in it, rather than a whole poem full of musical periods, that have nothing but their oily smoothness to recommend them! "I have said thus much, as I hinted in the beginning, because I have just finished a much longer poem than the last, which our common friend will receive by the same messenger that has the charge of this letter. In that poem there are many lines, which an ear, so nice as the gentleman's who made the above-mentioned alteration, would undoubtedly condemn; and yet (if I may be permitted to say it) they cannot be made smoother without being the worse for it. There is a roughness on a plum, which nobody, that understands fruit, would rub off, though the plum would be much more polished without it. But lest I tire you, I will only add, that I wish you to guard me from all such meddling; assuring you, that I always write as smoothly as I can, but that I never did, never will, sacrifice the spirit or sense of a passage to the sound of it." In showing with what proper spirit the poet could occasionally vindicate his own verse, let me observe, that although he frequently speaks in his letters with humorous asperity concerning critics, no man could be more willing to receive, with becoming modesty and gratitude, the friendly assistance of just and temperate criticism. Some proofs of his humility, so laudable, if not uncommon, in poets of great powers, I shall seize this opportunity of producing in a few extracts from a series of the author's letters to his bookseller. DEAR SIR, Weston, Feb. 11, 1790. I AM very sensibly obliged by the remarks of Mr. Fuseli, and beg that you will tell him so: they afford me opportunities of improvement, which I shall not neglect. When he shall see the press-copy, he will be convinced of this; and will be convinced likewise, that smart as he sometimes is, he spares me often, when I have no mercy on myself. He will see almost a new translation. ** I assure you faithfully, that whatever my faults may be, to be easily or hastily satisfied with what I have written is not one of them. Sept. 7, 1790. Ir grieves me, that after all I am obliged to go into public without the whole advantage of Mr. Fuseli's judicious strictures. My only consolation is, that I have not forfeited them by my own impatience. Five years are no small portion of a man's life, especially at the latter end of it, and in those five years, being a man of almost no engagements, I have done more in the way of hard work, than most could have done in twice the number. I beg you to present my compliments to Mr. Fuseli, with many and sincere thanks for the services that his own more important occupations would allow him to render me. It is a singular spectacle for those who love to contemplate the progress of social arts, to observe a foreigner, who has raised himself to high rank in the arduous profession of a painter, correcting, and thanked for correcting, the chief poet of England, in his English version of Homer. From the series of letters now before me I cannot resist the temptation of transcribing two more passages, because they display the disposition of Cowper in a very amiable point of view -the first relates to Mr. Newton--the second to Mr. Johnson himself. Weston, Oct. 3, 1790. MR. NEWTON having again requested, that the preface, which he wrote for my first volume, may be prefixed to it, I am desirous to gratify him in a particular, that so emphatically bespeaks his friendship for me; and should my books see another edition, shall be obliged to you if you will add it accordingly. I BEG that you will not suffer your reverence either for Homer, or his translator, to check your continual examinations. I never knew with certainty, till now, that the marginal strictures I found in the Task-proofs were yours. The justness of them, and the benefit I derived from them, are fresh in my memory, and I doubt not that their utility will be the same in the present instance. Weston, Oct. 30, 1790. I am anxious to preserve this singular anecdote, as it is honorable both to the modest poet, and to his intelligent bookseller. But let me recall the reader's attention to the letter, in which the poet delivered so forcibly his own ideas of English versification. This letter leads me to suggest a reason, why some readers imagine, that the rhyme of Cowper is not equal to his blank verse. Their idea arises from his not copying the melody of Pope: but from this he deviated by design, and his character of Pope, in the poem of Table-Talk, may, when added to this letter, completely unfold to us his reasons for doing so. The lines to which I allude are these: Then Pope, as harmony itself exact, In verse well-disciplin'd, complete, compact, That, quite eclipsing pleasure's painted face, E'en on the fools that trampled on their laws : But he (his musical finesse was such, So nice his ear, so delicate his touch) And every warbler has his tune by heart. Cowper conceived that Pope, by adhering too closely to the use of pure iambic feet in his verse, deprived himself of an advantage to be gained by a more liberal admission of other feet, and particularly spondees, which, according to Cowper's idea, have a very happy effect in giving variety, dignity, and force. He exemplifies his idea by exclaiming in the following couplet of the same poem Give me the line, that ploughs its stately course, It is however remarkable, that Cowper, in his poem on the nativity, from the French of |