enough; so much that I dare say he made twenty not for me? This was adding mortification to vows never to hazard again either letter or compli- disappointment, so that I often lost all patience. ment to an unknown author. What indeed could The suffrage of Dr. Robertson makes more he imagine less, than that I meant by such an ob- than amends for the scurvy jest passed upon me stinate silence to tell him that I valued neither by the wag unknown. I regard him not; nor, him nor his praises, nor his proffered friendship; except for about two moments after I first heard in short that I considered him as a rival, and of his doings, have I ever regarded him. I have therefore, like a true author, hated and despised somewhere a secret enemy; I know not for what him? He is now however convinced that I love cause he should be so, but he I imagine supposes him, as indeed I do, and 1 account him the chief that he has a cause; it is well however to have acquisition that my own verse has ever procured but one; and I will take all the care I can not to me. Brute should I be if I did not, for he promises increase the number. me every assistance in his power. I have begun my notes, and am playing the I have likewise a very pleasing letter from Mr. commentator manfully. The worst of it is that Park, which I wish you were here to read; and a I am anticipated in almost all my opportunities to very pleasing poem that came enclosed in it for shine by those who have gone before me. my revisal, written when he was only twenty years of age, yet wonderfully well written, though want...g some correction. To Mr. Hurdis I return Sir Thomas More tomorrow; having revised it a second time. He is now a very respectable figure, and will do my friend, who gives him to the public this spring, considerable credit. W. C. TO SAMUEL ROSE, ESQ. W. C. TO WILLIAM HAYLEY, ESQ. MY DEAR FRIEND, Weston, April 6, 1792. GOD grant that this friendship of ours may be a comfort to us all the rest of our days, in a world where true friendships are rarities, and especially where suddenly formed they are apt soon to terminate! But as I said before, I feel a disposition of heart toward you that I never felt for one whom I had never seen; and that shall prove itself I trust in the event a propitious omen. MY DEAR FRIEND, March 30, 1792. My mornings, ever since you went, have been given to my correspondents; this morning I have already written a long letter to Mr. Park, giving my opinion of his poem, which is a favourable one. it amiss perhaps, for I have a terrible memory, I forget whether I showed it to you when you were here, and even whether I had then received it. He has genius and delicate taste; and if he were not an engraver might be one of our first hands in poetry. TO SAMUEL ROSE, ESQ. W. C. Horace says somewhere, though I may quote Utrumque nostrum incredibili modo **** Our stars consent, at least have had an influence somewhat similar in another, and more important article. It gives me the sincerest pleasure that I may hope to see you at Weston; for as to any migrations of mine, they must, I fear, notwithstanding Weston, April 5, 1792. the joy I should feel in being a guest of yours, be You talk, my dear friend, as John Bunyan says, still considered in the light of impossibilities. Ike one that has the egg-shell still upon his head. Come then, my friend, and be as welcome, as the You talk of the mighty favours that you have re- country people say here, as the flowers in May! ceived from me, and forget entirely those for which I am happy, as I say, in the expectation, but the I am indebted to you; out though you forget them, fear, or rather the consciousness that I shall not I shall not, nor ever think that I have requited answer on a nearer view, makes it a trembling you, so long as any opportunity presents itself of kind of happiness, and a doubtful. rendering you the smallest service; small indeed is all that I can ever hope to render. After the privacy which I have mentioned above, I went to Huntingdon; soon after my arYou now perceive, and sensibly, that not with- rival there, I took up my quarters at the house of out reason I complained as I used to do of those the Rev. Mr. Unwin: I lived with him while he tiresome rogues the printers. Bless yourself that lived, and ever since his death have lived with his you have not two thick quartos to bring forth as widow. Her, therefore, you will find mistress of I had. My vexation was always much increased the house; and I judge of you amiss, or you will by this reflection; they are every day, and all day find her just such as you would wish. To me Long, employed in printing for somebody, and why she has