the town, (says Dr. Adams, in a letter to
me) I happened to visit Dr. Warburton, who finding that I was acquainted
with Johnson, desired me earnestly to carry his compliments to him, and
to tell him that he honoured him for his manly behaviour in rejecting
these condescensions of Lord Chesterfield, and for resenting the
treatment he had received from him, with a proper spirit. Johnson was
visibly pleased with this compliment, for he had always a high opinion
of Warburton. Indeed, the force of mind which appeared in this letter,
was congenial with that which Warburton himself amply possessed.'

There is a curious minute circumstance which struck me, in comparing
the various editions of Johnson's imitations of Juvenal. In the tenth
Satire, one of the couplets upon the vanity of wishes even for literary
distinction stood thus:

'Yet think what ills the scholar's life assail,
Pride, envy, want, the GARRET, and the jail.'

But after experiencing the uneasiness which Lord Chesterfield's
fallacious patronage made him feel, he dismissed the word garret from
the sad group, and in all the subsequent editions the line stands--

'Pride, envy, want, the PATRON, and the jail.'

That Lord Chesterfield must have been mortified by the lofty contempt,
and polite, yet keen satire with which Johnson exhibited him to himself
in this letter, it is impossible to doubt. He, however, with that
glossy duplicity which was his constant study, affected to be quite
unconcerned. Dr. Adams mentioned to Mr. Robert Dodsley that he was sorry
Johnson had written his letter to Lord Chesterfield. Dodsley, with the
true feelings of trade, said 'he was very sorry too; for that he had a
property in the Dictionary, to which his Lordship's patronage might have
been of consequence.' He then told Dr. Adams, that Lord Chesterfield had
shewn him the letter. 'I should have imagined (replied Dr. Adams) that
Lord Chesterfield would have concealed it.' 'Poh! (said Dodsley) do you
think a letter from Johnson could hurt Lord Chesterfield? Not at all,
Sir. It lay upon his table; where any body might see it. He read it
to me; said, "this man has great powers," pointed out the severest
passages, and observed how well they were expressed.' This air of
indifference, which imposed upon the worthy Dodsley, was certainly
nothing but a specimen of that dissimulation which Lord Chesterfield
inculcated as one of the most essential lessons for the conduct of life.