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which they can not rob me. If they condemn my spoke them, I should have trembled for the boy poetry, I must even say with Cervantes, "Let lest the man should disappoint the hopes such them do better if they can!"—if my doctrine, they early genius had given birth to. It is not comjudge that which they do not understand; I shall mon to see so lively a fancy so correctly managed, except to the jurisdiction of the court, and plead, and so free from irregular exuberance, at so unCoram non judice. Even Horace could say, he experienced an age; fruitful, yet not wanton, and should neither be the plumper for the praise, nor gay without being tawdry. When schoolboys the leaner for the condemnation of his readers; write verse, if they have any fire at all, it generaland it will prove me wanting to myself indeed, if, ly spends itself in flashes, and transient sparks, supported by so many sublimer considerations which may indeed suggest an expectation of than he was master of, I can not sit loose to po- something better hereafter, but deserve not to be pularity, which, like the wind, bloweth where it much commended for any real merit of their own. listeth, and is equally out of our command. If Their wit is generally forced and false, and their you, and two or three more such as you, say, sublimity, if they affect any, bombast. I rememwell done, it ought to give me more contentment ber well when it was thus with me, and when a than if I could earn Churchill's laurels, and by turgid, noisy, unmeaning speech in a tragedy, which I should now laugh at, afforded me rap

the same means.

I wrote to Lord Dartmouth to apprise him of tures, and filled me with wonder. It is not in my intended present, and have received a most general till reading and observation have settled affectionate and obliging answer. the taste, that we can give the prize to the best •

I am rather pleased that you have adopted other writing, in preference to the worst. Much less sentiments respecting our intended present to the are we able to execute what is good ourselves. critical Doctor. I allow him to be a man of gi- But Lowth seems to have stepped into excellence gantic talents, and most profound learning, nor at once, and to have gained by intuition what we have I any doubts about the universality of his little folks are happy if we can learn at last, after knowledge. But by what I have seen of his ani- much labour of our own, and instruction of others. madversions on the poets, I feel myself much dis- The compliments he pays to the memory of King 1 posed to question, in many instances, either his Charles, he would probably now retract, though candour or his taste. He finds fault too often, he be a bishop, and his majesty's zeal for episcolike a man that, having sought it very industrious- pacy was one of the causes of his ruin. An age ly, is at last obliged to stick it on a pin's point, or two must pass, before some characters can be and look at it through a microscope; and I am properly understood. The spirit of party emsure I could easily convict him of having denied ploys itself in veiling their faults, and ascribing many beauties, and overlooked more. Whether to them virtues which they never possessed. See Eis judgment be in itself defective, or whether it Charles's face drawn by Clarendon, and it is a be warped by collateral considerations, a writer upon such subjects as I have chosen would probably find but little mercy at his hands.

handsome portrait. See it more justly exhibited by Mrs. Macauley, and it is deformed to a degree that shocks us. Every feature expresses cunning, employing itself in the maintaining of tyrannyand dissimulation, pretending itself an advocate for truth.

No winter since we knew Olney has kept us more confined than the present. We have not more than three times escaped into the fields, since last autumn. Man, a changeable creature My letters have already apprized you of that in himself, seems to subsist best in a state of va- close and intimate connexion that took place beriety, as his proper element—a melancholy man at tween the lady you visited in Queen Ann-street, least is apt to grow sadly weary of the same walks, and us. Nothing could be more promising, though and the same pales, and to find that the same sudden in the commencement. She treated us scene will suggest the same thoughts perpetually, with as much unreservedness of communication, Though I have spoken of the utility of changes, as if we had been born in the same house, and we neither feel nor wish for any in our friend- educated together. At her departure, she herself ships, and consequently stand just where we did proposed a correspondence, and because writing with respect to your whole self. does not agree with your mother, proposed a correspondence with me. By her own desire I wrote to her under the assumed relation of a brother, and she to me as my sister.

Yours, my dear sir,

W. C.

TO THE REV. WILLIAM UNWIN. MY DEAR FRIEND,

Feb. 9, 1782. I THANK you for Mr. Lowth's verses. They are so good, that had I been present when he

I thank you for the search you have made after my intended motto, but I no longer need it.-Our love is always with yourself and family. Yours, my dear friend, W. C.

