man, a younger branch of a family, once consulted me if he could not validly purchase the chieftainship of his family, from the chief who was willing to sell it. I told him it was impossible for him to acquire, by purchase, a right to be a different person from what he really was; for that the right of chieftainship attached to the blood of primogeniture, and, therefore, was incapable of being transferred. I added, that though Esau sold his birthright, or the advantages belonging to it, he still remained the firstborn of his parents; and that whatever agreement a chief might make with any of the clan, the Heralds' Office could not admit of the metamorphosis, or with any decency attest that the younger was the elder: but I did not convince the worthy gentleman.

Johnson's papers in the Adventurer are very similar to those of the Rambler; but, being rather more varied in their subjects', and being mixed with essays by other writers, upon topics more generally attractive than even the most elegant ethical discourses, the sale of the work, at first, was more extensive. Without meaning, however, to depreciate the Adventurer, I must observe, that as the value of the Rambler came, in the progress of time, to be better known, it grew upon the public estimation, and that its sale has far exceeded that of any other periodical papers since the reign of Queen Anne.

In one of the books of his diary I find the following entry:

"Apr. 3. 1753. I began the second vol. of my Dictionary, room being left in the first for Preface, Grammar, and History, none of them yet begun.

"O GOD, who hast hitherto supported me, enable

1 Dr. Johnson lowered and somewhat disguised his style, in writing the Adventurers, in order that his papers might pass for those of Dr. Bathurst, to whom he consigned the profits. This was Hawkesworth's opinion. - BURNEY.

This seems very improbable: it is much more likely that, observing and feeling that a lighter style was better suited to such essays, he, with his natural good sense, fell a little into the easier manner of his colleagues. - CROKER.

Sir Charles Grandison," which was originally published in successive volumes. This relates to the sixth and seventh volumes, — CROKER.

3 Richardson adopted Johnson's hint ; for, in 1755, he published in octavo, "A Collection of the moral and instructive Sentiments, Maxims, Cautions, and Reflections, contained in the Histories of Pamela, Clarissa, and Sir Charles Grandison, digested under proper heads." It is remarkable, that both to this book, and to the first two volumes of Clarissa, is prefixed a Preface by a friend. The "friend," in this latter instance, was the celebrated Dr. Warburton.- MALONE.

Dr. Warton, in a letter to his brother, 7th June, 1753, tays, "I want to see Charlotte Lenox's book;" upon which Mr. Wooll, in his Life of Warton, adds this silly note: "This eminently learned lady translated the Enchiridion of Epictetus, and the Greek theatre of Le Père Brumoy."- Life of W. p. 217. Poor Mrs. Lenox had no claim to the title of an eminently learned lady." She did not translate Epictetus; and her translation from the French of Brumoy was ant published till 1759. It was probably her above-mentioned book on Shakspeare that Dr. Warton was desirous of seeing

Mrs. Charlotte Lenox was born in 1720. Her father, Colonel Ramsay, Lieutenant-Governor of New York, sent her over to England at the age of fifteen: but, unfortunately, the relative to whose care she was consigned was either dead or in a state of insanity on Miss Ramsay's arrival. A lady who heard of, and pitied so extraordinary a disappointment, interested Lady Rockingham in the fate of Miss Ramsay; and the result was, that she was received into her ladyship's family, where she remained till she fancied that a gentleman

JOHNSON TO RICHARDSON. "26th Sept. 1753.

"DEAR SIR,

for the volumes of your new work; but it is a I return you my sincerest thanks kind of tyrannical kindness to give only so much at a time, as makes more longed for; but that will probably be thought, even of the whole, when you have given it.

"I have no objection but to the preface, in which you first mention the letters as fallen by some chance into your hands, and afterwards mention your health as such, that you almost despaired of going through your plan. If you were to require my opinion which part should be changed, I should be inclined to the suppression of that part which seems to disclaim the composition. What is modesty, if it deserts from truth? Of what use is the disguise by which nothing is concealed?

