the publick should consider me as
owing that to a patron which Providence has enabled me to do for
myself.'

The conduct of Johnson, on this occasion, was approved by most manly
minds, except that of his publisher, Mr. Robert Dodsley; Dr. Adams, a
friend of Dodsley, said he was sorry that Johnson had written that
celebrated letter (a very model of polite contempt). Dodsley said he was
sorry too, for he had a property in the Dictionary, to which his
lordship's patronage might be useful. He then said that Lord
Chesterfield had shown him the letter. 'I should have thought,' said
Adams, 'that Lord Chesterfield would have concealed it.' 'Pooh!' cried
Dodsley, 'do you think a letter from Johnson could hurt Lord
Chesterfield? not at all, sir. It lay on his table, where any one might
see it. He read it to me; said, "this man has great powers," pointed out
the severest passages, and said, "how well they were expressed."' The
art of dissimulation, in which Chesterfield was perfect, imposed on Mr.
Dodsley.

Dr. Adams expostulated with the doctor, and said Lord Chesterfield
declared he would part with the best servant he had, if he had known
that he had turned away a man who was '_always_ welcome.' Then Adams
insisted on Lord Chesterfield's affability, and easiness of access to
literary men. But the sturdy Johnson replied, 'Sir, that is not Lord
Chesterfield; he is the proudest man existing.' 'I think,' Adams
rejoined, 'I know one that is prouder; you, by your own account, are the
prouder of the two.' 'But mine,' Johnson answered, with one of his happy
turns, 'was defensive pride.' 'This man,' he afterwards said, referring
to Chesterfield, 'I thought had been a lord among wits, but I find he is
only a wit among lords.'

In revenge, Chesterfield in his Letters depicted Johnson, it is said, in
the character of the 'respectable Hottentot.' Amongst other things, he
observed of the Hottentot, 'he throws his meat anywhere but down his
throat.' This being remarked to Johnson, who was by no means pleased at
being immortalized as the Hottentot--'Sir,' he answered, 'Lord
Chesterfield never saw me eat in his life.'

[Illustration: DR. JOHNSON AT LORD CHESTERFIELD'S.]

Such are the leading points of this famous and lasting controversy. It
is amusing to know that Lord Chesterfield was not always precise as to
directions to his letters. He once directed to Lord Pembroke, who was
always swimming 'To the Earl of Pembroke, in the Thames, over