TO THE REV. JOHN NEWTON.

the contemplation of his own faculties and powers as a never-failing spring of comfort and content He speaks even of the natural man as made in

Feb. 16, 1782. CARACCIOLI says," There is something very the image of God, and supposes a resemblance bewitching in authorship, and that he who has of God to consist in a sort of independent selfonce written will write again." It may be so-I sufficing and self-complacent felicity, which can can subscribe to the former part of his assertion hardly be enjoyed without the forfeiture of all hufrom my own experience, having never found an mility, and a flat denial of some of the most imamusement, among the many I have been obliged portant truths in Scripture. to have recourse to, that so well answered the "As a philosopher he refines to an excess, and purpose for which I used it. The quieting and his arguments, instead of convincing others, if composing effect of it was such, and so totally ab- pushed as far as they would go, would convict him sorbed have I sometimes been in my rhyming oc- of absurdity himself. When for instance he would cupation, that neither the past nor the future depreciate earthly riches by telling us that gold (those themes which to me are so fruitful in re- and diamonds are only matter modified in a partigret at other times), had any longer a share in my cular way, and thence concludes them not more contemplation. For this reason I wish, and have valuable in themselves than the dust under our often wished, since the fit left me, that it would feet, his consequence is false, and his cause is hurt seize me again; but hitherto I have wished it in by the assertion. It is that very modification that vain. I see no want of subjects, but I feel a total gives them both a beauty and a value-a value disability to discuss them. Whether it is thus with and a beauty recognised in Scripture, and by the other writers or not, I am ignorant, but I should universal consent of all well informed and civilized suppose my case in this respect a little peculiar. nations. It is in vain to tell mankind, that gold The voluminous writers at least, whose vein of and dirt are equal, so long as their experience confancy seems always to have been rich in propor- vinces them of the contrary. It is necessary theretion to their occasions, can not have been so unlike, fore to distinguish between the thing itself and the and so unequal to themselves. There is this dif-abuse of it. Wealth is in fact a blessing, when ference between my poetship and the generality honestly acquired, and conscientiously employed; of them they have been ignorant how much they and when otherwise, the man is to be blamed and have stood indebted to an Almighty power for the not his treasure. How does the Scripture combat exercise of those talents they have supposed their the vice of covetousness? not by asserting that own. Whereas I know, and know most perfectly, gold is only earth exhibiting itself to us under a and am perhaps to be taught it to the last, that my particular modification, and therefore not worth power to think, whatever it be, and consequently seeking; but by telling us that covetousness is my power to compose, is, as much as my outward idolatry, that the love of money is the root of all form, afforded to me by the same hand that makes evil, that it has occasioned in some even the shipme, in any respect, to differ from a brute. This wreck of their faith, and is always, in whomsoever lesson, if not constantly inculcated, might perhaps it obtains, an abomination. be forgotten, or at least too slightly remembered. W. C.

“A man might have said to Caraccioli, Give me your purse full of ducats, and I will give you my old wig; they are both composed of the same matter under different modifications. What could "Caraccioli* appears to me to have been a wise the philosopher have replied? he must have made man, and I believe he was a good man in a reli- the exchange, or have denied his own principles. gious sense. But his wisdom and his goodness "Again, when speaking of sumptuous edifices, both savour more of the philosopher than the he calls a palace an assemblage of sticks and Christian. In the latter of these characters he stones, which a puff of wind may demolish, or a seems defective principally in this-that instead spark of fire consume; and thinks he has reduced of sending his reader to God as an inexhaustible a magnificent building and a cottage to the same source of happiness to his intelligent creatures, and exhorting him to cultivate communion with his Maker, he directs him to his own heart, and to