"You must forgive this, because it is meant well. "I thank you once more, dear Sir, for your books; but cannot I prevail this time for an index?

-such I wished, and shall wish, to Clarissa. Suppose that in one volume an accurate index was made to the three works - but while I am writing an objection arises such an index to the three would look like the preclusion of a fourth, to which I will never contribute; for if I cannot benefit mankind, I hope never to injure them. your most obliged and most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON."

am, Sir,

He this year favoured Mrs. Lenox with a Dedication to the Earl of Orrery, of her "Shakspeare Illustrated.” 4

who visited at the house had become enamoured of her: though she is said to have been very plain in her person. This fancied passion led her into some extravagancies of vanity and jealousy, which terminated her residence with Lady Rockingham. Her moral character, however, was never impeached, and she obtained some countenance and protection from the Duchess of Newcastle; but was chiefly dependent for a livelihood on her own literary exertions. In 1747, she published a volume of poems, and became, probably about that time, known to Mr. Strahan, the printer, in consequence of which she became acquainted with and married a Mr. Lenox, who was in Mr. Strahan's employ, but in what capacity is not known. She next published, in 1751, the novel of Harriot Stuart, in which it is supposed she gave her own history. The Duchess of Newcastle honoured her by standing god. mother to her first child, who was called Henrietta Holles, and did her the more substantial benefits of procuring for Mr. Lenox the place of tidewaiter in the Customs, and for herself an apartment in Somerset House. Nothing more is remembered of Mr. Lenox, except that he, at a later period of life, put forward some claim to a Scottish peerage. Lenox lost her apartments by the pulling down of Somerset House; and, in the latter part of her life, was reduced to great distress. Besides her acquaintance with Dr. Johnson (who was always extremely kind to her), and other literary characters, she had the good fortune to become acquainted, at Mr. Strahan's, with the late Right Hon. George Rose, who liberally assisted her in the latter years of her life - particularly in her last illness, and was at the expense of her burial in the beginning of January, 1804. For most of the foregoing details, I am indebted to my friend the Right Hon. Sir George Rose, whose venerable mother still (1831) remembers Mrs. Lenox. Hawkins gives a graphic account of a Johnsonian orgy in honour of Mrs. Lenox.

Mrs.

"Mrs. Lenox, a lady now well known to the literary world, had written a novel, entitled The Life of Harriot Stuart,' which in the spring of 1751 was ready for publication. One evening at the [Ivy Lane] Club, Johnson proposed to us the celebrating the birth of Mrs. Lenox's first literary child, as

IN 1754 I can trace nothing published by him, except his numbers of the Adventurer, and "The Life of Edward Cave," in the Gentleman's Magazine for February. In biography there can be no questiou that he excelled, beyond all who have attempted that species of composition; upon which, indeed, he set the highest value. To the minute selection of characteristical circumstances', for which the ancients were remarkable, he added a philosophical research, and the most perspicuous and energetic language. Cave was certainly a man of estimable qualities, and was eminently diligent and successful in his own business, which, doubtless, entitled him to respect. But he was peculiarly fortunate in being recorded by Johnson; who, of the narrow life of a printer and publisher, without any digressions or adventitious circumstances, has made an interesting and agreeable narrative.

2

The Dictionary, we may believe, afforded Johnson full occupation this year. As it approached to its conclusion, he probably worked with redoubled vigour, as seamen increase their exertion and alacrity when they have a near prospect of their haven.

