and with a smile, that charmed me, said, "well, you for your part will do well also;" at last recollecting his great age (for I understood him to be two hundred years old) I feared that I might fatigue him by much talking, I took my leave, and he took his, with an air of the most perfect good breeding. His person, his features, his manner, were all so perfectly characteristic, that I am persuaded an apparition of him could not represent him more completely.— This may be said to have been one of the dreams of Pindus, may it not? How truly I rejoice that you have recovered Guy; that man won my heart the moment I saw him; give my love to him, and tell him I am truly glad he is alive again. There is much sweetness in those Lines from the Sonneteer of Avon, and not a little in dear Tom's; an earnest, I trust, of good things to come! With Mary's kind love, I must now conclude myself, my dear Brother, ever yours. LIPPUS. LETTER LXII. To Mr. THOMAS HAYLEY. Weston, March 14, 1793. MY DEAR LITTLE CRITIC. I thank you heartily for your observa tions, on which I set a higher value, because they have instructed VOL. II. Q me me as much, and have entertained me more, than all the other strictures of our public judges in these matters. Perhaps I am not much more pleased with shameless wolf, &c. than you. But what is to be done, my little man? Coarse as the expressions are, they are no more than equivalent to those of Homer. The invective of the Ancients was never tempered with good manners, as your Papa can tell you! and my business, you know, is not to be more polite than my Author, but to represent him as closely as I can. Dishonour'd foul I have wiped away, for the reason you give, which is a very just one, and the present reading is this, Who had dared dishonour thus The life itself, &c. Your objection to kindler of the fires of heaven, I had the good fortune to anticipate, and expunged the dirty ambiguity some time since, wondering not a little, that I had ever admitted it. The fault you find with the two first verses of Nestor's speech, discovers such a degree of just discernment, that but for your Papa's assurance to the contrary, I must have suspected him as the author of that remark, much as I should have respected it, if it had been so, I value it I assure you, my little Friend, still more as yours. In the new edition the passage will be found thus altered, Alas! great sorrow falls on Greece to-day, Priam, and Priam's Sons, with all in Troy Oh! Oh! how will they exult, and in their hearts Where the word reel suggest to you the idea of a drunken mountain, it performs the service to which I destined it. It is a bold metaphor; but justified by one of the sublimest passages in Scripture, compared with the sublimity of which even that of Homer suffers humiliation. says, It is God himself who speaking, I think, by the Prophet Isaiah, The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard." With equal boldness in the same Scripture, the poetry of which was never equalled, mountains are said to skip, to break out into singing, and the fields to clap their hands. I intend, therefore, that my Olympus shall be still tipsy. The accuracy of your last remark, in which you convicted me of a bull, delights me. A fig for all Critics but you! The blockheads could not find it. It shall stand thus, First spake Polydamas Homer was more upon his guard, than to commit such a blunder, for he says, αρχ' αγορεύειν. Q 2 And And now, my dear little Censor, once more accept my thanks. I only regret that your strictures are so few, being just and sensi ble as they are. Tell your Papa that he shall hear from me soon; accept mine, and my dear invalide's affectionate remembrances. Ever yours. W. C.* LETTER NOTE BY THE EDITOR This Letter may be regarded as a remarkable proof of the great Poet's indulgent sweetness of temper, in favouring the literary talents of Child. A good-natured reader will hardly blame the parental partiality to a dear departed Scholar, which induces me to insert in this Note, the Letter Cowper answered so kindly-a Letter that readers accustomed to contemplate the compositions of childhood, may consider, perhaps, as a curiosity, when they are assured, as they are with perfect truth, that every syllable of the Letter, and of the criticisms annexed to it, were the voluntary and uncorrected production of a Boy whose age was little more than twelve years. To WILLIAM COWPER, Esqr. Eartham, March 4, 1793 HONOURED KING OF BARDS. Since you deign to demand the observations. of an humble and unexperienced Servant of yours, on a Work of one who is so much his superior (as he is ever ready to serve you with all his might) behold what you demand! but let me desire you not to censure me for my unskillful and perhaps (as they will undoubtedly appear to you) ridiculous ob servations LETTER LXIII. TO WILLIAM HAYLEY, Esqr. MY DEAR BROTHER, Weston, March. 19, 1793. I am so busy every morning before breakfast (my only opportunity) stalking and strutting in Homeric stilts, that you ought to account it an instance of marvellous grace and favour, that I condescend to write even to you. Sometimes I am servations; but be so kind as to receive them as a mark of respectful affection from Your obedient Servant, THOMAS HAYLEY. 651 I cannot reconcile myself to these expressions, viz. "Ah cloth'd with impudence, &c." and "shameless wolf," and "face of flint." "Dishonour'd foul" is, in my opinion, an uncleanly expression. "Reel'd," I think makes it appear as if Olympus was drunk. 749" Kindler of the fires in Heaven," I think makes Jupiter appear too much like a Lamp-lighter. 317-These Lines are, in my opinion, below the elevated genius of Mr. Cowper. 319 300-This appears to me rather Irish, since in Line 300 you say "no one sat," and in 304, "Polydamas rose." to 304 |