1675, the Duchess of Mazarin came to reside in England; and with her
St. Evremond passed much of his time. He preserved his health and
cheerfulness to a very great age, and died 9th of September, 1703,
aged ninety years, five months, and twenty days. His biographer
Monsieur Des Maizeaux, describes him thus: "M. de St. Evremond had
blue, lively, and sparkling eyes, a large forehead, thick eyebrows,
a handsome mouth, and a sneering physiognomy. Twenty years before
his death, a wen grew between his eye-brows, which in time increased
to a considerable bigness. He once designed to have it cut off, but
as it was no ways troublesome to him, and he little regarded that
kind of deformity, Dr. Le Fevre advised him to let it alone, lest
such an operation should be attended with dangerous symptoms in a
man of his age. He would often make merry with himself on account
of his wen, his great leather cap, and grey hair, which he chose to
wear rather than a periwig." St. Evremond was a kind of Epicurean
philosopher, and drew his own character in the following terms, in a
letter to Count de Grammont. He was a philosopher equally removed
from superstition and impiety; a voluptuary who had no less aversion
from debauchery than inclination for pleasure: a man who had never
felt the pressure of indigence, and who had never been in possession
of affluence: he lived in a condition despised by those who have
everything, envied by those who have nothing, and relished by those
who make their reason the foundation of their happiness. When he
was young he hated profusion, being persuaded that some degree of
wealth was necessary for the conveniencies of a long life: when he
was old, he could hardly endure economy, being of opinion that want
is little to be dreaded when a man has but little time left to be
miserable. He was well pleased with nature, and did not complain of
fortune. He hated vice, was indulgent to frailties, and lamented
misfortunes. He sought not after the failings of men with a design