the letters of Lord Chesterfield, which, I am inclined to think, may
have formed a part of the rough copy of the book, announced by him to
Mr. Linley as ready in the November of this year. Lord Chesterfield's
Letters appeared for the first time in 1774, and the sensation they
produced was exactly such as would tempt a writer in quest of popular
subjects to avail himself of it. As the few pages which I have found,
and which contain merely scattered hints of thoughts, are numbered as
high as 232, it is possible that the preceding part of the work may have
been sufficiently complete to go into the printer's hands, and that
there,--like so many more of his "unshelled brood,"--it died without
ever taking wing. A few of these memorandums will, I have no doubt, be
acceptable to the reader.

"Lord C.'s whole system in no one article calculated to make a great
man.--A noble youth should be ignorant of the things he wishes him to
know;--such a one as he wants would be _too soon_ a man.

"Emulation is a dangerous passion to encourage, in some points, in young
men; it is so linked with envy: if you reproach your son for not
surpassing his school-fellows, he will hate those who are before him.
Emulation not to be encouraged even in virtue. True virtue will, like
the Athenian, rejoice in being surpassed; a friendly emulation cannot
exist in two minds; one must hate the perfections in which he is
eclipsed by the other;--thus, from hating the quality in his
competitor, he loses the respect for it in himself:--a young man by
himself better educated than two.--A Roman's emulation was not to excel
his countrymen, but to make his country excel: this is the true, the
other selfish.--Epaminondas, who reflected on the pleasure his success
would give his father, most glorious;--an emulation for that purpose,
true.