Tell me by the way (if you ever had any speculations on the subject) what is it you suppose Homer to have meant in particular, when he ascribed his blindness to the Muse, for that he speaks of himself under the name of Demodocus in the eighth book, I believe, is by all admitted. How could the old Bard study himself blind, when books were either few, or none at all? and did he write his Poems? If neither were the cause, as seems reasonable to imagine, how could he incur his blindness by such means as could be justly imputable to the Muse? Would mere thinking blind him? I want to know:

"Call up some spirit from the vasty deep !"

I said to my Sam*- "Sam, build me a shed in the garden, with any thing that you can find, and make it rude and rough like one of those at Eartham." "Yes Sir," says Sam, and straitway laying his own noddle, and the carpenter's noddle together, has built me a thing fit for Stow Gardens. Is not this vexatious? I threaten to inscribe it thus,

Beware of building! I intended

Rough logs and thatch, and thus it ended.

But my Mary says, I shall break Sam's heart, and the carpen

A very affectionate, worthy Domestic, who attended his Master into Sussex.

:ter's

ter's too, and will not consent to it. Poor Mary sleeps but ill. How have you lived who cannot bear a sun-beam ?

I am glad that my poor and hasty at

tempts to express some little civility to Miss Fanshaw, and the amiable Count, have your and her approbation. The Lines addressed to her were not what I would have made them, but lack of time, a lack which always presses me, would not suffer me to improve them. Many thanks for her Letter, which were my merits less the subject of it, I should without scruple say is an excellent one. She writes with the force and accuracy of a person skilled in more languages than are spoken in the present day, as I doubt not that she is. I perfectly approve the theme she recommends to me, but am at present so totally absorbed in Homer, that all I do beside is ill done, being hurried over; and I would not execute ill a subject of her recommending.

I shall watch the Walnuts with more attention than they who eat them, which I do in some hope, though you do not ex

pressly say so, that when their threshing-time arrives, we shall see you here. I am now going to paper my new study, and in a short 'time it will be fit to inhabit.

Lady Spencer has sent me a present from Rome, by the hands: of Sir John Throckmorton, Engravings of Odyssey subjects, after figures by Flaxman, a statuary at present resident there, of high repute, and much a friend of Hayley's.

Thou livest, my dear, I acknowledge, in a very fine country, but they have spoiled it by building London in it,

Adieu.

LETTER LXXVII.

TO WILLIAM HAYLEY, Esqr.

W.C.

Weston, August 15, 1793

Instead of a pound or two, spending a mint
Must serve me at least, I believe, with a hint,
That building and building a man may be driven
At last out of doors, and have no house to live in.

Besides, my dearest Brother, they have not only built for me, what I did not want, but have ruined a notable Tetrastick by doing. So. I had written one which I designed for a Hermitage, and it will by no means suit the fine and pompous affair which they havé

made

made instead of one. So that as a Poet I am every way afflicted; made poorer than I need have been, and robbed of my verses: what case can be more deplorable?

You must not suppose me ignorant of what Flaxman has done, or that I have not seen it, or that I am not actually in possession of it, at least of the Engravings which you mention. In fact, I have had them more than a fortnight. Lady Dowager Spencer, to whom I inscribed my Odyssey, and who was at Rome when Sir John Throckmorton was there, charged him with them as a present to me, and arriving here lately he executed his commission. Romney I doubt not is right in his judgment of them; he is an artist himself, and cannot easily be mistaken; and I take his opinion as an Oracle, the rather because it coincides exactly with my own. The figures are highly classical, antique, and elegant; especially that of Pe nelope, who whether she wakes or sleeps must necessarily charm all beholders.

Your scheme of embellishing my Odyssey with these plates is a kind one, and the fruit of your benevolence to me; but Johnson, I fear, will hardly stake so much money as the cost would amount to, on a work, the fate of which is at present uncertain. Nor could we adorn the Odyssey in this splendid manner, unless we had similar ornaments to bestow on the Iliad. Such I presume are not ready, and much time must elapse, even if Flaxman should accede to the plan, before he could possibly prepare them. Happy indeed should

t

should I be to see a work of mine so nobly accompanied, but should that good fortune ever attend me, it cannot take place till the third or fourth edition shall afford the occasion, This I regret, and I regret too that you will have seen them before I can have an opportunity to shew them to you. Here is Six-pence for you if you will abstain from the sight of them while you are in London.

The Sculptor ?nameless, though once dear to fame ;
But this Man bears an everlasting name.*

So I purpose it shall stand; and on the pedestal, when you come, in that form you will find it. The added line from the Odyssey is charming, but the assumption of sonship to Homer seems too daring; suppose it stood thus,

Ως δε παις ο πατρι, και εποτε λησομαι αυτό.

I am not sure that this would be clear of the same objection, and it departs from the text still more.

With my poor Mary's best love, and our united wishes to see you here, I remain, my dearest Brother,

Ever yours.

LETTER LXXVIII.

W. C.

To Mrs. COURTENAY.

Weston, Aug. 20, 1793.

My dearest Catharina is too reasonable,

I know, to expect news from me, who live on the outside of the

* A Translation of Cowper's Greek Verses on his Bust of Homer.

world,