Lord Chesterfield, to whom Johnson had paid the high compliment of addressing to his lordship the plan of his Dictionary, had behaved to

he called her book, by a whole night spent in festivity. Upon his mentioning it to me, I told him I had never sat up a whole night in my life; but he continuing to press me, and saying, that I should find great delight in it, I, as did all the rest of our company, consented. The place appointed was the Devil Tavern, and there, about the hour of eight, Mrs. Lenox and her husband, and a lady of her acquaintance, still [1785] living, as also the club, and friends to the number of near twenty, assembled. The supper was elegant, and Johnson had directed that a magnificent hot apple-pie should make a part of it, and this he would have stuck with bay leaves, because, forsooth, Mrs. Lenox was an authoress, and had written verses; and further, he had prepared for her a crown of laurel, with which, but not till he had invoked the Muses by some ceremonies of his own invention, he encircled her brows. The night passed, as must be imagined, in pleasant conversation and harmless mirth, intermingled, at different periods, with the refreshments of coffee and tea. About five, Johnson's face shone with meridian splendour, though his drink had been only lemonade; but the far greater part of the company had deserted the colours of Bacchus, and were with difficulty rallied to partake of a second refreshment of coffee, which was scarcely ended when the day began to dawn. This phenomenon began to put us in mind of our reckoning; but the waiters were all so overcome with sleep, that it was two hours before a bill could be had, and it was not till near eight that the creaking of the street door gave the signal for our departure." - CROKER.

1 This is not Johnson's appropriate praise; and, indeed, his want of attention to details is his greatest, if not his only,

him in such a manner as to excite his contempt and indignation. The world has been for many years amused with a story confidently told, and as confidently repeated with additional circumstances, that a sudden disgust was taken by Johnson upon occasion of his having been one day kept long in waiting in his lordship's antechamber, for which the reason assigned was, that he had company with him; and that at last, when the door opened, out walked Colley Cibber; and that Johnson was so violently provoked when he found for whom he had been so long excluded, that he went away in a passion, and never would return. I remember having mentioned this story to George Lord Lyttelton, who told me he was very intimate with Lord Chesterfield; and, holding it as a well-known truth, defended Lord Chesterfield by saying, that "Cibber, who had been introduced familiarly by the back-stairs, had probably not been there above ten minutes." It may seem strange even to entertain a doubt concerning a story so long and so widely current, and thus implicitly adopted, if not sanctioned, by the authority which I have mentioned; but Johnson himself assured me, that there was not the least foundation for it. 3 He told me, that there never was any particular incident which produced a quarrel between Lord Chesterfield and him; but that his lordship's continued neglect was the reason why he resolved to have no connection with him.

When the Dictionary was upon the eve of publication, Lord Chesterfield, who, it is said, had flattered himself with expectations that Johnson would dedicate the work to him, attempted, in a courtly manner, to soothe and insinuate himself with the sage, conscious, as it should seem, of the cold indifference with which he had treated its learned author; and further attempted to conciliate him, by writing two papers in "The World," in recommend

fault, as a biographer. In the whole Life of Savage there is but one date the birth of Savage-and that date is wrong; and no one, from his Life of Cave, would have imagined that Cave (as appears from the same letter, quoted ante, p. 65. n. 3.) had been invited to meet the Prince and Princess of Wales, at a country house. Several details and corrections of errors, with which he was furnished for his Lives of the Poets, were wholly neglected. But, in truth, "the minute selection of characteristic circumstances" was neither the style of Johnson, nor the fashion of his day, and Mr. Boswell himself has, more than any other writer, contributed to create the public taste for biographical details. CROKER.

2 The introductory passage to this Life is, I know not why, omitted in all editions of Johnson's Works. It ought to be restored. See Gent. Mag., vol. 23. p. 55. CROKER.

3 Hawkins, who lived much with Johnson about this period, attributes the breach between him and Lord Chesterfield to the offence taken by Johnson at being kept waiting during a visit of Cibber's; and Johnson himself, in his celebrated letter, seems to give colour to this latter opinion. He says: "It is seven years since I waited in your outer rooms, or was repulsed from your door" These expressions certainly give colour to "the long current and implicitly adopted story as told by Hawkins, and sanctioned by Lord Lyttelton. all this affair, Johnson's account, as given by Boswell, is involved in inconsistencies, which seem to prove that his pride, or his waywardness, had taken offence at what he afterwards felt, in his own heart, to be no adequate cause of animosity. -CROKER.