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level, when he has told us that the latter viewed through an optic glass may be made to appear as large as the former, and that the former seen through the same glass inverted may be reduced to the pitiful dimensions of the latter; has he indeed carried his point? is he not rather imposing on the judgment of his readers, just as the glass would impose upon their senses? How is it possible to deduce a substantial argument in this case from an acknowledged deception of the sight? The

objects continue what they were, the palace is printer to be punctual, I shall come forth on the still a palace, and the cottage is not at all ennobled first of March. I have ordered two copies to in reality, though we contemplate them ever so Stock; one for Mr. John Unwin. It is possible, long through an illusive medium. There is in after all, that my book may come forth without a fact a real difference between them, and such a Preface. Mr. Newton has written (he could inone as the Scripture itself takes very emphatical deed write no other) a very sensible as well as a notice of, assuring us that in the last day, much very friendly one; and it is printed. But the bookshall be required of him to whom much was given; seller, who knows him well, and esteems him highthat every man shall be then considered as a stew-ly, is anxious to have it cancelled, and, with my ard, and render a strict account of the things with consent first obtained, has offered to negociate that which he was intrusted. This consideration in-matter with the author.-He judges, that though deed may make the dwellers in palaces tremble, it would serve to recommend the volume to the who, living for the most part in the continued religious, it would disgust the profane, and that abuse of their talents, squandering and wasting there is in reality no need of any Preface at all. I and spending upon themselves their Master's trea- have found Johnson a very judicious man on other sure, will have reason enough to envy the cottager, occasions, and am therefore willing that he should whose accounts will be more easily settled. But determine for me upon this. to tell mankind, that a palace and a hovel are the

There are but few persons to whom I present same thing, is to affront their senses, to contradict my book. The lord chancellor is one. I enclose their knowledge, and to disgust their understand-in a packet I send by this post to Johnson a letter ings. to his lordship which will accompany the volume; "Herein seems to consist one of the principal and to you I enclose a copy of it, because I know differences between Philosophy and Scripture, or you will have a friendly curiosity to see it. An the Wisdom of Man and the Wisdom of God. author is an important character. Whatever his The former endeavours indeed to convince the merits may be, the mere circumstance of authorjudgment, but it frequently is obliged to have re-ship warrants his approach to persons, whom course to unlawful means, such as misrepresenta- otherwise perhaps he could hardly address withtion and the play of fancy. The latter addresses out being deemed impertinent. He can do me itself to the judgment likewise, but it carries its no good. If I should happen to do him a little, I point by awakening the conscience, by enlighten- shall be a greater man than he. I have ordered a ing the understanding, and by appealing to our copy likewise to Mr. S. own experience. As Philosophy therefore can not make a Christian, so a Christian ought to take care that he be not too much a Philosopher. It is mere folly instead of wisdom, to forego those arguments, and to shut our eyes upon those motives which Truth itself has pointed out to us, and which alone are adequate to the purpose, and to busy ourselves in making vain experiments on the strength of others of our own invention. In fact, the world which, however it has dared to controvert the authenticity of Scripture, has never been MY LORD, Olney, Bucks, Feb. 25, 1782. able to impeach the wisdom of its precepts, or the I MAKE no apology for what I account a duty. reasonableness of its exhortations, has sagacity I should offend against the cordiality of our forenough to see through the fallacy of such reason-mer friendship should I send a volume into the ings, and will rather laugh at the sage, who de- world, and forget how much I am bound to pay clares war against matter of fact, than become proselytes to his opinion."

I hope John continues to be pleased, and to give pleasure. If he loves instruction, he has a tutor who can give him plentifully of what he loves; and with his natural abilities his progress must be such as you would wish. Yours, W.C.

TO LORD THURLOW.
(ENCLOSED TO MR. UNWIN.)

my particular respects to your lordship upon that occasion. When we parted, you little thought of hearing from me again; and I as little that 1 should live to write to you, still less, that I should wait on you in the capacity of an author.

TO THE REV. WILLIAM UNWIN. Among the pieces I have the honour to send, MY DEAR FRIEND, Feb. 24, 1782. there is one for which I must entreat your pardon. Ir I should receive a letter from you to-morrow, I mean that of which your lordship is the subject. you must still remember that I am not in your The best excuse I can make is, that it flowed aldebt, having paid you by anticipation-Knowing most spontaneously from the affectionate rememthat you take an interest in my publication, and brance of a connexion that did me so much honour that you have waited for it with some impatience, As to the rest, their merits, if they have any, I write to inform you that, if it is possible for a and their defects, which are probably more than