been often a nurse, and invariably the kindest friend, through a thousand adversities to Calchas, for I do remember that you have not that I have had to grapple with in the course of yet furnished me with the secret history of him almost thirty years. I thought it better to intro- and his family, which I demanded from you. duce her to you thus, than to present her to you at your coming quite a stranger. Adieu. Yours, most sincerely, W. C. Bring with you any books that you think may I rejoice that you are so well with the learned be useful to my commentatorship, for with you Bishop of Sarum, and well remember how he ferfor an interpreter I shall be afraid of none of reted the vermin Lauder out of all his hidings, them. And in truth, if you think that you shall when I was a boy at Westminster. want them, you must bring books for your own I have not yet studied with your last remarks use also, for they are an article with which I am before me, but hope soon to find an opportunity. heinously unprovided; being much in the condition of the man whose library Pope describes as No mighty store! His own works neatly bound, and little more! You shall know how this has come to pass hereafter. I THANK you for your letter, as sweet as it was Tell me, my friend, are your letters in your own short, and as sweet as good news could make it. handwriting; if so, I am in pain for your eyes, lest You encourage a hope that has made me happy by such frequent demands upon them I should ever since I have entertained it. And if my wishhurt them. I had rather write you three letters, for es can hasten the event, it will not be long susone, much as I prize your letters, than that should pended. As to your jealousy, I mind it not, or happen. And now, for the present, adieu-I am only to be pleased with it; I shall say no more on going to accompany Milton into the lake of fire the subject at present than this, that of all ladies and brimstone, having just begun my annotations. living, a certain lady, whom I need not name. W. C. would be the lady of my choice for a certain gentleman, were the whole sex submitted to my elec tion. TO THE REV. MR. HURDIS. MY DEAR SIR, What a delightful anecdote is that which you tell me of a young lady detected in the very Weston, April 8, 1792. act of stealing our Catharina's praises; is it posYour entertaining and pleasant letter, resemble that she can survive the shame, the mortificabling in that respect all that I receive from you, tion of such a discovery! Can she ever see the deserved a more expeditious answer; and should same company again, or any company that she can have had what it so well deserved, had it not suppose by the remotest probability, may have reached me at a time when deeply in debt to heard the tidings? If she can, she must have an all my correspondents, I had letters to write with- assurance equal to her vanity. A lady in Lonout number. Like autumnal leaves that strew don stole my song on the broken Rose, or rather the brooks in Vallambrosa, the unanswered far- would have stolen, and have passed it for her own. rago lay before me. If I quote at all, you must But she too was unfortunate in her attempt; for expect me henceforth to quote none but Milton, there happened to be a female cousin of mine in since for a long time to come I shall be occupied company, who knew that I had written it. It is with him only. very flattering to a poet's pride, that the ladies I was much pleased with the extract you gave should thus hazard every thing for the sake of apme from your sister Eliza's letter; she writes very propriating his verses. I may say with Milton, elegantly, and (if I might say it without seeming that I am fallen on evil tongues, and evil days, to flatter you) I should say much in the manner being not only plundered of that which belongs to of her brother. It is well for your sister Sally, me, but being charged with that which does not. that gloomy Dis is already a married man; else Thus it seems (and I have learned it from more perhaps finding her, as he found Proserpine, stu- quarters than one) that a report is, and has been dying botany in the fields, he might transport her to his own flowerless abode, where all her hopes of improvement in that science would be at an end for ever. some time current in this and the neighbouring counties, that though I have given myself the air of declaiming against the Slave Trade in the Task, I am in reality a friend to it; and last night What letter of the tenth of December is that I received a letter from Joe Rye, to inform me which you say you have not answered? Consider that I have been much traduced and calumniated it is April now, and I never