1754. compofition might not be lost to pofterity. He delayed from time to time to give it me; till at last in 1781, when we were on a vifit at Mr. Dilly's, Ætat. 45. at Southill in Bedfordshire, he was pleafed to dictate it to me from memory. He afterwards found among his papers a copy of it, with its title and corrections, in his own hand-writing. This he gave to Mr. Langton; adding, that if it were to come into print, he wifhed it to be from that copy. By Mr. Langton's kindness, I am enabled to enrich my work with a perfect transcript of what the world has fo eagerly defired to fee. To the Right Honourable the Earl of CHESTERFIELD. "MY LORD, February, 1755. "I HAVE been lately informed, by the proprietor of the World, that two papers, in which my Dictionary is recommended to the publick, were written by your Lordship. To be fo distinguished, is an honour, which, being very little accustomed to-favours from the great, I know not well how to receive, or in what terms to acknowledge. "When, upon fome flight encouragement, I first visited your Lordship, I was overpowered, like the rest of mankind, by the enchantment of your addrefs; and could not forbear to wish that I might boast myself Le vainqueur du vainqueur de la terre ;-that I might obtain that regard for which I saw the world contending; but I found my attendance fo little encouraged, that neither pride nor modesty would suffer me to continue it. When I had once addressed your Lordship in publick, I had exhausted all the art of pleafing which a retired and uncourtly scholar can poffefs. I had done all that I could; and no man is well pleased to have his all neglected, be it ever so little. "Seven years, my Lord, have now paft, fince I waited in your outward rooms, or was repulfed from your door; during which time I have been pushing on my work through difficulties, of which it is useless to complain, and have brought it, at last, to the verge of publication, without one act of affistance, one word of encouragement, or one fmile of favour. Such treatment I did not expect, for I never had a Patron before. The following note is fubjoined by Mr. Langton. "Dr. Johnfon, when he gave me this copy of his letter, defired that I would annex to it his information to me, that whereas it is faid in the letter that no affiftance has been received,' he did once receive from Lord Chesterfield the fum of ten pounds; but as that was fo inconfiderable a fum, he thought the mention of it could. not properly find place in a letter of the kind that this was." "The "The shepherd in Virgil grew at last acquainted with Love, and found him a native of the rocks. "Is not a Patron, my Lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help? The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labours, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am folitary, and cannot impart it; till I am known, and do not want it. I hope it is no very cynical asperity not to confefs obligations where no benefit has been received, or to be unwilling that the publick should confider me as owing that to a Patron, which Providence has enabled me to do for myself. Having carried on my work thus far with fo little obligation to any favourer of learning, I fhall not be disappointed though I should conclude it, if lefs be poffible, with lefs; for I have been long wakened from that dream of hope, in which I once boasted myself with fo much exultation, "While this was the talk of the town, (fays Dr. Adams, in a letter to me) I happened to vifit Dr. Warburton, who finding that I was acquainted with Johnfon, defired me earnestly to carry his compliments to him, and to tell him, that he honoured him for his manly behaviour in rejecting these condefcenfions of Lord Chesterfield, and for refenting the treatment he had received from him, with a proper fpirit. Johnfon was vifibly pleafed with this compliment, In this paffage Dr. Johufon evidently alludes to the lofs of his wife. We find the fame tender recollection recurring to his mind upon innumerable occafions; and, perhaps, no man ever more forcibly felt the truth of the fentiment fo elegantly expreffed by my friend Mr. Malone, in his Prologue to Mr. Jephfon's tragedy of "JULIA :" "Vain-wealth, and fame, and fortune's foftering care, "There, only there, our blifs is found at last." • Upon comparing this copy with that which Dr. Johnson dictated to me from recollection, the variations are found to be fo flight, that this must be added to the many other proofs which he gave of the wonderful extent and accuracy of his memory. for for he had always a high opinion of Warburton."-Indeed, the force of mind which appeared in this letter, was congenial with that which Warburton himself amply poffeffed. There is a curious minute circumstance which struck me, in comparing the various editions of Johnson's imitations of Juvenal. In the tenth Satire, one of the couplets upon the vanity of wishes even for literary distinction. stood thus: "Yet think what ills the scholar's life affail, "Pride, envy, want, the garret, and the jail." But after experiencing the uneafinefs which Lord Chefterfield's fallacious patronage made him feel, he difmiffed the word garret from the fad group, and in all the fubfequent editions the line ftands "Pride, envy, want, the Patron, and the jail.” That Lord Chesterfield must have been mortified by the lofty contempt, and polite, yet keen fatire with which Johnson exhibited him to himself in this letter, it is impoffible to doubt. He, however, with that gloffy duplicity which was his conftant study, affected to be quite unconcerned. Dr. Adams mentioned to Mr. Robert Dodfley that he was forry Johnson had written