chastised Lord Chesterfield for his mean, finessing conduct to him
about his Dictionary, in a letter unparalleled, unless in "Junius,"
for its noble and condensed scorn,--a scorn which "burns frore," cold
performing the effect of fire--and which reached that callous Lord,
under the sevenfold shield of his conceit and conventionalism; visited
Oxford, and was presented by acclamation with that degree of M.A.
which he had left twenty-four years before without receiving; and, in
fine, issued his Dictionary, the work of eight years, and which,
undoubtedly, is the truest monument of his talent, industry, and
general capacity, if not of the richness of his invention, or of the
strength of his genius. He had obtained for it only the sum of £1575,
which was all spent in the progress of the work; and he was compelled
again to become a contributor to the periodical press, writing
copiously and characteristically to the _Gentleman's Magazine_, the
_Universal Visitor_, and the _Literary Magazine_. In 1756, he was
arrested for a debt of £5, 18s., but was relieved by Richardson, the
novelist. In the same year he resumed his intention of an edition of
Shakspeare, of which he issued proposals, and which he promised to
finish in little more than a year, although nine years were to elapse
ere it saw the light. In 1758, he began the "Idler," which reached the
103d No., and was considered lighter and more agreeable than the
"Rambler." He has seldom written anything so powerful as his fable of
"The Vultures." In 1759, his mother died, at the age of ninety,--an
event which deeply affected him. Soon after this, and to defray the
expenses of her funeral, he wrote his brilliant tale of "Rasselas," in
the evenings of a single week,--a rare feat of readiness and rapid
power, reminding one of Byron writing the "Corsair" in a fortnight,
and of Sir Walter Scott finishing "Guy Mannering" in three weeks.
There are perhaps more invention and more fancy in "Rasselas" than in
any of his works, although a gloom, partly the shadow of his mother's