EARL OF CHATHAM. It is pleasant when we can turn from the public to the private page of a great man's history, and find him a great man still. The energies which are bent up to sustain a character for wisdom and virtue in the eyes of the multitude, frequently give place to the innate weakness of human nature, when the sphere of admiration is contracted to a man's own household. Public magnanimity is often accompanied by domestic frailty of conduct. Virtue engaged in defence of the general weal, is not always at leisure to think of conferring particular benefit; nor do we commonly find the dictator of the affairs of men, a pastor of the ways of youth. Who, for instance, could expect to meet in the British Demosthenes, the scourge of France, and the arbiter of the fate of Europe, the preceptor of a child? Is it in the ambitious statesman, the vehement orator, in him who wielded alone the powers of a mighty empire, and shook her senate-house with the thunders of his eloquence, is it in such a man we are to look for the mild and familiar instructor of a boy? How are we pleased and surprised to find the great Earl of Chatham writing in this subdued and amiable tone of affectionate, minute solicitude! From the Earl of Chatham to his Nephew, Thomas Pitt, Esq. (afterwards Lord Camelford.) MY DEAR NEPHEW, Bath, Oct. 12, 1751. As I have been moving about from place to place, your letter reached me here, at Bath, but very lately, after making a considerable circuit to find me. I should have otherwise, my dear child, returned you thanks for the very great pleasure you have given me, long before now. The very good account you give me of your studies, and that delivered in very good Latin, for your time, has filled me with the highest expectation. of your future improvements: I see the foundations so well laid, that I do not make the least doubt but you will become a perfect good scholar; and have the pleasure and applause that will attend the several advantages hereafter, in the future course of your life, that you can only acquire now by your emulation and noble labours in the pursuit of learning, and of every acquirement that is to make you superior to other gentlemen. I rejoice to hear that you have begun Homer's Iliad ; and have made so great a progress in Virgil. I hope you taste and love those authors particularly. You cannot read them too much; they are not only the two greatest poets, but they contain the finest lessons for your age to imbibe : lessons of honour, courage, disinterestedness, love of truth, command of temper, gentleness of behaviour, humanity, and, in one word, virtue in its true signification. Go on, my dear nephew, and drink as deep as you can of these divine springs : the pleasure of the draught is equal at least to the prodigious advantages of it to the heart and morals, I hope you will drink them, as somebody does in Virgil of another sort of cup: Ille impiger hausit spumantem pateram. I shall be highly pleased to hear from you, and to know what authors give you most pleasure. I desire my service to Mr. Leech: pray tell him I will write to him soon about your studies. I am, with the greatest affection, my dear child, your loving uncle. A biograph of the Earl of Chatham is almost superfluous; it is written in the memory of his countrymen, and our histories and records are full of his actions, his virtues, and his glories. In consonance, however, with our general plan, we will give a brief outline of his life. William Pitt, the first Earl of Chatham, was born in the year 1708, at Boconnoc, in Cornwall, of a respectable family: his grandfather, Thomas Pitt, had been governor of Madras, and was the purchaser of the celebrated diamond so well known by the name of the regent. Lord Chesterfield has given a ተ general character of his more illustrious grandson, part of which we now quote, as affording to youth an excellent lesson of what industry, temperance, and a laudable spirit of ambition may effect, though unassisted by fortune, patronage, or birth; it is also well calculated to show, that as there is no happiness in this world without its alloy, so there is no evil but what may be made productive of good, by a wise endeavour to turn it to the best advantage. "Mr. Pitt owed his rise to the most considerable post and power in this kingdom singly to his own abilities: in him they supplied the want of birth and fortune, which latter in others too often supply the want of the former. He was a younger brother of a very new family, and his fortune was only an annuity of one hundred pounds a year. The army was his original destination, and a cornetcy of horse his first and only commission in it, Thus unassisted by favour or fortune, he had no powerful protector to introduce him into business, and (if I may use that expression) to do the honours of his parts; but their own strength L |