* * * * *
Pleasant to Dr. Burney as was this tide of favour, by which he was
exhilarated through this second publication of his daughter, it had not
yet reached the climax to which it soon afterwards arose; which was the
junction of the two first men of the country, if not of the age, in
proclaiming each to the other, at an assembly at Miss Moncton’s, where
they seated themselves by her side, their kind approvance of this work;
and proclaiming it, each animated by the spirit of the other, “in the
noblest terms that our language, in its highest glory, is capable of
emitting.”
Such were the words of Dr. Johnson himself, in speaking afterwards to
Dr. Burney of Mr. Burke’s share in this flattering dialogue; to which
Dr. Burney ever after looked back as to the height of his daughter’s
literary honours; though he could scarcely then foresee the extent, and
the expansion, of that indulgent partiality with which each of them,
ever after, invariably distinguished her to the last hour of their
lives.
Thus salubriously for Dr. Burney had been cheered the opening winter
of 1782, by the celebrated old Wits, Owen Cambridge and Soame Jenyns;
through the philanthropy and good-humour which cheered for themselves
and their friends the winter of their own lives: and thus radiant with
a warmth which Sol in his summer’s glory could not deepen, had gone on
the same winter to 1783, through the glowing suffrage of the two first
luminaries that brightened the constellation of genius of the reign of
George the Third,—Dr. Johnson and Edmund Burke——
But not in fair harmony of progression with this commencement
proceeded the year 1783! its April had a harshness which its January
had escaped. It brought with it no fragrance of happiness to Dr.
Burney. With a blight opened this fatal spring, and with a blast it
closed!
* * * * *