in stanzas, some in seven, and some in eight syllable measure, and some in blank verse. They will all together, I hope, make an agreeable miscellany for the English reader. They are certainly good in themselves, and cannot fail to please, but by the fault of their Translator.

MY DEAR SIR,

LETTER VIII.

To the Revd. Mr. HURDIS.

to W. C.

Weston, Dec. 10, 1791,

I am obliged to you for wishing that

I were employed in some original work rather than in translation.

To tell you the truth, I am of your mind?

; and

unless I could find another Homer, I shall promise (I believe) and vow, when I have' done with Milton, never to translate again. But my veneration for our great countryman is equal to what I feel for the Grecian; and consequently I am happy, and feel myself honourably employed whatever I do for Milton. I am now translating his Epitaphium Damonis, a Pastoral in my judgment equal to any of Virgil's Bucolics, but of which Dr. Johnson (so it pleased him) speaks, as I remember, contemptuously. But he who never saw any beauty in a ruwas not likely to have much taste for a Pastoral. In pace quiescat.

ral scene

I was

I was charmed with your friendly offer to be my advocate with the public; should I want one, I know not where I could find a better. The Reviewer in the Gentleman's Magazine grows more and more civil. Should he continue to sweeten at this rate, as he proceeds, I know not what will become of all the little modesty I have left. I have availed myself of some of his strictures, for I wish to learn from every body;

It grieves me, after having indulged

a little hope that I might see you in the holidays, to be obliged to disappoint myself. The occasion too is such as will insure me your sympathy.

66

On Saturday last, while I was at my desk near the window, and Mrs. Unwin at the fire-side opposite to it, I heard her suddenly exclaim, Oh! Mr. Cowper, don't let me fall!" I turned and saw her actually falling, together with her chair, and started to her side just in time to prevent her. She was seized with a violent giddiness, which lasted, though with some abatement, the whole day,

and was attended too with some other very, very, alarming symptoms. At present, however, she is relieved from the vertigo, and seems in all respects better.e

She has been my faithful and affectionate nurse for many years, and consequently has a claim on all my attentions. She has them, and will have them as long as she wants them; which will probably be at the best, a considerable time to come. I feel the shock, as you may suppose, in every nerve. God grant that there may be no repetition of it. Another such a stroke upon her would, I think, over-set me completely: but at present I hold

up bravely.

W. C.

MY DEAR SIR,

LETTER X.

To the Revd. Mr. HURDIS,

Weston, Feb. 21, 1792.

My obligations to you on the score of your kind and friendly remarks, demanded from me a much more expeditious acknowledgement of the numerous pacquets that contained them; but I have been hindered by many causes, each of which you would admit as a sufficient apology, but none of which I will mention, lest I should give too much of my paper to the subject. My acknowledgements are likewise due to your fair Sister,

who

who has transcribed so many sheets in so neat a hand, and with so much accuracy.

At present I have no leisure for Homer, but shall certainly find leisure to examine him with a reference to your strictures, before I send him a second time to the Printer. This I am at present unwilling to do, chusing rather to wait, if that may be, till I shall have undergone the discipline of all the Reviewers; none of whom have yet taken me in hand, the Gentleman's Magazine excepted. By several of his remarks I have been benefited, and shall no doubt be benefited by the remarks of all.

Milton at present engrosses me altogether.

His Latin Pieces

I have translated, and have begun with the Italian. These are few, and will not detain me long. I shall then proceed immediately to deliberate upon, and to settle the plan of my Commentary, which I have hitherto had but little time to consider. I look forward to it for this reason, with some anxiety. I trust at least, that this anxiety will cease, when I have once satisfied myself about the best manner of conducting it. But after all. I seem to fear more the labour to which it calls me, than any great difficulty, with which it is likely to be attended. To the labours of versifying I have no objection, but to the labours of criticism I am new, and apprehend that I shall find them wearisome. Should that be the case, I shall be dull, and must be contented to share the censure of being so, with almost all the Commentators that have ever existed.

I have

I have expected, but not wondered, that I have not received Sir Thomas More, and the other мss. you promised me; because my silence has been such, considering how loudly I was called upon to write, that you must have concluded me either dead or dying, and did not chuse perhaps to trust them to executors.

W. C.

DEAR SIR,

LETTER XI.

To the Revd. Mr. HURDIS.

Weston, March 2, 1792.

I have this moment finished a com

parison of your remarks with my text, and feel so sensibly my obligations to your great accuracy and kindness, that I cannot deny myself the pleasure of expressing them immediately. I only wish that instead of revising the two first books of the Iliad, you could have found leisure to revise the whole two Poems, sensible how much my Work would have benefited.

I have not always adopted your lines, though often, perhaps at least, as good as my own; because there will and must be dissimilarity of manner between two so accustomed to the pen as we are. But I have let few passages go unamended, which you seemed to think exceptionable; and this not at all from complaisance :

1

for