In

ation of the work: and it must be confessed, that they contain some studied compliments, so finely turned, that if there had been no previous offence, it is probable that Johnson would have been highly delighted. Praise, in general, was pleasing to him; but by praise from a man of rank and elegant accomplishments, he was peculiarly gratified. His Lordship says,

"I think the public in general, and the republic of letters in particular, are greatly obliged to Mr. Johnson for having undertaken and executed so great and desirable a work. Perfection is not to be expected from man; but if we are to judge by the various works of Johnson already published, we have good reason to believe, that he will bring this as near to perfection as any man could do. The Plan of it, which he published some years ago, seems to me to be a proof of it. Nothing can be more rationally imagined, or more accurately and elegantly expressed. I therefore recommend the previous perusal of it to all those who intend to buy the Dictionary, and who, I suppose, are all those who can afford it."

"It must be owned, that our language is, at present, in a state of anarchy, and hitherto, perhaps, it may not have been the worse for it. During our free and open trade, many words and expressions have been imported, adopted, and naturalized from other languages, which have greatly enriched our own. Let it still preserve what real strength and beauty it may have borrowed from others; but let it not, like the Tarpeian maid, be overwhelmed and crushed by unnecessary ornaments. The time for discrimination seems to be now come. Toleration, adoption, and naturalisa

tion have run their length. Good order and authority are now necessary. But where shall we find them, and, at the same time, the obedience due to them? We must have recourse to the old Roman expedient in times of confusion, and choose a dictator. Upon this principle, I give my vote for Mr. Johnson to fill that great and arduous post. And I hereby declare, that I make a total surrender of all my rights and privileges in the English language, as a free-born British subject, to the said Mr.Johnson, during the term of his dictatorship. Nay, more; I will not only obey him like an old Roman, as my dictator, but, like a modern Roman, I will implicitly believe in him as my Pope, and bold him to be infallible while in the chair, but no longer. More than this he cannot well require; for, I presume that obedience can never be expected, when there is neither terror to enforce, nor interest to invite it.".

“But a Grammar, a Dictionary, and a History of our language through its several stages, were still wanting at home, and importunately called for from abroad. Mr. Johnson's labours will now, I

! It does not appear that there was any thing like "device" or "artifice" in the affair.- CROKER.

Dr. Johnson appeared to have had a remarkable delicacy ¡with respect to the circulation of this letter; for Dr. Douglas, bshop of Salisbury, informs me, that having many years ago pressed him to be allowed to read it to the second Lord Hardwicke, who was very desirous to hear it (promising, at the same time, that no copy of it should be taken), Johnson seemed much pleased that it had attracted the attention of a nobleman of such a respectable character; but after pausing some

dare say, very fully supply that want, and greatly contribute to the farther spreading of our language in other countries. Learners were discouraged, by finding no standard to resort to; and, consequently, thought it incapable of any. They will now be undeceived and encouraged.”

Johnson, who thought that "all was false and This courtly device failed of its effect. hollow," despised the honied words, and was even indignant that Lord Chesterfield should, for a moment, imagine that he could be the dupe of such an artifice. His expression to me concerning Lord Chesterfield, upon this occasion, was, "Sir, after making great professions, he had, for many years, taken no notice of me; but when my Dictionary was coming out, he fell a scribbling in 'The World' about it. Upon which, I wrote him a letter, expressed in civil terms, but such as might show him that I did not mind what he said or wrote, and that I had done with him."

