But there were men in his
audience, men who loved better to criticise, than to be amended; and
women, who felt more complacency in scandal, than eulogium. He displeased
the one by disappointing them; it was impossible to disappoint the other.
He laboured unremittedly, but his labours returned to him void. "And is it
for this," said he, "that I have sacrificed ambition, and buried talents?
Is humility to be rewarded only with mortification? Is obscurity and
retirement the favourite scene of uneasiness, ingratitude, and
impertinence? They shall be no longer my torment. In no scene can I meet
with a more scanty success."
He now obtained a recommendation to be private tutor to the children of a
nobleman. This nobleman was celebrated for the politeness of his manners
and the elegance of his taste. It was his boast and his ambition to be
considered as the patron of men of letters. With his prospect therefore in
this connection, Mr. Godfrey was perfectly satisfied. "I shall no longer,"
said he, "be the slave of ignorance, and the victim of insensibility. My
talents perhaps point me a step higher than to the business of forming the
minds of youth. But, at least, the youth under my care are destined to
fill the most conspicuous stations in future life. If propitious fortune
might have raised me to the character of a statesman; depressed by
adversity, I may yet have the honour of moulding the mind, and infusing
generosity into the heart, of a future statesman.
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