n of France.
Would we alter the boast, from the sword to the pen,
Our odds are still greater, still greater our men.
In the deep mines of science, though Frenchmen may toil,
Can their strength be compar'd to Locke, Newton, or Boyle?
Let them rally their heroes, send forth all their powers,
Their versemen and prosemen, then match them with ours.
First Shakespeare and Milton, like gods in the fight,
Have put their whole drama and epic to flight.
In satires, epistles, and odes would they cope?
Their numbers retreat before Dryden and Pope.
And Johnson, well arm'd, like a hero of yore,
Has beat forty French, and will beat forty more."

It is, perhaps, needless to mention, that forty was the number of the
French academy, at the time when their dictionary was published to
settle their language.

In the course of the winter, preceding this grand publication, the late
earl of Chesterfield gave two essays in the periodical paper, called The
World, dated November 28, and December 5, 1754, to prepare the public
for so important a work. The original plan, addressed to his lordship in
the year 1747, is there mentioned, in terms of the highest praise; and
this was understood, at the time, to be a courtly way of soliciting a
dedication of the Dictionary to himself. Johnson treated this civility
with disdain. He said to Garrick and others: "I have sailed a long and
painful voyage round the world of the English language; and does he now
send out two cockboats to tow me into harbour?" He had said, in the last
number of the Rambler, "that, having laboured to maintain the dignity of
virtue, I will not now degrade it by the meanness of dedication." Such a
man, when he had finished his Dictionary, "not," as he says himself, "in
the soft obscurities of retirement, or under the shelter of academick
bowers, but amidst inconvenience and distraction, in sickness and in
sorrow, and without the patronage of the great," was not likely to be
caught by the lure, thrown out by lord Chesterfield. He had, in vain,
sought the patronage of that nobleman; and his pride, exasperated by
disappointment, drew from him the following letter, dated in the month
of February, 1755.

"TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF CHESTERFIELD.

MY LORD,--I have been lately informed, by the proprietors of The
World, that two papers, in which my Dictionary is recommended to the
publick, were written by your lordship. To be so distinguished is