his letter to Lord Chesterfield. Dodsley, with the true feelings of trade, said “he was very forry too; for that he had a property in the Dictionary, to which his Lordship's patronage might have been of confequence." He then told Dr. Adams, that Lord Chesterfield had fhewn him the letter. "I fhould have imagined (replied Dr. Adams) that Lord Chesterfield would have concealed it." "Poh! (faid DodЛley) do you think a letter from Johnson could hurt Lord Chesterfield? Not at all, Sir. It lay upon his table, where any body might fee it. He read it to me; faid, 'this man has great powers,' pointed out the feverest paffages, and obferved how well they were expreffed." This air of indifference, which impofed upon the worthy Dodsley, was certainly nothing but a specimen of that diffimulation which Lord Chesterfield inculcated as one of the most effential leffons for the conduct of life. His Lordship endeavoured to juftify himself to Dodfley from the charges brought against him by Johnson; but we may judge of the flimsiness of his defence, from his having excused his neglect of Johnson, by saying that " he had heard he had changed his lodgings, and did not know where he lived;" as if there could have been the smallest difficulty to inform himself of that circumftance, by inquiring. 1754. Etat. 45. 1 1754. Etat. 45. inquiring in the literary circle with which his Lordship was well acquainted, and was, indeed, himself one of its ornaments. Dr. Adams expoftulated with Johnson, and suggested, that his not being admitted when he called on him, was, probably, not to be imputed to Lord Chesterfield; for his Lordship had declared to Dodfley, that "he would have turned off the best servant he ever had, if he had known that he denied him to a man who would have been always more than welcome;" and, in confirmation of this, he infisted on Lord Chesterfield's general affability and easiness of access, especially to literary men. Sir, (faid Johnson) that is not Lord Chesterfield; he is the proudest man this day exifting." "No, (faid Dr. Adams) there is one perfon, at least, as proud; I think, by your own account, you are the prouder man of the two." "But mine (replied Johnfon, inftantly) was defenfive pride." This, as Dr. Adams well obferved, was one of those happy turns for which he was so remarkably ready. Johnson having now explicitly avowed his opinion of Lord Chesterfield, did not refrain from expreffing himself concerning that nobleman with pointed freedom: "This man (said he) I thought had been a Lord among wits; but, I find, he is only a wit among Lords!" And when his Letters to his natural fon were published, he observed, that "they teach the morals of a whore, and the manners of a dancing-master." The character of a " refpectable Hottentot," in Lord Chesterfield's letters, has been generally understood to be meant for Johnson, and I have no doubt that it was. But I remember when the Literary Property of those letters was 2 That collection of letters cannot be vindicated from the ferious charge of encouraging, in fome paffages, one of the vices most destructive to the good order and comfort of society, which his Lordship reprefents as mere fashionable gallantry; and, in others, of inculcating the base practice of diffimulation, and recommending, with difproportionate anxiety, a perpetual attention to external elegance of manner. But it muft, at the fame time be allowed, that they contain many good precepts of conduct, and much genuine information upon life and manners, very happily expreffed; and that there was confiderable merit in paying fo much attention to the improvement of one who was dependent upon his Lordship's protection; it has, probably, been exceeded in no instance by the most exemplary parent; and though I can by no means approve of confounding the distinction between lawful and illicit offspring, which is, in effect, infulting the civil eftablishment of our country, to look no higher; I cannot help thinking it laudable to be kindly attentive to those, of whofe existence we have, in any way, been the cause. Mr. Stanhope's character has been unjustly reprefented as diametrically oppofite to what Lord Chesterfield wished him to be. He has been called dull, grofs, and aukward: but I knew him at Dresden, when he was Envoy to that court; and though he could not boast of the graces, he was, in truth, a fenfible, civil, well-behaved man. contefted 1754. contested in the Court of Seffion in Scotland, and Mr. Henry Dundas, one of the On the 6th of March came out Lord Bolingbroke's works, published by Mr. David Mallet. The wild and pernicious ravings, under the name of "Philofophy," which were thus ufhered into the world, gave great offence to all well-principled men. Johnson, hearing of their tendency, which nobody difputed, was roused with a just indignation, and pronounced this memorable fentence upon the noble authour and his editor. "Sir, he was a scoundrel, and a coward: a fcoundrel, for charging a blunderbufs against religion and morality; a coward, because he had not refolution to fire it off himself, but left half a crown to a beggarly Scotchman, to draw the trigger after his death!" Garrick, who I can attest from my own knowledge, had his mind seasoned with pious reverence, and fincerely disapproved of the infidel writings of several, whom, in the course of his almost universal gay intercourse with men of eminence, he treated with external civility, distinguished himself upon this occafion. Mr. Pelham having died on the very day on which Lord Bolingbroke's works came out, he wrote an elegant Ode on his death, beginning "Let others hail the rifing fun, "I bow to that whofe courfe is run." |