have entertained me more, than all the other strictures of our public judges in these matters. Perhaps I am not much more pleased with shameless wolfe, &c. than you. But what is to be done, my little man ? Coarse as the expressions are, they are no more than equivalent to those of Homer. The invective of the ancients was never tempered with good manners, as your Papa can tell you! and my business, you know, is not to be more polite than my author, but to represent him as closely as I can.

Dishonour'd foul I have wiped away, for the reason you give, which is a very just one, and the present reading is this,

Who had dared dishonour thus

The life itself, &c.

Your objection to kindler of the fires of heaven, I had the good fortune to anticipate, and expunged the dirty ambiguity some time since, wondering, not a little, that I had ever admitted it.

The fault you find with the two first verses of Nestor's speech, discovers such a degree of just discernment, that but for your papa's assurance to the

contrary, I must have suspected him as the author of that remark: much as I should have respected it, if it had been so, I value it I assure you, my little friend, still more as yours. In the new edition the passage will be found thus altered,

Alas! great sorrow falls on Greece to-day,
Priam, and Priam's sons, with all in Troy
Oh! how will they exult, and in their hearts
Triumph, once hearing of this broil between
The prime of Greece, in council, and in arms.

Where the word reel suggests to you the idea of a drunken mountain, it performs the service to which I destined it. It is a bold metaphor; but justified by one of the sublimest passages in scripture, compared with the sublimity of which even that of Homer suffers humiliation.

It is God himself who speaking, I think, by the propet Isaiah, says,

"The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard."

With equal boldness in the same scripture, the poetry of which was never equalled, mountains are said to skip, to break out into singing, and the fields to

clap their hands. I intend, therefore, that my Olym pus shall be still tipsy.

The accuracy of your last remark, in which you convicted me of a bull delights me. A fig for all critics but you! The blockheads could not find it. It shall stand thus,

First spake Polydamas

Homer was more upon his guard, than to commit such a blunder, for he says,

αρχ ̓ ἀγορευειν.

And now, my dear little censor, once more accept my thanks. I only regret that your strictures are so few, being just and sensible as they are.

Tell your Papa that he shall hear from me soon; accept mine, and my dear invalide's affectionate remembrances. Ever yours,

*

NOTE BY THE EDITOR.

W. C.*

This Letter may be regarded as a remarkable proof of the great poet's indulgent sweetness of temper, in favouring the literary talents of a child. A good-natured reader will hardly

TO WILLIAM COWPER, Esqr.

Eartham, March 4, 1793.

HONORED KING OF BARDS,

Since you deign to

demand the observations of an humble and unxexperienced servant of yours, on a work of one who is so much his superior (as he is ever ready to serve you with all his might) behold what you demand! but let me desire you not to censure me for my unskilful and perhaps (as they will undoubtedly appear to you) ridiculous observations; but be so kind as to receive them as a mark of respectful affection from

Your obedient servant,

THOMAS HAYLEY.

blame the parental partiality to a dear departed scholar, which induces me to insert in this note, the Letter Cowper answered so kindly---a Letter, that readers accustomed to contemplate the compositions of childhood, may consider, perhaps, as a curiosity, when they are assured, as they are with perfect truth, that every syllable of the Letter, and of the criticisms annexed to it, were the voluntary and uncorrected production of a boy whose age was little more than twelve years.

Book.

I.

Line.

-184..I cannot reconcile myself to these expressions,

195

"Ah cloth'd with impudence, &c." and

196

"Shameless wolf," and "Face of flint."

I.—508.." Dishonour'd foul," is, in my opinion, an uncleanly expression,

I.-651.." Reel'd," I think makes it appear as if
Olympus was drunk.

I.-749.." Kindler of the fires in Heaven," I think makes Jupiter appear too much like a lamp-lighter.

II.

-317. These lines are, in my opinion, below the elevated genius of Mr. Cowper.

to 319

-300. This appears to me to be rather Irish, since in

XVIII.

to 304

line 300 you say,

in 304,

"No one sat," and

Polydamas rose."