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pace, with an air and a grace, swimming about, now in and now out, with a deal of state, in a figure of eight, without pipe or string or any such thing; and now I have writ, in a rhyming fit, what will make you dance, and as you advance, will keep you still though against your will, dancing away, alert and gay, till you come to an end of what I have penn'd; which that you may do ere madam and you are quite worn out with jigging about, I take my leave, and here you receive a bow profound, down to the ground, from your humble me, W. C.

P.S. When I concluded, doubtless you did think me right, as well you might, in saying what I said of Scott; and then it was true, but now it is due to him to note, that since I wrote, himself and he has visited me.

EXPECTS LADY HESKETH-PREPARATIONS FOR HER-HIS WORKSHOP.

TO LADY HESKETH.

OLNEY, May 29, 1786.

Thou dear, comfortable cousin, whose letters, among all that I receive, have this property peculiarly their own, that I expect them without trembling, and never find any thing in them that does not give me pleasure; for which therefore I would take nothing in exchange that the world could give me, save and except that for which I must exchange them soon, (and happy shall I be to do so,) your own company. That, indeed, is delayed a little too long; to my impatience at least it seems so, who find the spring, backward as it is, too forward, because many of its beauties will have faded before you will have an opportunity to see them. We took our customary walk yesterday in the wilderness at Weston, and saw, with regret, the laburnums, syringas, and guelder-roses, some of them blown, and others just upon the point of blowing, and could not help observing-All these will be gone before Lady Hesketh comes! Still however there will be roses, and jasmine, and honeysuckle, and shady walks, and cool alcoves, and you will partake them with us. But I want you to have a share of every thing that is delightful here, and cannot bear that the advance of the season should steal away a single pleasure before you can come to enjoy it.

Every day I think of you, and almost all the day long; I will venture to say, that even you were never so expected in your life. I called last week at the Quaker's to see the furniture of your bed, the fame of which had reached me. It is, I assure you, superb, of printed cotton, and the subject classical. Every morning you will open your eyes on Phaeton kneeling to Apollo, and imploring his father to grant him the conduct of his chariot for a day. May

your sleep be as sound as your bed will be sumptuous, and your nights at least will be well provided for.

I shall send up the sixth and seventh books of the Iliad shortly. and shall address them to you. You will forward them to the General. I long to show you my workshop, and to see you sitting on the opposite side of my table. We shall be as close packed as two wax figures in an old-fashioned picture frame. I am writing in it now. It is the place in which I fabricate all my verse in sunimer time. I rose an hour sooner than usual this morning, that I might finish my sheet before breakfast, for I must write this day to the General.

The grass under my windows is all bespangled with dewdrops, and the birds are singing in the apple trees, among the blossoms. Never poet had a more commodious oratory in which to invoke his Muse.

TRANSLATION OF HOMER-THE NONSENSE CLUB.

TO JOSEPH HILL, ESQ.

OLNEY, June 9, 1786.

My dear friend, The little time that I can devote to any other purpose than that of poetry is, as you may suppose, stolen. Homer is urgent. Much is done, but much remains undone, and no schoolboy is more attentive to the performance of his daily task than I am. You will therefore excuse me if at present I am both unfrequent and short.

I had a letter some time since from your sister Fanny, that gave me great pleasure. Such notices from old friends are always pleasant, and of such pleasures I have received many lately. They refresh the remembrance of early days, and make me young again. The noble institution of the Nonsense Club will be forgotten, when we are gone who composed it; but I often think of your most heroic line, written at one of our meetings, and especially think of it when I am translating Homer,

"To whom replied the Devil yard-long-tailed."1

There never was any thing more truly Grecian than that triple epithet, and were it possible to introduce it into either Iliad or Odyssey, I should certainly steal it. I am now flushed with expectation of Lady Hesketh, who spends the summer with us. We hope to see her next week. We have found admirable lodgings both for her and her suite, and a Quaker in this town, still more admirable than they, who, as if he loved her as much as I do, furnishes them for her with real elegance.

1 See page 70 under "Moral Plays."

ON A PARTICULAR PROVIDENCE.1

How mysterious are the ways of Providence! Why did I receive grace and mercy? Why was I preserved, afflicted for my good, received, as I trust, into favor, and blessed with the greatest happiness I can ever know or hope for in this life, while others were overtaken by the great arrest, unawakened, unrepent ing, and every way unprepared for it? His infinite wisdom, to whose infinite mercy I owe it all, can solve these questions, and none beside him. If I am convinced that no affliction can befall me without the permission of God, I am convinced, likewise, that he sees and knows that I am afflicted. Believing this, I must in the same degree believe that, if I pray to him for deliverance, he hears me; I must needs know likewise with equal assurance that, if he hears, he will also deliver me, if that will, upon the whole, be most conducive to my happiness; and if he does not deliver me, I may be well assured that he has none but the most benevolent intention in declining it. He made us, not because we could add to his happiness, which was always perfect, but that we might be happy ourselves; and will he not, in all his dispensations towards us, even in the minutest, consult that end for which he made us? To suppose the contrary, is (which we are not always aware of) affronting every one of his attributes; and at the same time the certain consequence of disbelieving his care for us is, that we renounce utterly our dependence upon him. In this view, it will appear plainly that the line of duty is not stretched too tight, when we are told that we ought to accept every thing at his hands as a blessing, and to be thankful even while we smart under the rod of iron with which he sometimes rules us. Without this persuasion, every blessing, however we may think ourselves happy in it, loses its greatest recommendation, and every affliction is intolerable. Death itself must be welcome to him who has this faith, and he who has it not, must aim at it, if he is not a madman.

1 From a letter to Lady Hesketh, dated Sept. 4, 1765.

INDEX TO SUBJECTS,

AND TO

NAMES INCIDENTALLY MENTIONED IN THE VOLUME.

[FOR THE AUTHORS IN THE WORK, SEE ALPHABETICAL LIST, ON THE SEVENTH PAGE]

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Acorn and Atheist, by Anne Finch......... 396 | Angler, Speech of, by Walton..........

551

495

by Doune...

168

305

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252

Remark of, On "Invocation to

Light"
Address to Melancholy, by Beaumont..... 143
Advancement of Learning, by Bacon...... 160
Adventurer, Drake on The........ ....... 609
Adversity, by Taylor.........
222
Advice to the Youthful Student, by Pitt. 641
Eneid, Remark of Addison on.............. 375
Ages, The Seven, by Shakspeare............ 134
Albert, The Commander, Death of.......... 563
Albion, Origin of the name of, by Caxton. 43
All Can do Good, by Talbot..........
All cannot be Poets, by Goldsmith......... 634
All-Conquering Power of Truth........... 267
Allegorical Characters in Hell, by Sack-
ville.

All-Sufficiency of the Scriptures, by Wi-
clif..

567

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122

23

Character of, by Jonson.............. 174
-On Knowledge..............
282
Bale, John, his Remarks on Mandeville.. 17
Bard, Origin of Gray's.......................... 595

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........ 590

590

325

Alps, Scenery of the, by Goldsmith........ 631
Althea, lines to the, by Lovelace........... 206
Ambition, Folly of, by Raleigh...................................... 147 | Barclay's Apology................
America, as discovered by Columbus, by

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