I am aware of, will neither of them escape your is a strong resemblance between the two pieces in notice. But where there is much discernment, point of matter, and sometimes the very same exthere is generally much candour; and I commit pressions are to be met with, yet I soon recollected myself into your lordship's hands with the less that, on such a theme, a striking coincidence of anxiety, being well acquainted with yours. both might happen without a wonder. I doubt not that it is the production of an honest man, it carries with it an air of sincerity and zeal, that is not easily counterfeited. But though I can see no reason why kings should not sometimes hear I have the honour to be, though with very dif- of their faults, as well as other men, I think I see ferent impressions of some subjects, yet with the many good ones why they should not be reproved same sentiments of affection and esteem as ever, so publicly. It can hardly be done with that reyour lordship's faithful, and most obedient, hum-spect which is due to their office, on the part of ble servant,

If my first visit, after so long an interval, should prove neither a troublesome, nor a dull one, but especially, if not altogether an unprofitable one, omne tuli punctum.

W. C.

TO THE REV. J. NEWTON.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

Feb. 1782.

the author, or without encouraging a spirit of unmannerly censure in his readers. His majesty too perhaps might answer-my own personal feelings and offences I am ready to confess; but were I to follow your advice, and cashier the profligate from my service, where must I seek men of faith, I ENCLOSE Johnson's letter upon the subject of and true christian piety, qualified by nature and the Preface, and would send you my reply to it, by education to succeed them? Business must be if I had kept a copy. This however was the pur- done, men of business alone can do it, and good port of it. That Mr.whom I described as you men are rarely found under that description. described him to me, had made a similar objection, When Nathan reproved David, he did not embut that being willing to hope, that two or three ploy a herald, or accompany his charge with the pages of sensible matter, well expressed, might sound of the trumpet; nor can I think the writer possibly go down, though of a religious cast, I of this sermon quite justifiable in exposing the was resolved to believe him mistaken, and to pay king's faults in the sight of the people. no regard to it. That his judgment, however, Your answer respecting Etna is quite satisfacwho by his occupation is bound to understand tory, and gives me much pleasure. I hate alterwhat will promote the sale of a book, and what ing, though I never refuse the task when propriety will hinder it, seemed to deserve more attention. seems to enjoin it; and an alteration in this inThat therefore, according to his own offer written stance, if I am not mistaken, would have been sinon a small slip of paper now lost, I should be gularly difficult. Indeed, when a piece has been obliged to him if he would state his difficulties to finished two or three years, and an author finds you; adding, that I need not inform him, who is occasion to amend, or make an addition to it, it is so well acquainted with you, that he would find not easy to fall upon the very vein from which he you easy to be persuaded to sacrifice, if necessary, drew his ideas in the first instance; but either a what you had written, to the interests of the book. different turn of thought, or expression, will beI find he has had an interview with you upon the tray the patch, and convince a reader of discernoccasion, and your behaviour has verified my pre- ment that it has been cobbled and varnished. diction. What course he determines upon I do Our love to you both, and to the young Euphronot know, nor am I at all anxious about it. It is syne, the old lady of that name being long since impossible for me however to be so insensible of dead; if she pleases she shall fill her vacant office, your kindness in writing the preface, as not to be and be my muse hereafter. desirous of defying all contingencies rather than entertain a wish to suppress it. It will do me honour in the eyes of those whose good opinion is indeed an honour, and if it hurts me in the estimation of others, I can not help it; the fault is neither yours nor mine, but theirs. If a minister's is a more splendid character than a poet's, and I think nobody that understands their value can hesitate in deciding that question, then undoubtedly the advantage of having our names united in the same volume is all on my side.

Yours, my dear sir, W. C

TO THE REV. JOHN NEWTON.

March 6, 1782.

