One only gentle and genuine sentiment possessed Lord Chesterfield, and
that was his love for his son. Yet in this affection the worldly man
might be seen in mournful colours. He did not seek to render his son
good; his sole desire was to see him successful: every lesson that he
taught him, in those matchless Letters which have carried down
Chesterfield's fame to us when his other productions have virtually
expired, exposes a code of dissimulation which Philip Stanhope, in his
marriage, turned upon the father to whom he owed so much care and
advancement. These Letters are, in fact, a complete exposition of Lord
Chesterfield's character and views of life. No other man could have
written them; no other man have conceived the notion of existence being
one great effort to deceive, as well as to excel, and of society forming
one gigantic lie. It is true they were addressed to one who was to enter
the maze of a diplomatic career, and must be taken, on that account,
with some reservation.
They have justly been condemned on the score of immorality; but we must
remember that the age in which they were written was one of lax notions,
especially among men of rank, who regarded all women accessible, either
from indiscretion or inferiority of rank, as fair game, and acted
accordingly.
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