' _Letters_, iii. 438. Sir William Forbes
says:--'He often put me in mind of an ancient Hero, and I remember Dr.
Johnson was positive that he resembled Homer's character of Sarpedon.'
_Life of Beattie_, ed. 1824, Appendix D. Mrs. Piozzi says:--'The Earl
dressed in his robes at the coronation and Mrs. Siddons in the character
of Murphy's Euphrasia were the noblest specimens of the human race I
ever saw.' _Synonymy_, i.43. He sprang from a race of rebels. 'He united
in his person,' says Forbes, 'the four earldoms of Errol, Kilmarnock,
Linlithgow, and Callander.' The last two were attainted in 1715, and
Kilmarnock in 1745. _Life of Beattie_, Appendix D.
[318] Lord Chesterfield, in his letters to his son [iii. 130], complains
of one who argued in an indiscriminate manner with men of all ranks,
Probably the noble lord had felt with some uneasiness what it was to
encounter stronger abilities than his own. If a peer will engage at
foils with his inferior in station, he must expect that his inferior in
station will avail himself of every advantage; otherwise it is not a
fair trial of strength and skill. The same will hold in a contest of
reason, or of wit.--A certain king entered the lists of genius with
Voltaire. The consequence was, that, though the king had great and
brilliant talents, Voltaire had such a superiority that his majesty
could not bear it; and the poet was dismissed, or escaped, from that
court.
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