remember any thing on this account. Not knowing how I could better that I write half so long. But perhaps it relates or more effectually refute the scandal, I have this morning sent a copy to the Northampton paper, the negroes, multiplying at a prodigious rate, were prefaced by a short letter to the printer, specifying necessitated to devour each other; for which reathe occasion. The verses are in honour of Mr. son I had judged it better, that the trade should Wilberforce, and sufficiently expressive of my continue, than that they should be again reduced present sentiments on the subject. You are a to so horrid a custom. wicked fair one for disappointing us of our expected visit, and therefore out of mere spite I will not insert them. I have been very ill these ten days, and for the same spite's sake will not tell you what ailed me. But lest you should die of a fright, I will have the mercy to tell you that I am recovering. Mrs. Gand her little ones are gone, but your brother is still here. He told me that he had some expectation of Sir John at Weston; if he come, I shall most heartily rejoice once more to see him at a table so many years his own. W. C. TO THE REV. J. JEKYLL RYE. MY DEAR SIR, Weston, April 16, 1792. I AM truly sorry that you should have suffered any apprehensions, such as your letter indicates, to molest you for a moment. I believe you to be as honest a man as lives, and consequently do not believe it possible that you could in your letter to Mr. Pitts, or any otherwise wilfully misrepresent me. In fact you did not; my opinions on the subject in question were, when I had the pleasure of seeing you, such as in that letter you stated them to be, and such they still continue. If any man concludes, because I allow myself Now all this is a fable. I have read no such history; I never in my life read any such assertion; nor, had such an assertion presented itself to me, should I have drawn any such conclusion from it: on the contrary, bad as it were, I think it would be better the negroes should have eaten one another, than that we should carry them to market. The single reason why I did not sign the petition was, because I was never asked to do it; and the reason why I was never asked was, because I am not a parishioner of Olney. Thus stands the matter. You will do me the justice, I dare, say, to speak of me as a man who abhors the commerce, which is now I hope in a fair way to be abolished, as often as you shall find occasion. And I beg you henceforth to do yourself the justice to believe it impossible, that I should for a moment suspect you of duplicity or misre presentation. I have been grossly slandered, but neither by you, nor in consequence of any thing that you have either said or written. I remain therefore, still as heretofore, with great respect, Much and truly yours, W. C Mrs. Unwin's compliments attend you. TO LADY HESKETH. the use of sugar and rum, that therefore I am a MY DEAREST COz, Weston, May 5, 1792. friend to the Slave Trade, he concludes rashly, I REJOICE, as thou reasonably supposest me to and does me great wrong; for the man lives not do, in the matrimonial news communicated in your who abhors it more than I do. My reasons for last. Not that it was altogether news to me, for my own practice are satisfactory to myself, and twice I had received broad hints of it from Lady they whose practice is contrary, are, I suppose, satisfied with theirs. So far is good. Let every man act according to his own judgment and conscience; but if we condemn another for not seeing with our eyes, we are unreasonable; and if we reproach him on that account, we are uncharitable, which is a still greater evil. Frog by letter, and several times vivâ voce while she was here. But she enjoined me secrecy as well as you, and you know that all secrets are safe with me; safer far than the winds in the bags of Æolus. I know not in fact the lady whom it would give me more pleasure to call Mrs. Courtenay, than the lady in question; partly because I I had heard, before I received the favour of know her, but especially because I know her to yours, that such a report of me, as you mention, be all that I can wish in a neighbour. had spread about the country. But my informant I have often observed that there is a regular altold me that it was founded thus: The people of ternation of good and evil in the lot of men, so Olney petitioned Parliament for the abolition-my that a favourable incident may be considered as name was sought among the subscribers, but was the harbinger of an unfavourable one, and vice not found-a question was asked, how that hap-versa. Dr. Madan's experience witnesses to the pened? Answer