This is that celebrated letter of which so much has been said, and about which curiosity has been so long excited, without being gratified. I for many years solicited Johnson to favour me with a copy of it, that so excellent a composition might not be lost to posterity. He delayed from time to time to give it me2; till at last, in 1781, when we were on a visit at Mr. Dilley's, at Southhill in Bedfordshire, he was pleased to dictate it to me from memory. He afterwards found among his papers a copy of it, which he had dictated to Mr. Baretti, with its title and corrections, in his own handwriting. This he gave to Mr. Langton; adding, that if it were to come into print, he wished 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 so eagerly desired to see.

TO THE EARL OF CHESTERFIELD. "February 7. 1755.

·

"MY LORD, I have been lately informed, by the proprietor of The World,' that two papers, in which my Dictionary is recommended to the public, were written by your lordship. To be so 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 some slight encouragement, I first visited your lordship, I was overpowered, like the rest of mankind, by the enchantment of your address, and could not forbear to wish that I might boast myself Le vainqueur du vainqueur de la terre3;

time, declined to comply with the request, saying, with a smile, "No, Sir; I have hurt the dog too much already; "or words to that purpose. BosWELL. This admission favours my opinion that Johnson, when the first ebullition of temper had subsided, felt that he had been unreasonably violent. — CROKER.

3 No very moderate expectation for "a retired and uncourtly scholar." Johnson's personal manners and habits, even at a later and more polished period of his life, would probably not have been much to Lord Chesterfield's taste; but it must be

- that I might obtain that regard for which I saw the world contending; but I found my attendance so little encouraged, that neither pride nor modesty would suffer me to continue it. When I had once addressed your lordship in public, I had exhausted all the art of pleasing which a retired and uncourtly scholar can possess. 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 past, since I waited in your outward rooms, or was repulsed 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 assistance', one word of encouragement, or one smile of favour. Such treatment I did not expect, for I never had a patron before.

"The shepherd in Virgil grew at last acquainted with Love, and found him a native of the

rocks.2

"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 solitary, and cannot impart it'; till I am known, and do not want it. I hope it is no very cynical asperity not to confess obligations where no benefit has been received, or to be unwilling that the public should consider me as owing that to a patron, which Providence has enabled me to do for myself.

"While this was the talk of the town (says Dr. Adams in a letter to me), I happened to visit Dr. Warburton, who, finding that I was acquainted with Johnson, desired me earnestly to carry his compliments to him, and to tell him, that he honoured him for his manly behaviour in rejecting these condescensions of Lord Chesterfield, and for resenting the treatment he had received from him with a proper spirit. Johnson was visibly pleased with this compli ment, for he had always a high opinion of Warburton." 6 Indeed, the force of mind which appeared in this letter, was congenial with that which Warburton himself amply possessed.

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 assail, Toil, envy, want, the garret, and the jail." But after experiencing the uneasiness which

remembered, that Johnson's introduction to Lord Chesterfield did not take place till his lordship was past fifty, and he was just then attacked by a disease which gradually estranged him from all society. The neglect lasted, it is charged, from 1748 to 1755: now, his private letters to his most intimate friends will prove that during that period Lord Chesterfield may be excused for not cultivating Johnson's society: -e. g. 20th Jan. 1749. "My old disorder in my head hindered me from acknowledging your former letters." 30th June, 1752. "I am here in my hermitage, very deaf, and, consequently, alone; but I am less dejected than most people in my situation would be." 10th Oct. 1753. "I belong no more to social life." 16th Nov. 1753. "I know my place, and form my plan accordingly, for I strike society out of it." 10th July, 1755. "My deafness is extremely increased, and daily increasing, and cuts me wholly off from the society of others, and my other complaints deny me the society of myself," &c. &c. Johnson, perhaps, knew nothing of all this, and imagined that Lord Chesterfield declined his acquaintance on some opinion derogatory to his personal pretensions. Mr. Tyers, however, suggests a more precise and probable ground for Johnson's animosity than Boswell gives, by hinting that Johnson expected some pecuniary assistance from Lord Chesterfield. He says, "It does not appear that Lord Chesterfield showed any substantial proofs of approbation to our philologer. A small present Johnson would have disdained, and he was not of a temper to put up with the affront of a disappointment. He revenged himself in a letter to his lordship written with great acrimony. Lord Chesterfield indeed commends and recommends Mr. Johnson's Dictionary in two or three numbers of The World: ' but not words alone please him.' Biog. Sketch, p. 7.- CROKER.

