In a fit of
sickness, I knew him very much touched with a sense of religion. I
was then often with him. He seemed full of good purposes: But they
went off with his sickness. He was always talking of morality and
friendship. He was punctual in all payments, and just in all his
private dealings. But, with relation to the publick, he went backwards
and forwards, and changed sides so often, that in conclusion no side
trusted him. He seemed full of Common-wealth notions: Yet he went
into the worst part of King _Charles's_ reign. The liveliness of his
imagination was always too hard for his judgment. A severe jest was
preferred by him to all arguments whatsoever. And he was endless in
consultations: For when after much discourse a point was settled, if
he could find a new jest, to make even that which was suggested by
himself seem ridiculous, he could not hold, but would study to raise
the credit of his wit, tho' it made others call his judgment in
question. When he talked to me as a philosopher of his contempt of the
world, I asked him, what he meant by getting so many new titles, which
I call'd the hanging himself about with bells and tinsel. He had no
other excuse for it, but this, that, since the world were such fools
as to value those matters, a man must be a fool for company: He
considered them but as rattles: Yet rattles please children: So these
might be of use to his family. His heart was much set on raising his
family. But, tho' he made a vast estate for them, he buried two of his
sons himself, and almost all his grandchildren. The son that survived
was an honest man, but far inferior to him.
73.