well are divided. To some he appears as the true and
faithful Atticus to the Cicero of his friend, the Mentor and honest
adviser in all times of danger and trial. To others he seems but to have
possessed, in a minor degree, all the failings of Boswell himself, and
it would appear the most natural inference to believe that, had Temple
been endowed with greater force of mental or moral character, the
results would have been seen in many ways upon the actions of his
friend. In his wife he was unfortunate, and, at one time at least, he
attempted to secure a colonial chaplaincy in order to effect a
separation. He was the writer of an _Essay on the Clergy; their Studies
and Recreations_, 1774; _Historical and Political Memoirs_, 1777; _Abuse
of Unrestrained Power_, 1778; all of which have completely passed from
the memory of man. But he lives with a fair claim to fame, as the
correspondent of Boswell, who calls him 'best of friends' to 'a weak
distemper'd soul that swells in sudden gusts, and sinks again in calms.'
A chance memorandum by Temple, on the death of Gray, displaying
considerable felicity of phrase and insight, was sent by Boswell to the
_London Magazine_ of March 1772, from which it was copied by Mason in
his _Life of Gray_, and in an adapted form it was used by Johnson
himself in his sketch of the poet's work, in his _Lives of the Poets_.
The discovery of the _Letters to Temple_ is one of the happiest
accidents in literature, and without them the true life of Boswell could
not be written. To neither Macaulay nor Carlyle were they known for use
in their famous reviews. On the death of Temple in 1796, one year after
the decease of his friend, his papers passed into the possession of his
son-in-law, who retired to France, where he died. Some fifty years ago,
a gentleman making purchases in a shop at Boulogne, observed that the
wrapper was a scrap of a letter, which formed part of a bundle bought
shortly before from a travelling hawker. On investigation, the letters
were found to be the correspondence of Boswell with Temple, and all
doubts as to their genuineness were conclusively set at rest by their
bearing the London and Devon post marks, and the franks of well known
names. But the internal evidence alone, as we shall see, would be
sufficient to establish their authenticity. Published in 1857 by
Bentley, under the careful editorship of Mr Francis, they constitute,
along with the no less happy discovery in 1854, behi