was made, that I had once in- truth of this observation. One day he gets a deed been an enemy to the Slave Trade, but had broken head, and next a mitre to heal it. I rechanged my mind; for that lately having read a joice that he has met with so effectual a cure, nistory or an account of Africa, I had seen it there though my joy is not unmingled with concern: for asserted, that till the commencement of that traffic till now I had some hope of seeing him, but since I live in the North, and his episcopal call is in the sooner after June the better; till then we shall the West, that is a gratification I suppose which have company. I must no longer look for. I forgot not my debts to your dear sister, and My sonnet, which I sent you, was printed in your aunts Balls. Greet them both with a brother's the Northampton paper last week, and this week kiss, and place it to my account. I will write to it produced me a complimentary one in the same them when Milton and a thousand other engagepaper, which served to convince me at least by ments will give me leave. Mr. Hayley is here on the matter of it, that my own was not published a visit. We have formed a friendship that I trust without occasion, and that it had answered its will last for life, and render us an edifying exampurpose. ple to all future poets. My correspondence with Hayley proceeds brisk Adieu! Lose no time in coming after the time TO LADY HESKETH. ly, and is very affectionate on both sides. I expect mentioned. him here in about a fortnight, and wish heartily, with Mrs. Unwin, that you would give him a meeting. I have promised him indeed that he shall find us alone, but you are one of the family. I wish much to print the following lines in one] of the daily papers. Lord S's vindication of the I WISH with all my heart, my dearest Coz, poor culprit in the affair of Cheit-Sing has con- that I had not ill news for the subject of the firmed me in the belief that he has been injurious- present letter. My friend, my Mary, has again ly treated, and I think it an act merely of justice been attacked by the same disorder that threatto take a little notice of him. ΤΟ WARREN HASTINGS, ESQ. BY AN OLD SCHOOLFELLOW OF HIS AT WESTMINSTER. If thou wilt take the pains to send them to thy news-monger, I hope thou wilt do well. Adieu! W. C. TO JOHN JOHNSON, ESQ. Weston, May 20, 1792. Weston, May 24, 1792. ened me last year with the loss of her, and of which you were yourself a witness. Gregson would not allow that first stroke to be paralytic, but this he acknowledges to be so; and with reSpect to the former, I never had myself any doubt that it was; but this has been much the severest. Her speech has been almost unintelligible from the moment that she was struck; it is with difficulty that she opens her eyes, and she can not keep them open; the muscles necessary to the purpose being contracted; and as to self-moving powers, from place to place, and the use of her right hand and arm, she has entirely lost them. It has happened well, that of all men living the man most qualified to assist and comfort me is here, though till within these few days I never saw him, and a few weeks since had no expectation that I ever should. You have already guessed that I mean Hayley. Hayley who loves me as if he had known me from my cradle. When he returns to town, as he must, alas! too soon, he will pay his respects to you. MY DEAREST, OF ALL JOHNNIES, I AM not sorry that your ordination is postponed. A year's learning and wisdom, added to I will not conclude without adding that our poor your present stock, will not be more than enough patient is beginning, I hope, to recover from this to satisfy the demands of your function. Neither stroke also; but her amendment is slow, as must am I sorry that you find it difficult to fix your be expected at her time of life and in such a disthoughts to the serious point at all times. It proves order. I am as well myself as you have ever at least that you attempt, and wish to do it, and known me in a time of much trouble, and even these are good symptoms. Woe to those who en- better. ter on the ministry of the Gospel without having It was not possible to prevail on Mrs. Unwin previously asked at least from God a mind and to let me send for Dr. Kerr, but Hayley has writspirit suited to their occupation, and whose expe- ten to his friend Dr. Austin a representation of rience never differs from itself, because they are her case, and we expect his opinion and advice always alike vain, light, and inconsiderate. It is to-morrow. In the mean time, we have borrowed therefore matter of great joy to me to hear you an electrical machine from our neighbour Socket, complain