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."1

The character of a "respectable Hottentot," in Lord Ches

1 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 anxiety, 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 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, 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.

In judging 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 (under date 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.

terfield'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 late noble lord 3 distinguished for abstruse science. I have heard Johnson himself talk of the character, and say that it was meant for George Lord Lyttelton, in which I could by no means agree; for his lordship had nothing of that violence which is a conspicuous feature in the composition. Finding that my illustrious friend could bear to have it supposed that it might be meant for him, I said, laughingly, that there was one trait which unquestionably did not belong to him; "he throws his meat anywhere but down his throat."-" Sir, (said he) Lord Chesterfield never saw 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 ushered into the world, gave great offence to all well-principled men. Johnson, hearing of their tendency, which nobody disputed, was roused with a just indignation, and pronounced this memorable sentence upon the noble author and his editor: -"Sir, he was a scoundrel, and a coward: a scoundrel for charging a blunderbuss against religion and morality; a

1 In the sixth chapter, pp. 214-229, of his book, Dr. Johnson, his Friends, and his Critics, London, 1878, Dr. Birkbeck Hill shows, we think, convincingly, that the respectable Hottentot could not be Johnson, -Editor.

2 Afterwards Viscount Melville. He died in 1811.-Croker.

3

Probably George, second Earl of Macclesfield, who published, in 1751, a learned pamphlet on the alteration of the style, and was, in 1752, elected President of the Royal Society. Lord Macclesfield's manner was, no doubt, awkward and embarrassed, but little else in his character resembles that of the "respectable Hottentot," which much more probably was, as the world supposed, intended for Johnson.-Croker.

coward, because he had not resolution 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 sincerely 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 occasion. 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 rising sun,

I bow to that whose course is run;"

in which is the following stanza :—

"The same sad morn, to Church and State
(So for our sins 't was fix'd by Fate)

A double stroke was given;

Black as the whirlwinds of the North,

St. John's fell genius issued forth,

And Pelham's fled to heaven."

Johnson this year found an interval of leisure to make an excursion to Oxford, for the purpose of consulting the libraries there. Of this, and of many interesting circumstances concerning him, during a part of his life when he conversed but little with the world, I am enabled to give a particular account,

1 Mallet's wife, a foolish and conceited woman, one evening introduced herself to David Hume, at an assembly, saying, "We deists, Mr. Hume, should know one another." Hume was exceedingly displeased and disconcerted, and replied, "Madam, I am no deist; I do not so style myself, neither do I desire to be known by that appellation."-Hardy's Life of Lord Charlemont, vol. i., p. 235. Boswell himself tells the same story in his Hypochondriac. This imputation would, even mere worldly grounds, be very disagreeable to Hume; for I have in my possession proof that when Lord Hertford (whose secretary, in his embassy to Paris, Hume had been) was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, his lordship declined continuing him in the same character, alleging as a reason the dissatisfaction that it would excite on account of Hume's anti-religious rinciples.-Croker.

by the liberal communications of the Rev. Mr. Thomas Warton, who obligingly furnished me with several of our common friend's letters, which he illustrated with notes. These I shall insert in their proper places.

"SIR,

TO THE REV. MR. THOMAS WARTON.

"London, July 16. 1754.

"It is but an ill return for the book with which you were pleased to favour me,' to have delayed my thanks for it till now. I am too apt to be negligent; but I can never deliberately show my disrespect to a man of your character; and I now pay you a very honest acknowledgment, for the advancement of the literature of our native country. You have shown to all, who shall hereafter attempt the study of our ancient authors, the way to success; by directing them to the perusal of the books which those authors had read. Of this method, Hughes, and men much greater than Hughes, seem never to have thought. The reason why the authors, which are yet read, of the sixteenth century, are so little understood, is, that they are read alone; and no help is borrowed from those who lived with them, or before them. Some part of this ignorance I hope to remove by my book, which now draws towards its end; but which I cannot finish to my mind, without visiting the libraries of Oxford, which I therefore hope to see in about a fortnight. I know not how long I shall stay, or where I shall lodge; but shall be sure to look for you at my arrival, and we shall easily settle the rest. I am dear Sir, your most obedient, &c. "SAM. JOHNSON."

Of his conversation while at Oxford at this time, Mr. Warton preserved and communicated to me the following memorial, which, though not written with all the care and attention which that learned and elegant writer bestowed on those compositions which he intended for the public eye, is so happily 1 Observations on Spenser's Fairy Queen, the first edition of which was now published.-Warton.

* Hughes published an edition of Spenser.-Warton.

3 His Dictionary.

He came to Oxford within a fortnight, and stayed about five weeks. He lodged at Kettel Hall, near Trinity College. But during his visit, he collected nothing in the libraries for his Dictionary.—Warton.