hip's antechamber, for which the reason affigned was, that he had company with him; and that at laft, when the door opened, out walked Colley Cibber; and that Johnson was fo violently provoked when he found for whom he had been fo long excluded, that he went away in a paffion, 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 wellknown truth, defended Lord Chesterfield, by faying, that "Cibber, who had been introduced familiarly by the back-stairs, had probably not been there above ten minutes." It may feem ftrange even to entertain a doubt concerning a story so long and fo widely current, and thus implicitly adopted, if not fanctified, by the authority which I have mentioned; but Johnson himself affured me, that there was not the leaft foundation for it. 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 refolved to have no connection with him. When the Dictionary was upon the eve of publication, Lord Chefterfield, who, it is faid, had flattered himfelf with expectations that Johnfon would dedicate the work to him, attempted, in a courtly manner, to footh, and infinuate himself with the fage, confcious, as it should seem, of the cold indifference with which he had treated its learned authour; and further attempted to conciliate him, by writing two papers in "The World," in recommendation of the work; and it must be confeffed, that they contain fome ftudied compliments, fo finely turned, that if there had been no previous offence, it is probable that Johnson would have been highly delighted. Praife, in general, was pleafing to him; but by praise from a man of rank and elegant accomplishments, he was peculiarly gratified. His Lordship fays, "I think the publick in general, and the republick of letters in particular, are greatly obliged to Mr. Johnson, for having undertaken, and executed, fo great and defirable 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 one man could do. The Plan of it, which he published fome years ago, feems to me to be a proof of it. Nothing can be more rationally imagined, or more accurately and elegantly expreffed. I therefore recommend the previous perufal of it to all thofe who intend to buy the Dictionary, and who, I fuppofe, are all thofe who can afford it. * "It must be owned, that our language is, at prefent, in a ftate of anarchy, and hitherto, perhaps, it may not have been the worfe for it. During our free T 2 1754. 1754. Etat. 45. free and open trade, many words and expreffions have been imported, adopted, and naturalized from other languages, which have greatly enriched our own. Let it ftill 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 unneceffary ornaments. The time for discrimination feems to be now come. Toleration, adoption, and naturalization have run their lengths. Good order and authority are now neceffary. But where fhall we find them, and, at the fame time, the obedience due to them? We must have recourfe to the old Roman expedient in times of confufion, and chufe 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 furrender of all my rights and privileges in the English language, as a free-born British fubject, to the faid 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 while in the chair, but no longer. More than this he cannot well require; for, I prefume, that obedience can never be expected, when there is neither terrour to enforce, nor intereft to invite it. "But a Grammar, a Dictionary, and a History of our Language through its several stages, were ftill wanting at home, and importunately called for from abroad. Mr. Johnson's labours will now, I dare fay, very fully supply that want, and greatly contribute to the farther fpreading of our language in other countries. Learners were difcouraged, by finding no ftandard to refort to; and, confequently, thought it incapable of any. They will now be undeceived and encouraged." This courtly device failed of its effect. Johnfon, who thought that "all was falfe and hollow," defpifed the honeyed words, and was even indignant that Lord Chesterfield should, for a moment, imagine, that he could be the dupe of fuch an artifice. His expreffion to me concerning Lord Chesterfield, upon this occafion, was, "Sir, after making great profeffions, he had, for many years, taken no notice of me; but when my Dictionary was coming out, he fell a fcribbling in the World about it. Upon which, I wrote him a letter, expreffed in civil terms, but fuch as might fhew 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 fo much has been faid, and about which curiofity has been fo long excited, without being gratified. I for many years folicited Johnson to favour me with a copy of it, that so excellent a compofition 1754. compofition might not be loft 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, Etat. 45. at Southill in Bedfordshire, he was pleased 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 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. your "When, upon fome flight encouragement, I first visited your Lordship, I was overpowered, like the rest of mankind, by the enchantment of addrefs; and could not forbear to wifh that I might boast myself Le vainqueur du vainqueur de la terre ;-that I might obtain that regard for which I faw the world contending; but I found my attendance fo little encouraged, that neither pride nor modesty would fuffer me to continue it. When I had once addreffed your Lordship in publick, I had exhausted all the art of pleasing 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 fo 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 laft, to the verge of publication, without one act of affiftance3, 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. Johnson, 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 1754. Etat. 45. "The fhepherd in Virgil grew at laft 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 ftruggling 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 afperity not to confess obligations where no benefit has been received, or to be unwilling that the publick fhould 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, My Lord, "Your Lordship's most humble "Moft obedient fervant, "SAM. JOHNSON'." "While this was the talk of the town, (fays Dr. Adams, in a letter to me) I happened to visit Dr. Warburton, who finding that I was acquainted with Johnson, 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. Johnson was visibly pleased with this compliment, In this paffage Dr. Johnson 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:" 3 "Vain-wealth, and fame, and fortune's foftering care, If no fond breaft the fplendid bleffings fhare; "And, each day's bustling pageantry once past, "There, only there, our bliss is found at laft.” 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 1754. which appeared in this letter, was congenial with that which Warburton himself amply poffeffed. There is a curious minute circumftance which ftruck 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 diftinction ftood 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 Chesterfield's fallacious patronage made him feel, he difmiffed the word garret from the sad group, and in all the fubfequent editions the line stands 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 constant study, affected to be quite unconcerned. Dr. Adams mentioned to Mr. Robert DodЛley that he was forry Johnson had written his letter to Lord Chesterfield. Dodfley, 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 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 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 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 DodЛley, was certainly nothing but a fpecimen of that diffimulation which Lord Chesterfield inculcated as one of the most effential leffons 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 of the flimfinefs of his defence, from his having excufed his neglect of Johnfon, by faying 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 Etat. 45. |