But the most prominent in eagerness to claim the Doctor’s regard, and
to fasten upon his time, with wit, humour, learning, and eccentric
genius, that often made him pleasant, and always saved him from
becoming insignificant; though with an officious zeal, and an obtrusive
kindness that frequently caused him to be irksome, must be ranked Mr.
Cutler, a gentleman of no common parts, and certainly of no common
conduct; who loved Dr. Burney with an ardour the most sincere, but
which he had not attraction to make reciprocal; who wrote him letters
of a length interminable, yet with a frequency of repetition that would
have rendered even little billets wearisome; and who, satisfied of the
truth of his feelings, investigated not their worth, and never doubted
their welcome.
The Doctor had a heart too grateful and too gentle to roughly awaken
such friendship from its error; he endured, therefore, its annoyance,
till the intrusion upon his limited leisure became a serious
persecution. He then, almost perforce, sought to render him more
considerate by neglect, in wholly omitting to answer his letters.
But Mr. Cutler, though hurt and chagrined, was not quieted. Letter
still followed letter, detailing at full length his own ideas upon
every subject he could start; with kind assurances of his determined
patient expectance of future replies.
The Doctor then was reduced to frankly offer a remonstrance upon the
difference of their position with respect to time,—and its claims.
This, though done with softness and delicacy, opened all at once the
eyes of this pertinacious friend to his unreflecting insufficiency;
but, of course, rather with a feeling of injury, than to a sense of
justice; and he withdrew abruptly from all correspondence; powerfully
piqued, yet in silent, uncomplaining dismay.
To give an idea of his singular style, some few extracts, of the most
uncommon sort, will be selected for the correspondence, from the vast
volume of letters that will be consigned to the flames.[55]