, an eminent instance of the uselessuess and insignificancy of knowledge,
, an eminent instance of the uselessuess and insignificancy of knowledge, wit, and genius, without prudence and a proper regard to the convnon maxims of life, was born in 1698. He was the son of Anne countess of Macclesfield, by the earl of Rivers. He might have been considered as the lawful issue of the earl of Macclesfield; but his mother, in order to procure a separation from her husband, made a public confession of adultery in this instance. As soon as this spurious offspring was brought to light, the countess treated him with every kind of unnatural cruelty. She committed him to the care of a poor woman, to educate as her own. She prevented the earl of Rivers from making him a bequest in his will of 6000l. by declaring him dead. She endeavoured to send him secretly to the American plantations; and at last, to bury him in poverty and obscurity for ever, she placed him as an apprentice to a shoemaker in Holborn. About this time his nurse died; and in searching her effects, which he imagined to be his right, he found some letters which informed him of his birth, and the reasons for which it was concealed. He now left his low occupation, and tried every method to awaken the tenderness, and attract the regard, of his mother: but all his assiduity was without effect; for he could neither soften her heart, nor open her hand, and he was reduced to the miseries of want. By the care of the lady Mason, mother to the countess, he had been placed at the grammar-school at St. AJban’s, where he had acquired all the learning which his situation allowed; and necessity now obliged him to become an author.