of levity, and such it is to Mrs. Un- the effect of which she tried yesterday, and the win. She is, I thank God, tolerably well, and day before, and we think it has been of material loves you. As to the time of your journey hither, service. She was seized while Hayley and I were walk-time of preparation for an office of so much iming, and Mr. Greatheed, who called while we portance as that of a minister of God's word should were absent, was with her. I forgot in my last to thank thee for the proposed amendments of thy friend. Whoever he is, make my compliments to him, and thank him. The passages to which he objects have been all altered; and when he shall see them new dressed, I hope he will like them better. TO LADY HESKETH. W. C. The Lodge, May 26, 1792. have been a little protracted. It is easier to direct the movements of a great army, than to guide a few souls to Heaven; the way is narrow, and full of snares, and the guide himself has the most difficulties to encounter. But I trust he will do well. He is single in his views, honest hearted, and desirous, by prayer and study of the Scripture, to qualify himself for the service of his great Master, who will suffer no such man to fail for want of his aid and protection Adieu. W.C. TO WILLIAM HAYLEY, ESQ. MY DEAREST COUSIN, KNOWING that you will be anxious to learn how we go on, I write a few lines to inform you that ALL'S WELL; Weston, June 4, 1792. Mrs. Unwin daily recovers a little strength, and a WHICH Words I place as conspicuously as pos little power of utterance; but she seems strongest, sible, and prefix them to my letter, to save you the and her speech is most distinct, in a morning. pain, my friend and brother, of a moment's anxious Hayley has been all in all to us on this very afflic-speculation. Poor Mary proceeds in her amendtive occasion. Love him, I charge you, dearly ment still, and improves, I think, even at a swifter for my sake. Where could I have found a man, rate than when you left her. The stronger she except himself, who could have made himself so grows, the faster she gathers strength, which is necessary to me in so short a time, that I absolutely know not how to live without him? Adieu, my dear sweet Coz. Mrs. Unwin, as plainly as her poor lips can speak, sends her best love, and Hayley threatens in a few days to lay close siege to your affections in person. W. C. There is some hope, I find, that the Chancellor may continue in office, and I shall be glad if he does; because we have no single man worthy to succeed him. perhaps the natural course of recovery. She walked so well this morning, that she told me at my first visit she had entirely forgot her illness; and she spoke so distinctly, and had so much of her usual countenance, that, had it been possible, she would have made me forget it too. Returned from my walk, blown to tatters-found two dear things in the study, your letter, and my Mary! She is bravely well, and your beloved epistle does us both good. I found your kind pencil note in my song-book, as soon as I came down in the morning of your departure; and Mary was I open my letter again to thank you, my dearest vexed to the heart, that the simpletons who watchCoz, for yours just received. Though happy, as ed her supposed her asleep, when she was not; you well know, to see you at all times, we have for she learned soon after you were gone, that you no need, and I trust shall have none, to trouble would have peeped at her, had you known her to you with a journey made on purpose; yet once have been awake. I perhaps might have had a again I am willing and desirous to believe, we peep too, and therefore was as vexed as she; but shall be a happy trio at Weston; but unless ne- if it please God, we shall make ourselves large cessity dictates a journey of charity, I wish all amends for all lost peeps by and by at Eartham. yours hither to be made for pleasure. Farewell.— Thou shalt know how we go on. W. C. TO MRS. BODHAM. MY DEAREST ROSE, Weston, June 4, 1792. a reason. TO WILLIAM HAYLEY, ESQ. Weston, June 5, 1792. YESTERDAY was a noble day with us-speech almost perfect-eyes open almost the whole day, without any effort to keep them so; and the step wonderfully improved. But the night has been almost a sleepless one, owing partly I believe to I can not say that I am sorry that our dear her having had as much sleep again as usual the Johnny finds the pulpit door shut against him at night before; for even when she is in tolerable present. He is young, and can afford to wait an- health she hardly ever sleeps well two nights toother year; neither is it to be regretted, that his 'gether. I found her accordingly a little out of |