letter to LOrd Chesterfield分析

Question 2

For Lord Chesterfield, 10 pounds was just a frivolous thing, as a kind of alms to someone begging for his patron while he had no intension to. As sensible men can perceive, it surely and obviously played no role at all in the years when Johnson compiled the Dictionary. Reaping without sowing did not become a noble man like Lord Chesterfield. Displaying the letter on a table for all visitors to read seemed to meanwhile display his generosity and magnanimity; while for people who owned their common sense and self-judgement, it actually was a show, for the purpose of realizing his Patron! Having finished the Lord’s letter to his son, I’ve roughly gathered some idea about his personality, a fairly sophisticated and practical one, who would never do any harm to his reputation. As a bystander in 21st century, I still don’t prefer such a fame-fishing act. The above two facts won’t make Johnson’s letter less justifiable, because with his well-structured sentences and words, he had made it clear what he had obtained from his hard work had nothing to do with any Patron. The letter was a form of a writer’s “declaration of independency”.

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