`tendency to give his mind an observing, and a philo'sophical turn. I'do not forget that he is but a child, but I remember that he is a child favoured with ta

lents, superior to his years. We were much pleased with his remarks on your alms-giving, and doubt not but it will be verified with respect to the two guineas you sent us, which have made four Christian people happy. Ships I have none, nor have touched a pencil these three years, if ever I take it up again, which I rather suspect I shall not, (the employment requiring stronger eyes than mine) it shall be at John's

service.

1

Though I value your corres

pondence highly on its own account, I certainly va

lue it the more in consideration of the many

culties under which you carry it on.

diffi

Having so

4

many other engagements, and engagements so much more worthy your attention, I ought to esteem it, as I do, a singular proof of your friendship, that you so often make an opportunity to bestow a Letter upon

And this, not only because mine, which I write in a state of mind not very favourable to religious contemplations, are never worth your reading, but especially because while you consult my gratification, and endeavour to amuse my melancholy, your thoughts are forced out of the only channel in which they delight to flow, and constrained into another so different, and so little interesting to a mind like yours, that but for me, and for my sake, they would perhaps never visit it. Though I should be glad therefore to hear from you every week, I do not complain that I enjoy that privilege but once in a fortnight, but am rather happy to be indulged in it so often.

I thank you for the jog you gave Johnson's elbow; communicated from him to the printer, it has produced me two more sheets, and two more will bring the business, I suppose, to a conclusion. I sometimes feel such a perfect indifference, with respect to the public opinion of my book, that I am ready to flatter myself no censure of reviewers, or other critical readers, would occasion me the smallest

disturbance. But not feeling myself constantly possessed of this desirable apathy, I am sometimes apt to suspect that it is not altogether sincere, or at least that I may lose it just in the moment when I may happen most to want it. Be it however, as it may, I am still persuaded, that it is not in their power to mortify me much. I have intended well, and performed to the best of my ability so far was right, and this is a boast of which they cannot rob me.. If they cont demn my poetry, I must even say with Cervantes, "Let them do better if they can!"if my doctrine, they judge that, which they do not understand; I shall except to the jurisdiction of the court, and plead, Coram non judice. Even Horace could say, he should neither be the plumper for the praise, nor the leaner for the condemnation of his readers, and it will prove me wanting to myself indeed, if supported by so many sublimer considerations than he was master of, I cannot sit loose to popularity, which like the wind, bloweth where it listeth, and is equally out of our command. If you, and two or three more, such as you, say, well done; it ought to give me more contentment, than if I could earn Churchill's laurels, and by the same means.

I wrote to Lord Dartmouth to apprise him of

my intended present, and have received a most affectionate and obliging answer.

I am rather pleased that you have adopted other sentiments respecting our intended present to the critical Doctor. I allow him to be a man of gigantic talents, and most profound learning, nor have I any doubts about the universality of his knowledge. But by what I have seen of his animadversions on the poets, I feel myself much diposed to question, in many instances, either his candour or his taste. He finds fault too often, like a man that having sought it very industriously, is at last obliged to stick

pin's point, and look at it through a microscope, 'and I am sure I could easily convict him of having denied many beauties, and overlooked more. Whether his judgment be in itself defective, or whether it be warped by collateral considerations, a writer upon such subjects as I have chosen, would probably find but little mercy at his hands.

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 in himself, seems to subsist best in a state of variety, as his proper elementa melancholy man at least, is apt

to grow sadly weary of the same walks, and the same pales, and to find that the same scene will suggest the same thoughts perpetually.

Though I have spoken of the utility of changes, we neither feel, nor wish for any in our friendships, and consequently stand just where we did with respect to your whole self.

" is something very bewitching in authorship, and "that he who has once written, will write again." It may be so I can subscribe to the former part of his assertion from my own experience, having never found an amusement, among the many I have been obliged to have recourse to, that so well answered the purpose for which I used it. The quieting and composing effect of it was such, and so totally