to be
dissipated and even licentious, but he had an ambitious and a daring
spirit. He well knew his own great gifts, and he knew also and frankly
recognized the defects of character and temperament which were likely
to neutralize their influence. If he entered the House of Commons
before the legal age, if for long he preferred pleasure to politics, he
was determined to make a mark in the political world. We shall see
much of Chesterfield in the course of this history; we shall see how
utterly unjust and absurd is the common censure which sets him down as
a literary and political {5} fribble; we shall see that his speeches
were so good that Horace Walpole declares that the finest speech he
ever listened to was one of Chesterfield's; we shall see how bold he
could be, and what an enlightened judgment he could bring to bear on
the most difficult political questions; we shall see how near he went
to genuine political greatness.

[Sidenote: 1733--Chesterfield's character]

It is not easy to form a secure opinion as to the real character of
Chesterfield. If one is to believe the accounts of some of the
contemporaries who came closest to him and ought to have known him
best, Chesterfield had scarcely one great or good quality of heart.
His intellect no one disputed, but no one seems to have believed that
he had any savor of truth or honor or virtue. Hervey, who was fond of
beating out fancies fine, is at much pains to compare and contrast
Chesterfield with Scarborough and Carteret. Thus, while Lord
Scarborough was always searching after truth, loving it, and adhering
to it, Chesterfield and Carteret were both of them most abominably
given to fable, and both of them often, unnecessarily and consequently
indiscreetly so; "for whoever would lie usefully should lie seldom."
Lord Scarborough had understanding, with judgment and without wit; Lord
Chesterfield a speculative head, with wit and without judgment. Lord
Scarborough had honor and principle, while Chesterfield and Carteret
treated all principles of honesty and integrity with such open contempt
that they seemed to think the appearance of these qualities would be of
as little use to them as the reality. In short, Lord Scarborough was
an honest, prudent man, capable of being a good friend, while Lord
Chesterfield and Carteret were dishonest, imprudent creatures, whose
principles practically told all their acquaintance, "If you do not
behave to me like knaves, I shall