here infert a letter of moral inftruction from one of the wifeft and greateft men that this nation ever had to boast of, to his fon, and leave the reader to make the comparison between it and thofe of the nobleman of whom I am now speaking. It is from Sir Henry Sydney to his fon Philip, afterwards the famous Sir Philip, who, when arrived at the age of manhood, combining the qualities of a foldier, a fcholar, a poet, and a courtier, was confeffedly one of the most accomplished gentlemen in Europe. 'I have received two letters from you, one written in Latin, the other in French, which I take in good part, and will you to exercife that practice of learning often, for that will ftand you in most stead ' in that profeffion of life that you are born to live in. ' And since this is my first letter that ever I did write ' to you, I will not that it be all empty of fome ad'vices, which my natural care of you provoketh me 'to wish you to follow, as documents to you in this your tender age. Let your first action be the lifting up of your mind to Almighty God by hearty prayer, and feelingly digeft the words you fpeak in prayer with continual meditation and thinking of him to whom you pray, and of the matter for which you pray, and use this as an ordinary, at, ' and at an ordinary hour, whereby the time itself 'will put you in remembrance to do that which you are accustomed to do. In that time apply your study to fuch hours as your difcreet master doth affign you, earnestly, and the time I know he will 'fo limit as fhall be both fufficient for your learning, and safe for your health: and mark the fenfe and the с 'the matter of that you read, as well as the words ; fo fhall you both enrich your tongue with words, < and your wit with matter, and judgment will grow 'as years grow in you. Be humble and obedient to your master; for unless you frame yourself to obey others, yea and feel in yourself what obedience is, you shall never be able to teach others how to obey you. Be courteous of gefture, and affable 'to all men, with diverfity of reverence according to the dignity of the perfon: there is nothing that 'winneth so much with fo little coft. Ufe moderate diet, fo as after your meat you may find your wit • fresher and not duller, and your body more lively ⚫ and not more heavy. Seldom drink wine, and yet fometime do, left being inforced to drink upon the ⚫ fudden you should find yourself inflamed. Ufe ex⚫ercise of body, but such as is without peril of your 'joints or bones: it will increase your force and en large your breath. Delight to be cleanly as well in 'all parts of your body as in your garments: it shall 'make you grateful in each company, and otherwise loathfome. Give yourself to be merry; for you degenerate from your father if you find not yourself < most able in wit and body to do any thing when you 'be most merry: but let your mirth be ever void of all fcurrility and biting words to any man, for a wound given by a word is oftentimes harder to be 'cured than that which is given with the fword. Be 'you rather a hearer and bearer away of other mens' talk than a beginner or procurer of speech, otherwise you fhall be counted to delight to hear yourself fpeak. If you hear a wife sentence or an apt phrase, ' commit ' commit it to your memory, with refpect of the cir'cumftances when you fhall fpeak it. Let never 'oath be heard to come out of your mouth nor word ' of ribaldry: deteft it in others; fo fhall custom 'make to yourself a law against it in yourself. Be 'modest in each affembly, and rather be rebuked of light fellows for maidenlike fhamefacedness, than of your fad friends for pert boldness. Think upon ' every word that word that you will speak before you utter it, • and remember how nature hath rampired up (as it I were) the tongue with teeth, lips, yea and hair " without the lips, and all betokening reins or bridles for the loose use of that member. Above all things 'tell no untruth, no not in trifles. The cuftom of ie is naught, and let it not fatisfy you that for a time 'the hearers take it for a truth, for after it will be 'known as it is, to your shame, for there cannot be a greater reproach to a gentleman than to be accounted a liar. Study and endeavour yourself to be virtuously occupied; fo fhall you make such an habit ' of well-doing in you that you shall not know how 'to do evil, though you would. Remember, my son, "the noble blood you are descended of by your mo'ther's fide, and think that only by virtuous life and good action you may be an ornament to that illuf trious family, and otherwife, through vice and floth you fhall be counted labes generis, one of the greatest curfes that can happen to man. Well (my little Philip) this is enough for me, and 'too much I fear for you: but if I fhall find that this light meal of digeftion nourish any thing the ! weak stomach of your young capacity, I will, <as ' as I find the fame grow ftronger, feed it with tougher • food, Your loving father, fo long as The hopeful documents contained in this inftitute of politeness, lord Chesterfield's letters to his fon, failed in a great measure of their end. His lordship's intereft with the miniftry, founded on a feat in parliament, which, though a great declaimer against corruption, he bought as he would have done a horfe, procured him the appointment of an envoy-extraordinary to the court of Dresden, We find not that the young man had any female attachments, but that on the contrary he had more grace than his father. He married a woman, who becoming a widow, and provoked by real or imaginary ill treatment of lord Chefterfield, published thofe letters, which, had he been living, he would have given almost any thing to have fuppreffed, as they fhew him to have been a man devoted to pleasure, and actuated by vanity, without religious, moral, or political principles, a fmatterer in learning, and in manners a coxcomb. Such was the perfon whom Johnson in the fimplicity of his heart chofe for a patron, and was betrayed to celebrate as the Mæcenas of the age; and fuch was the opinion he had conceived of his skill in literature, his love of eloquence, and his zeal for the interefts of learning, that he approached him with the utmost respect, and that he might not err in his manner of expreffing Sydney Papers, vol. I. page 8. it, the ftile and language of that addrefs which his plan includes are little less than adulatory. With a view farther to fecure his patronage, he waited on him in person, and was honoured by him with converfations on the fubject of literature, in which he found him fo deficient as gave him occafion to repent the choice he had made, and to fay, that the labour he had bestowed in his address to lord Chefterfield refembled that of gilding a rotten poft, that he was a wit among lords and a lord among wits, and that his accomplishments were only thofe of a dancing mafter. It is pretty well understood that, as Johnfon had chosen this nobleman for his patron, he meant to have dedicated to him his work, and he might poffibly have done fo, even after he had discovered that he was unworthy of that honour; but the earl's behaviour in a particular instance prevented him. Johnson one day made him a morning vifit, and being admitted into an anti-chamber, was told, that his lordship was engaged with a gentleman, but would fee him as foon as the gentleman went. It was not till after an hour's waiting that Johnfon difcovered that this gentleman was Colley Cibber, which he had no fooner done, than he rushed out of the house with a refolution never to enter it more. What impreffion Johnfon's vifits made upon his lordship, we are told by the latter in a character of him, which, as well for the fake of the one as the other, I wish to be held forth to the public. Speaking, as his lordship is ever doing, to his fon of the engaging manners, the pleafing attentions, the graces, with the reft of that nonfenfe which was ever floating in his 7 not |