The following note is subjoined by Mr. Langton: -"Dr. Johnson, when he gave me this copy of his letter, desired that I would annex to it his information to me, that whereas it is said in the letter that no assistance has been received,' he did once receive from Lord Chesterfield the sum of ten pounds; but as that was so inconsiderable a sum, he thought the mention of it could not properly find a place in a letter of the kind that this was."- BOSWELL.

But this surely is an unsatisfactory excuse; for the sum, though so inconsiderable, was one which Johnson tells us, that Paul Whitehead, then a fashionable poet, received for a new work: it was as much as Johnson himself had received for the copyright of his best poetical production; and when Dr. Madden, some years after, gave him the same sum for

revising a work of his, Johnson said the Doctor "was very generous: for ten gnineas was to me, at that time, a great sum," (see post, .1756); and, as I suppose it was given when the "Plan was submitted to Lord Chesterfield, it really was a not illiberal return. At all events, when Johnson alleged against him such a trifle as the waiting in his anteroom, he ought not to have omitted the pecuniary obligat on, even if it had been more inconsiderable. — CROKER.

2 I confess I do not see the object, nor indeed the meaning, of this allusion. CROKER.

3 The notice could not, for any useful purpose, have been earlier. Johnson may have felt, as Mr. Tyers intimates, that some other kind of notice was not taken, but “the notice his lordship was pleased to take" was peculiarly well timed, and could not have come sooner. - CROKER.

4 In this passage Dr. Johnson evidently alludes to the loss of his wife. We find the same tender recollection recurring to his mind upon innumerable occasions; and, perhaps, no man ever more forcibly felt the truth of the sentiment so elegantly expressed by my friend Mr. Malone, in his prologue to Mr. Jephson's tragedy of " Julia: ""Vain wealth, and fame, and fortune's fostering care, If no fond breast the splendid blessings share; And, each day's bustling pageantry once past, There, only there, our bliss is found at last."-BOSWELL.

5 Upon comparing this copy with that which Dr. Johnson dictated to me from recollection, the variations are found to be so slight, that this must be added to the many other proofs which he gave of the wonderful extent and accuracy of his memory. To gratify the curious in composition, I have deposited both the copies in the British Museum.-BOSWELL. 6 Soon after Edwards's "Canons of Criticism" came out, Johnson was dining at Tonson the bookseller's, with Hayman the painter and some more company. Hayinan related to Sir Joshua Reynolds, that the conversation having turned upon Edwards's book, the gentlemen praised it much, and Johnson allowed its merit. But when they went farther, and appeared to put that author upon a level with Warburton, "Nay, (said Johnson) he has given him some smart hits to be sure; but there is no proportion between the two men ; they must not be named together. A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still."- BOSWELL. See the fine passage in his preface to Shakspeare on Warburton and his antagonists.-P. CUNNINGHAM.

Lord Chesterfield's fallacious patronage made him feel, he dismissed the word garret from the sad group, and in all the subsequent editions the line stands

