"The humble Petition of Philip, Earl of Chesterfield, K. G." A humourous bagatelle in the New Foundling Hospital for Wit, vol. ii. An original letter from his lordship, dated Bath, 1757, was printed in Censura Literaria, vol. viii. p. 60. and is very characteristic. Another to lord Melcombe, when ambassador at Madrid, in 1716, has the following skit: "As for the gay part of the town, you would find it much more flourishing than you left it. Balls, assemblies, and masquerades, have taken place of dull formal visiting days, and the women are become much more agreeable trifles than they were designed." His lordship's poetical performances are scattered over the miscellanies of Dodsley, Almon, Debrett, &c. A few stanzas will demonstrate that his idolization of gracefulness extended itself to his versification. "TO FLORELLA. "Why will Florella, when I gaze, My ravish'd eyes reprove, "To shun her scorn and ease my care I seek a nymph more kind; And while I rove from fair to fair, Still gentler usage find. "But, oh! how faint is every joy Where nature has no part; New beauties may my eyes employ, "So restless exiles doom'd to roam, Meet pity every where; Yet languish for their native home, Though death attend them there." The following passages, culled by the present editor, in earlier life, from lord Chesterfield's Letters to his Son, will prove that some wholesome monitions may be found amid much deleterious instruction." "The knowledge of the world is only to be acquired in the world, and not in a closet. Books alone will never teach it: but they will suggest many things to your observation, which might otherwise escape; and your own observations upon mankind, when compared with those which are found in books, will help you to fix the true point. "Virtue and learning, like gold, have their intrinsic value; but if they are not polished, they certainly lose a great deal of their lustre: and even polished brass will pass upon more people than rough gold. "The scholar, without good-breeding, is a pedant; the philosopher, a cynic; the soldier, a brute; and every man disagreeable. 9 A certain portion of the mischief which has been believed to result from the perusal of lord Chesterfield's Letters, may be occasionally ascribed to the misapplication of the reader; who is apt to extend to himself, however different his situation in life may be, what was individually directed to a person who was designed to become a courtier and a diplomatist. The immorality of these letters is not hereby vindicated, to whatever person, in whatever station, they might be addressed. "Good-breeding is the result of much good sense, some good nature, and a little self-denial for the sake of others, with a view to obtain the same indulgence from them. "The desire of pleasing is at least half the art of doing it. "If you have wit, use it to please and not to hurt: you may then shine, like the sun in the temperate zones, without scorching. "Errors and mistakes, however gross, in matters of opinion, ought not to be punished or laughed at. The blindness of the understanding is as much to be pitied as the blindness of the eyes, and there is neither jest nor guilt in a man's losing his way in either case. "Speak of the moderns without contempt, and of the ancients without idolatry; judge them all by their merits, but not by their ages. "Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well. "Idleness is only the refuge of weak minds, and the holiday of fools. "A man is fit for neither business nor pleasure, who either cannot or does not command his attention to the present object, and in some degree banish, for that time, all other objects from his thought. There is time enough for every thing in the course of the day, if you do but one thing at once; but there is not time enough in the year, if you will do two things at a time. 66 Knowledge is a comfortable and necessary retreat and shelter for us in advanced age; but if we do not plant it while young, it will give us no shade when we grow old. "Manners must adorn knowledge, and smooth its way through the world. Like a great rough diamond, it may do very well in a closet by way of curiosity, and also for its intrinsic value; but it will never be worn, nor shine, if it is not polished. "Good manners are to particular societies what good morals are to society in general- their cement and security. "To do as you would be done by, is the plain, sure, and undisputed rule of morality and justice. " "Gentleness of manners, with firmness of mind, is a short but full delineation of human perfection on this side of religious and moral duties."] It is a rule derived from the Founder of our holy religion, and may therefore be securely adopted: "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the prophets." Matt. vii. 12. GEORGE, LORD LYTTELTON. LEARNING, eloquence, and gravity distinguished this peer above most of his rank, and breathe in all his prose. His "Epistle to Mr. Pope" is the best of his poetry, which was more elegant than striking. Originality seems never to have been his aim: his most known pieces, his "Persian Letters," and "Dialogues of the Dead," being copies of Montesquieu and Fontenelle; and his "Henry the Second," formed on the model of the ancients, was not adapted to the vivacity that is admitted into modern history. He published the latter himself, in 5 volumes 4to, and the rest of his works, collected by his nephew, Mr. Ayscough, were printed in one large volume, in 4to, in the summer of 1774. There have also been published of his lordship's writing, though not reprinted in the collection of his works, "An Epistle to William Pitt," afterwards earl of Chatham, occasioned by an Epistle to the latter from the hon. Thos. Hervey. |