give you joy of such a Sister. This, however, not exclusively of the rest, for though they may not all be Cecilias, I have a strong persuasion that they are all very amiable. W. C. LETTER XIV. To Lady HESKETH. MY DEAREST COZ. The Lodge, March 25, 1792. Mr. Rose's longer stay than he at first intended, was the occasion of the longer delay of my answer to your Note, as you may both have perceived by the date thereof, and learned from his information. It was a daily trouble to me to see it lying in the window-seat, while I knew you were in expectation of its arrival. By this time I presume you have seen him, and have seen likewise Mr. Hayley's friendly Letter and complimentary Sonnet, as well as the Letter of the honest Quaker; all of which, at least the two former, I shall be glad to receive again at a fair opportunity. Mr. Hayley's Letter slept six weeks in Johnson's custody. It was necessary I should answer it without delay, and accordingly I answered it the very evening on which I received it, giving him to understand, among other things, how much vexation the Bookseller's folly had cost me, who had detained it so long; especially on account of the distress that I knew it must have occasioned to him also. From his reply, which the return of the post brought me, say me, I learn, that in the long interval of my non-correspondence, he had suffered anxiety and mortification enough; so much that I dare he made twenty vows never to hazard again either letter or compliment to an unknown author. What, indeed, could he imagine less, than that I meant by such an obstinate silence, to tell him that I valued neither him nor his praises, nor his proferred friendship, in short, that I considered him as a rival, and therefore, like a true author, hated and despised him. He is now, however, convinced that I love him, as indeed I do, and I account him the chief acquisition that my own Verse has ever procured me. Brute should I be if I did not, for he promises me every assistance in his power. I have likewise a very pleasing Letter from Mr. Park, which I wish you were here to read; and a very pleasing Poem that came enclosed in it for my revisal, written when he was only twenty years of age, yet wonderfully well written, though wanting some correction. To Mr. Hurdis I return Sir Thomas More to-morrow; 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. LETTER LETTER XV. To SAMUEL ROSE, Esqr. 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 favorable one. 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. W. C. LETTER XVI. To SAMUEL ROSE, Esqr. Weston, April 5, 1792. You talk, my dear friend, as John Bunyan says, like one that has the egg-shell still upon his head. You talk of the mighty favors that you have received from me, and forget entirely those for which I am indebted to you; but though you forget them, I shall not, nor ever think that I have requited you, so long as any opportunity presents itself of rendering you the smallest service: small indeed, is all that I can ever hope to render. You You now perceive, and sensibly, that not without reason I complained as I use to do, of those tiresome rogues the Printers. Bless yourself that you have not two thick quartos to bring forth as I had. My vexation was always much increased by this reflection; they are every day, and all day long, employed in printing for somebody, and why not for me? This was adding mortification to disappointment, so that I often lost all patience. The suffrage of Doctor Robertson makes more than amends for the scurvy jest passed upon me by the wag unknown. I regard him not; nor, except for about two moments after I first heard of his doings, have I ever regarded him. I have somewhere a secret enemy; I know not for what cause he should be so, but he, I imagine, supposes that he has a cause it is well, however, to have but one; and I will take all the care I can not to increase the number. I have begun my Notes. and am playing the Commentator manfully. The worst of it is that I am anticipated in almost all my opportunities to shine by those who have gone before me. W. C. LETTER XVII. To WILLIAM HAYLEY, Esqr. Weston, April 6, 1792. MY DEAR FRIEND, God grant that this friendship of ours may be a comfort to us all the rest of our days, in a world where true 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. Horace says somewhere, though I may quote it amiss, perhaps, for I have a terrible memory, * Utrumque nostrum incredibili modo Consentit astrum. Our stars consent, at least have had an influence somewhat similar in an 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 the joy I should feel in being a guest of yours, be still considered in the light of impossibilities. Come then, my friend, and be as welcome as the country people say here, as the flowers. in May! I am happy, as I say, in the expectation; but the fear or rather the consciousness, that I shall not answer on a nearer view, makes it a trembling kind of happiness, and a doubtful. After that privacy, which I have mentioned above, I went to Huntingdon soon after my arrival there, I took up my quarters at the house of the Revd. Mr. Unwin; I lived with him while he lived, |