So many years had elapsed since the appearance of the first volume,
and the murmurs of the subscribers were so general for the publication
of the second, that the earnestness of the Doctor to fulfil his
engagement, became such as to sicken him of almost every occupation
that turned him from its pursuit. Yet uninterrupted attention grew more
than ever difficult; for as his leisure, through the double claims of
his profession and his work, diminished, his celebrity increased; and
the calls upon it, as usual, from the wayward taste of public fashion
for what is hard to obtain, were perpetual, were even clamorous; and he
had constantly a long list of petitioning parents, awaiting a vacant
hour, upon any terms that he could name, and at any part of the day.
He had always some early pupil who accepted his attendance at eight
o’clock in the morning; and a strong instance has been given of its
being seized upon even at seven;[37] and, during the height of the
season for fashionable London residence, his tour from house to house
was scarcely ever finished sooner than eleven o’clock at night.
But so urgent grew now the spirit of his diligence for the progress of
his work, that he not only declined all invitations to the hospitable
boards of his friends, he even resisted the social hour of repast at
his own table; and took his solitary meal in his coach, while passing
from scholar to scholar; for which purpose he had sandwiches prepared
in a flat tin box; and wine and water ready mixed, in a wickered pint
bottle, put constantly into the pockets of his carriage.
If, at this period, Dr. Burney had been as intent and as skilful in the
arrangement and the augmentation of his income, as he was industrious
to procure, and assiduous to merit, its increase, he might have retired
from business, its toils and its cares, while yet in the meridian of
life; with a comfortable competence for its decline, and adequate
portions for his daughters. With regard to his sons, it was always his
intention to bestow upon them good educations, and to bring them up to
honourable professions; and then to leave them to form, as he had done
himself, a dynasty of their own. But, unfortunately for all parties,
he had as little turn as time for that species of speculation which
leads to financial prosperity; and he lived chiefly upon the principal
of the sums which he amassed; and which he merely, as soon as they were
received, locked up in his bureau for facility of usage; or stored
largely at his bankers as an asylum of safety: while the cash which he
laid out in any sort of interest, was so little, as to make his current
revenue almost incredibly below what might have been expected from the
remuneration of his labours; or what seemed due to his situation in the
world.
But, with all his honourable toil, his philosophic privations, and his
heroic self-denials,