He now, also, renewed into long and social meetings, at his own
apartments at Chelsea college, an acquaintance of forty-six years’
standing with Mason, the poet; by whom he was often consulted upon
schemes of church psalmody, with respect both to its composition and
execution; as well as upon other desirable improvements in our sacred
harmony; which Mr. Mason, from practical knowledge both of music and
poetry, was peculiarly fitted to investigate and refine.
Of this formation of intimacy, rather than renewal of acquaintance,
Dr. Burney, in his Letters to the Hermits, spoke with great pleasure;
though, while always admiring the talents, and esteeming the private
character of that charming poet, he never lost either his regret or
his blame for the truly unclerical use made of his powers of wit and
humour, by the insidious, yet biting sarcasms, levelled against his
virtuous Sovereign in the poetical epistle to Sir William Chambers.
Had any crime been held up to view, there might have been an exaltation
of courage in not suffering the Throne to be its protector; or had any
secret vice, that was undermining moral duties, been exposed, there
might have been a nobleness of intrepid indignation in casting upon
it the glare of public contempt. But the shaft was levelled at one
who had neither crime nor vice; an exemption so rare, that it ought
to have created respect for the lowest born subject in the realm; and
therefore, when marking the character of a monarch, became a call, a
commanding call, to every lover of virtue—be his politics what they
might—for being blazoned with public applause, as an excitement to
public example.