Fortunately, also, now, Dr. Burney increased the intimacy of his
acquaintance with Mr. Smelt, formerly sub-governor to the Prince of
Wales;[78] a man who, for displaying human excellence in the three
essential points of Understanding, Character, and Conduct, stood upon
the same line of acknowledged perfection with Mr. Locke of Norbury
Park. And had that virtuous and anxious parent of his people, George
III., known them both at the critical instant when he was seeking a
model of a true fine gentleman, for the official situation of preceptor
to the heir of his sovereignty; he might have had to cope with the most
surprising of difficulties, that of seeing before his choice two men,
in neither of whom he could espy a blemish that could cast a preference
upon the other.
The worth of both these gentlemen was known upon proof: their talents,
accomplishments, and taste in the arts and in literature, were
singularly similar. Each was soft and winning of speech, but firm and
intrepid of conduct; and their manners, their refined high breeding,
were unrivalled, save each by the other. And while the same, also,
was their reputation for integrity and honour, as for learning and
philosophy, the first personal delight of both was in the promotion and
exercise of those gentle charities of human life, which teach us to
solace and to aid our fellow-creatures.