A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith
Letters 1809
Sydney Smith to Lady Holland, 22 August [1808]
No date: about 1809.
My dear Lady Holland,
I have no doubt of Lord
Morpeth’s good disposition towards, me, but he is afraid
of introducing such a loquacious personage to his decorous parent. This however is very fair; and I hope my
children will have the opposite dread, of introducing very silent people to me
in my old-age.
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MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. |
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I like Lord Morpeth,—a
man of excellent understanding, very polished manners, and a good heart.
I take it this letter will follow you to Burgos, as I
conclude you are packed up for Spain. Dumont, Bentham, and
Horner sail in September, with laws,
constitution, etc. A list of pains and pleasures, ticketed and numbered,
already sent over; with a smaller ditto of emotions and palpitations.
I mean to make some maxims, like Rochefoucauld, and to preserve them. My first
is this:—After having lived half their lives respectably, many men get tired of
honesty, and many women of propriety.
Yours very affectionately,
Sydney Smith.
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
The founder of Utilitarianism; author of
Principles of Morals and
Legislation (1789).
Étienne-Pierre-Louis Dumont (1759-1829)
Jeremy Bentham's Swiss translator, associated with the Holland House circle; Thomas Moore
and John Russell spent the day with him 23 September 1819, on their way to Venice.
Francis Horner (1778-1817)
Scottish barrister and frequent contributor to the
Edinburgh
Review; he was a Whig MP and member of the Holland House circle.
Frederick Howard, fifth earl of Carlisle (1748-1825)
The Earl of Carlisle was appointed Lord Byron's guardian in 1799; they did not get along.
He published a volume of
Poems (1773) that included a translation
from Dante.
George Howard, sixth earl of Carlisle (1773-1848)
Son of the fifth earl (d. 1825); he was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, wrote
for the
Anti-Jacobin, and was MP for Morpeth (1795-1806) and
Cumberland (1806-28).