Is peace the nearer because our patriots have resolved that it is desirable? Will the victory they have gained in the House of Commons be attended with any other? Do they expect the same success on other occasions, and having once gained a majority are they to be the majority for ever?the These are the questions we agitate by the fireside mar. has read Expostulation. But though there in an evening, without being able to come to any

We thank you for the Fast-sermon. I had not read two pages before I exclaimed

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certain conclusion, partly I suppose because the ter delays so long to gratify your expectation. It sabject is in itself uncertain, and partly because we is a state of mind that is apt to tire and disconcert are not furnished with the means of understand- us; and there are but few pleasures that make ing it. I find the politics of times past far more us amends for the pain of repeated disappointment. intelligible than those of the present. Time has I take it for granted you have not received thrown light upon what was obscure, and decided the volume, not having received it myself, nor what was ambiguous. The characters of great indeed heard from Johnson, since he fixed the men, which are always mysterious while they first of the month for its publication. live, are ascertained by the faithful historian, and What a medley are our public prints, half the sooner or later receive their wages of fame or in- page filled with the ruin of the country, and the famy, according to their true deserts. How have I other half filled with the vices and pleasures of seen sensible and learned men burn incense to the it-here an island taken, and there a new comedy memory of Oliver Cromwell, ascribing to him, as—here an empire lost, and there an Italian opera, the greatest hero in the world, the dignity of the or a Lord's rout on a Sunday! British empire during the interregnum. A cen- May it please your lordship! I am an Englishtury passed before that idol, which seemed to be man, and must stand or fall with the nation. Reof gold, was proved to be a wooden one. The ligion, its true palladium, has been stolen away; fallacy however was at length detected, and the and it is crumbling into dust. Sin ruins us, the honour of that detection has fallen to the share sins of the great especially, and of their sins espeof a woman. I do not know whether you have cially the violation of the Sabbath, because it is read Mrs. Macaulay's history of that period. She naturally productive of all the rest. If you wish has handled him more roughly than the Scots did well to our arms, and would be glad to see the at the battle of Dunbar. He would have thought kingdom emerging again from her ruins, pay more it little worth his while to have broken through all obligations divine and human, to have wept crocodile tears, and wrapped himself up in the obscurity of speeches that nobody could understand, could he have foreseen that in the ensuing centutury a lady's scissars would clip his laurels close, and expose his naked villany to the scorn of all posterity. This however has been accomplished, and so effectually, that I suppose it is not in the power of the most artificial management to make them grow again. Even the sagacious of mankind are blind when Providence leaves them to be deluded; so blind, that a tyrant shall be mistaken for a true patriot, true patriots (such were the Long Parliament) shall be abhorred as tyrants, and almost a whole nation shall dream, that they have the full enjoyment of liberty, for years after such a complete knave as Oliver shall have stolen it completely from them. I am indebted for all this show of historical knowledge to Mr. Bull, who has lent me five volumes of the work I mention. I was willing to display it while I have it; in a twelve-month's time I shall remember almost nothing of the matter. W. C.

respect to an ordinance that deserves the deepest! I do not say pardon this short remonstrance!The concern I feel for my country, and the interest I have in its prosperity, give me a right to make it. I am, &c.”

Thus one might write to his lordship, and (I suppose) might be as profitably employed in whistling the tune of an old ballad.

I have no copy of the preface, nor do I know at present how Johnson and Mr. Newton have settled it. In the matter of it there was nothing offensively peculiar; but it was thought too pious. Yours, my dear friend, W. C.*

TO THE REV. JOHN NEWTON. MY DEAR FRIEND,

March 14, 1782. I CAN only repeat what I said sometime since, that the world is grown more foolish and careless than it was when I had the honour of knowing it. Though your preface was of a serious cast, it was yet free from every thing that might, with propriety, expose it to the charge of Methodism, being guilty of no offensive peculiarities, nor containing any of those obnoxious doctrines at which the world is so apt to be angry, and which we must give her leave to be angry at, because we know she March 7, 1782. can not help it. It asserted nothing more than WE have great pleasure in the contemplation of every rational creature must admit to be trueyour Northern journey, as it promises us a sight "that divine and earthly things can no longer of you and yours by the way, and are only sorry stand in competition with cach other, in the judgMiss Shuttleworth can not be of the party. A line ment of any man, than while he continues igno

TO THE REV. WILLIAM UNWIN. MY DEAR FRIEND,

to ascertain the hour when we may expect you,

by the next preceding post, will be welcome.

At this period, the first volume of the writer's poems

It is not much for my advantage that the prin- issued from the press.
U

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