Thomas Gray to Dr. Wharton-Gardening. Froissart. Tristram Shandy. at the pains of writing truth. Pray, are you come to the four Irish kings that went to school to King Richard the Second's master of the ceremonies, and the man who informed Froissart of all he had seen in St. Patrick's purgatory? The town are reading the King of Prussia's poetry (Le Philosophe Sans Souci), and I have done like the town; they do not seem so sick of it as I am; it is all the scum of Voltaire and Lord Bolingbroke, the Crambe recocta of our worst free-thinkers, tossed up in German-French rhyme. Tristram Shandy is still a greater object of admiration, the man as well as the book; one is invited to dinner, where he dines a fortnight before; as to the volumes yet published, there is much good fun in them, and humor sometimes hit and sometimes missed. Have you read his sermons, with his own comic figure, from a painting by Reynolds, at the head of them? They are in the style I think most proper for the pulpit,* and show a strong imagination and a sensible heart; but you see him often tottering on the verge of laughter, and ready to throw his periwig in the face of the audi dience. * Our author was of opinion that it was the business of the preacher rather to persuade by the power of eloquence to the practice of known duties, than to reason with the art of logic on points of controverted doctrine. Hence, therefore, he thought that sometimes imagination might not be out of its place in a sermon. But let him speak for himself, in an extract from one of his letters to me in the following year: "Your quotation from Jeremy Taylor is a fine one. I have long thought of reading him, for I am persuaded that chopping logic in the pulpit, as our divines have done ever since the revolution, is not the thing; but that imagination and warmth of expression are in their place there as much as on the stage, moderated, however, and chastised a little by the purity and severity of religion." Dr. Johnson to Lord Chesterfield-On the publication of his Dictionary. XII. ON THE PUBLICATION OF HIS DICTIONARY. February, 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 honor which, being very little accustomed to favors from the great, I know not well how to receive, or in what terms to acknowledge. * When Johnson determined to write an English dictionary, he addressed the prospectus to Lord Chesterfield, who was regarded as the Mæcenas of the age. Many years were spent upon the execution of the work, amid sorrow, want, and disappointment, and with no notice from the distinguished nobleman who had been selected as its patron. As it drew near its completion, it was, however, heralded by Lord Chesterfield to the public, through two numbers of the “World,” in terms of graceful and well-merited compliment. He proposed to have recourse to the old Roman expedient in times of confusion, and choose a dictator of the language. "Upon this principle," he proceeds, “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 hold him to be infallible whilst in the chair, but no longer." This courtly device did not secure the dedication it has been supposed to have invited. Johnson was deeply offended at the real or appar ent neglect of Lord Chesterfield, and repelled his advances in the celebrated letter in the text. It may admit of doubt whether the wounded pride of the great scholar has not led him to do some injustice to Lord Chesterfield. He subsequently qualified the statement that "no assistance had been received" by the acknowledgment of having at one time received ten pounds from that nobleman. The neglect occurred at a period of Lord Chesterfield's life when his deafness had in a great measure banished him from society; and Lord C. declared to Dodsley that "he would have turned off the best servant he ever had if he had known that he had denied him to a man who would have been always more than welcome." For many years Johnson gave no copies of this letter. It was read only by those who saw it on Lord Chesterfield's table, where it lay for any one's perusal.—H. Dr. Johnson to Lord Chesterfield-On the publication of his Dictionary. 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 terre— 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 very verge of publication, without one act of assistance, one word of encouragement, or one smile of favor. 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. 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 labors, 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. David Hume to Adam Smith-On the publication of his Theory of Moral Sentiments. Having carried on my work thus far with so little obligation to any favorer of learning, I shall not be disappointed though I should conclude it, if less be possible, with less, for I have been long wakened from that dream of hope in which I once boasted myself with so much exultation, my Lord, your Lordship's most humble, most obedient servant, S. JOHNSON. XIII.-ON THE PUBLICATION OF HIS THEORY OF MORAL SEN TIMENTS. David Hume to Adam Smith. LONDON, 12th April, 1759. I give you thanks for the agreeable present of your "Theory." Wedderburn and I made presents of our copies to such of our acquaintances as we thought good judges, and proper to spread the reputation of the book. I sent one to the Duke of Argyll, to Lord Lyttleton, Horace Walpole, Soame Jennyns, and Burke, an Irish gentleman who wrote lately a very pretty treatise on the Sublime. Millar desired my permission to send one in your name to Dr. Warburton. I have delayed writing to you till I could tell you something of the success of the book, and could prognosticate, with some probability, whether it should be finally damned to oblivion, or should be registered in the temple of immortality. Though it has been published only a few weeks, I think there appear already such strong symptoms that I can almost venture to foretell its fate. It is, in short, this But I have been interrupted in my letter by a foolish, impertinent visit of one who has lately come from Scotland. He tells me that the University of Glasgow intend to declare Rouet's office vacant, upon his going abroad with Lord Hope. David Hume to Adam Smith-On the publication of his Theory of Moral Sentiments. * I question not but you will have our friend Ferguson in your eye, in case another project for procuring him a place in the University of Edinburgh should fail. Ferguson has very much polished and improved his treatise on Refinement, and with some amendments it will make an admirable book, and discov ers an elegant and a singular genius. The Epigoniad, I hope, will do, but it is somewhat up-hill work. As I doubt not but you consult the reviews sometimes at present, you will see in the "Critical Review" a letter upon that poem; and I desire you to employ your conjectures in finding out the author. Let me see a sample of your skill in knowing hands by your guessing at the person. I am afraid of Lord Kames's Law Tracts. A man might as well think of making a fine sauce by a mixture of wormwood and aloes, as an agreeable composition by joining metaphysics and Scotch law. However, the book, I believe, has merit, though few persons will take the pains of diving into it. But, to return to your book and its success in this town. I must tell you A plague of interruptions! I ordered myself to be denied, and yet here is one who has broke in upon me again. He is a man of letters, and we have had a good deal of literary conversation. You told me that you were curious of literary anecdotes, and therefore I shall inform you of a few that have come to my knowledge. I believe I have mentioned to you already Helvetius's book de l'Esprit. It is worth your reading, not for its philosophy, which I do not highly value, but for its agreeable composition. I had a letter from him a few days ago, wherein he tells me that my name was much oftener in the manuscript, but that the Censor of books at Paris obliged him to strike it out. Voltaire has lately published a small work Published as 66 An Essay on the History of Civil Society.” |