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.
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