"Toil, envy, want, the Patron, and the jail." That Lord Chesterfield must have been mortified by the lofty contempt, and polite, yet keen, satire with which Johnson exhibited him to himself in this letter, it is impossible to doubt. He, however, with that glossy duplicity which was his constant study, affected to be quite unconcerned. Dr. Adams mentioned to Mr. Robert Dodsley that he was sorry Johnson had written his letter to Lord Chesterfield. Dodsley, with the true feelings of trade, said "he was very sorry too; for that he had a property in the Dictionary, to which his lordship's patronage might have been of consequence." He then told Dr. Adams, that Lord Chesterfield had shown him the letter. "I should have imagined (replied Dr. Adams) that Lord Chesterfield would have concealed it."-"Poh! (said Dodsley), do you think a letter from Johnson could hurt Lord Chesterfield? Not at all, sir. It lay upon his table, where any body might see it. He read it to me; said, 'This man has great powers,' pointed out the severest passages, and observed how well they were expressed." This air of indifference, which imposed upon the worthy Dodsley, was certainly nothing but a specimen of that dissimulation which Lord Chesterfield inculcated as one of the most essential lessons for the conduct of life.' His lordship endeavoured to justify himself to Dodsley from the charges brought against him by Johnson; but we may judge from 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 circumstance, by inquiring in the literary circle

with which his lordship was well acquainted, and was, indeed, himself, one of its ornaments.

Dr. Adams expostulated 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 Dodsley, 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 insisted on Lord Chesterfield's general affability and easiness of access, especially to literary men. "Sir, (said Johnson) that is not Lord Chesterfield; he is the proudest man this day existing."-"No, (said Dr. Adams) there is one person, at least, as proud; I think, by your own account, you are the prouder man of the two."- "But mine (replied Johnson instantly) was defensive pride." This, as Dr. Adams well observed, 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 expressing 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 son were published, he observed, that "they teach the morals of a whore, and the manners of a dancing master." 3

The character of a "respectable 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 contested in the court of session in Scotland, and Mr. Henry Dundas, one of the counsel for the proprietors, read this character as an exhibition of Johnson, Sir David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes, one of the judges, maintained, with some warmth, that it was not intended as a portrait of Johnson, but of a

1 Why? If, as may have been the case, Lord Chesterfield felt that Johnson was unjust towards him, he would not have been mortified - Il n'y a que la vérité qui blesse. By Mr. Boswell's own confession, it appears that Johnson did not give copies of this letter; that for many years Boswell had in vain solicited him to do so, and that he, after the lapse of twenty years, did so reluctantly. With all these admissions, how can Mr. Boswell attribute to any thing but the magnaDimity (if I may so say) of good taste and conscious rectitude, Lord Chesterfield's exposure of a letter which the relenting, if not repenting, author was so willing to bury in obImion?-CROKER.

* This, like all the rest of the affair, seems discoloured by prejudice. Lord Chesterfield made no attack on Johnson, who certainly acted on the offensive, and not the defensive. - CROKER.

3 That collection of Letters cannot be vindicated from the serious charge of encouraging, in some passages, one of the vices most destructive to the good order and comfort of society, which his lordship represents as mere fashionable gallantry; and, in others, of inculcating the base practice of dissimulation, and recommending, with disproportionate anLiety, a perpetual attention to external elegance of manners. But it must, at the same time, be allowed, that they contain many good precepts of conduct, and much genuine information upon life and manners, very happily expressed; and that there was considerable merit in paying so much atten

tion 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, insulting the civil establishment of our country, to look no higher; I cannot help thinking it laudable to be kindly attentive to those, of whose existence we have, in any way, been the cause. Mr. Stanhope's character has been unjustly represented as diametrically opposite to what Lord Chesterfield wished him to be. He has been called dull, gross, and awkward: 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 sensible, civil, well-behaved man. BOSWELL.

In judging of Lord Chesterfield's Letters, it should be recollected that they were never intended for publication, and were written only to meet a private, particular, and somewhat extraordinary case: and that it is hard that Lord Chesterfield should be held responsible for a publication which he never could have anticipated - but see (post, May, 1776,) Johnson's more favourable and just opinion of these letters, which, bating their lax morality not to be palliated even by the peculiar circumstances under which they were written are, I will venture to say, masterpieces of good taste, good writing, and good sense. CROKER, 1846.

4 Afterwards Viscount Melville. He died in 1811.CROKER.