Bolingbroke's biographers have dwelt effect ively upon his personal advantages, his hand some presence, his mingled dignity and sweet ness, his vivacity, his wit, his marvelous mem ory and his quickness of apprehension. °His mind," said Swift, who loved him, "was adorned with the choicest gifts that God has yet thought fit to bestow upon the children of men," and he refers especially to his '
Apart from Bolingbroke's political tracts and contributions to the Craftsman, the bulk of his writings were published posthumously. The Letters on the 'Spirit of Patriotism,' and the 'Idea of a Patriot King' appeared in 1752 and 1749; the 'Letters on the Study of History' in 1752; and the 'Letter to Sir William Wind ham,' a vindication of his conduct up to 1716, generally regarded as his best work, in 1753. In 1754 his dependent, David Mallet, published his 'Philosophical Writings' in five volumes. It was this publication which gave rise to the celebrated utterance ascribed to Dr. Johnson about the (beggarly Scotchman,' who was paid to let off Bolingbroke's blunderbuss against re ligion and morality after his death. But John son told Boswell that he had "never read Bolingbroke's impiety.° Bolingbroke's 'Life has been written by Mallet (see above); Macknight (1863) ; Harrop (1884) ; Hassall (1889) and latterly (exhaustively and appreciatively) by Walter Sichel (1901-02). Consult also 'Boling broke, a Historical Study,' by Churton Collins (1886).