JAMES THE SECOND.

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tion among the gentlemen of France, and -which, in an inferiordegree, embellished the Court of England; and his mannerswere altogether Dutch. Even his countrymen thought himblunt. To foreigners he often seemed churlish. In his inter-course with the world in general he appeared ignorant ornegligent of those arts which double the value of a favour andtake away the sting of a refusal. He was little interested inletters or science. The discoveries of Newton and Leibnitz,the poems of Dryden and Boileau, were unknown to him.Dramatic performances tired him; and he was glad to turnaway from the stage and to talk about public affairs, whileOrestes was raving, or while Tartuffe was pressing Elmira’shand. He had indeed some talent for sarcasm, and not seldomemployed, quite unconsciously, a natural rhetoric, quaint,indeed, but vigorous and original. He did not, however,in the least affect the character of a wit or of an orator. Hisattention had been confined to those studies which formstrenuous and sagacious men of business. From a child helistened with interest when high questions of alliance, finance,and war were discussed. Of geometry he learned as muchas was necessary for the construction of a ravelin or a horn-work. Of languages, by the help of a memory singularlypowerful, he learned as much as was necessary to enable himto comprehend and answer without assistance everything thatwas said to him, and every letter which he received. TheDutch was his own tongue. He understood Latin, Italian,and Spanish. He spoke and wrote French, English, andGerman, inelegantly, it is true, and inexactly, but fluentlyand intelligibly. No qualification could be more importantto a man whose life was to be passed in organizing great alli-ances, and in commanding armies assembled from differentcountries.

One class of philosophical questions had been forced onhis attention by circumstances, and seems to have interestedhim more than might have been expected from his generalcharacter. Among the Protestants of the United Provinces,as among the Protestants of our island, there were two greatreligious parties which almost exactly coincided with two

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CHAP.

VII.

1687 .

HIs theo-logicalopinions.