1754. Etat. 45. Dr. Adams expoftulated with Johnson, and fuggefted, 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 infifted on Lord Chesterfield's general affability and eafinefs of accefs, efpecially to literary men. "Sir, (faid Johnson) that is not Lord Chesterfield; he is the proudest man this day existing." " No, (faid Dr. Adams) there is one perfon, at leaft, as proud; I think, by your own account, you are the prouder man of the two." "But mine (replied Johnson, inftantly) was defenfive pride." This, as Dr. Adams well observed, was one of thofe happy turns for which he was fo remarkably ready. Johnfon having now explicitly avowed his opinion of Lord Chesterfield, did not refrain from expreffing himself concerning that nobleman with pointed freedom: "This man (faid 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 publifhed, he obferved, that "they teach the morals of a whore, and the manners of a dancing mafter"." The 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 fociety, which his Lordship reprefents as mere fashionable gallantry; and, in others, 1754 The character of a "refpectable Hottentot," in Lord Chesterfield's letters, has been generally Etat. 45. understood to be meant for Johnson, and I have no doubt that it was. But I remember when the Literary Property of thofe letters was contested in the Court of Seffion in Scotland, and Mr. Henry Dundas3, 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 fome warmth, that it was not intended as a portrait of Johnson, but of a late noble Lord, diftinguished for abstruse fcience. I have heard Johnfon himself talk of the character, and fay that it was meant for George Lord Lyttelton, in which I could by no means. agree; for his Lordship had nothing of that others, of inculcating the bafe practice of diffimulation, and recommending, with difproportionate anxiety, a perpetual attention to external elegance of manners. 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 inftance by the most exemplary parent; and though I can by no means approve of confounding the diftinction 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 thofe, of whofe existence we have, in any way, been the caufe. Mr. Stanhope's character has been unjustly reprefented as diametrically oppofite to what Lord Chefterfield 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. 3 Now one of his Majefty's principal Secretaries of State. violence 1754 Etat. 45. violence which is a confpicuous feature in the com pofition. Finding that my illuftrious friend could bear to have it fuppofed that it might be meant for him, I faid, laughingly, that there was one trait which unquestionably did not belong to him; "he throws his meat any where but down his throat." "Sir, (faid he,) Lord Chesterfield never faw me eat in his life." 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 "Philosophy," which were thus ufhered into the world, gave great offence to all well-principled men. Johnson, hearing of their tendency, which nobody difputed, was roufed with a juft indignation, and pronounced this memorable fentence upon the noble authour and his editor. "Sir, he was a fcoundrel, 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 atteft from my own knowledge, had his mind feasoned with pious reverence, and fincerely disapproved of the infidel writings of feveral, whorn, in the courfe of his almost universal gay intercourfe with men of eminence, he treated with external civility, diftinguished 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 1754. Etat. 45 "Let others hail the rifing fun, "I bow to that whofe courfe is run." in which is the following stanza: "The fame fad morn to church and ftate (So for our fins 'twas fix'd by fate,) "A double ftroke was given; "Black as the whirlwinds of the North, "St. John's fell genius iffued forth, "And Pelham fled to heaven." Johnson this year found an interval of leifure to make an excurfion to Oxford, for the purpose of confulting the libraries there. Of this, and of many interefting circumstances concerning him, during a part of his life when he converfed but little with the world, I am enabled to give a particular account, by the liberal communications of the Reverend Mr. Thomas Warton, who obligingly furnished me with feveral of our common friend's letters, which he illuftrated with notes. Thefe I fhall infert in their proper places. To the Reverend Mr. THOMAS WARTON. "SIR, "IT is but an ill return for the book with which you were pleased to favour me3, to have delayed my thanks for it till now. I am too apt to be negligent; but I can never deliberately fhew my 3❝ Obfervations on Spenfer's Fairy Queen, the first edition of which was now just published." Vol. I. R difrefpect 1754 Etat. 45. 2 disrespect to a man of your character: and I now "[London] July 16, 1754 Of his converfation while at Oxford at this time, Mr. Warton preferved and communicated to me the following memorial, which, though not written with all the care and attention which that "He came to Oxford within a fortnight, and stayed about five weeks. He lodged at a houfe called Kettel-hall, near Trinity College. But during this vifit at Oxford, he collected nothing in the libraries for his Dictionary." learned |