We now understand one another, and I firmly believe that I might have gone the world through, before I had found his equal in an accurate and familiar acquaintance with the original.

A letter to Mr. Urban in the last Gentleman's Magazine, of which I's book is the subject, pleases me more than any thing I have seen in the way of eulogium yet. I have no guess of the author.

I do not wish to remind the Chancellor of his promise. Ask you why, my cousin? Because I suppose it would be impossible. He has, no doubt, forgotten it entirely, and would be obliged to take my word for the truth of it, which I could not bear. We drank tea together with Mrs. C -e, and her sister, in King Street, Bloomsbury, and there was the promise made. I said "Thurlow, I am nobody, and shall be always nobody, and you will be Chancellor. You shall provide for me when you are." He smiled, and replied, "I surely will."-" These ladies," said I, "are witnesses." He still smiled, and said-"Let them be so, for I will certainly do it." But alas! twenty-four years have passed since the day of the date thereof; and to mention it now would be to upbraid him with inattention to his plighted troth. Neither do I suppose he could easily serve such a creature as I am, if he would.

Adieu, whom I love entirely,

W. C.

TO THE REV. JOHN NEWTON.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

Feb. 18, 1786.

I FEEL myself truly obliged to you for the leave that you give me, to be less frequent in writing, and more prief than heretofore. I have a long work upon my hands; and standing engaged to the public, (for by this time I suppose my subscription papers to be gone abroad,) not only for the performance of it, but for the performance of it in a reasonable time, it seems necessary to me not to intermit it often. My correspondence has also lately been renewed with several of my relations, and unavoidably engrosses now and then one of the few opportunities that I can find for writing. I nevertheless intend, in the exchange of letters with you, to be as regular as I can be, and to use, like a friend, the friendly allowance that have made me. you

My reason for giving notice of an Odyssey as well as an Iliad, was this :-I feared that the public, being left to doubt whether I should ever translate the former, would be unwilling to treat with me for the latter; which they will be apt to consider as an odd volume, and unworthy to stand upon their shelves alone. It is hardly probable, however, that I should begin the Odyssey for some months to come, being now closely engaged in the revisal of my translation of the Iliad, which I compare, as I go, most minutely with the original. One of the great defects of Pope's translation is, that it is licentious. To publish, therefore, a translation now that should be at all chargeable with the same fault,-that were not indeed as close and as faithful as possible, would be only actum agere, and

had therefore better be left undone.

Whatever be said of mine, when it shall appear, it shall never be said that it is not faithful.

I thank you heartily, both for your wishes and prayers, that should a disappointment occur, I may not be too much hurt by it. Strange as it may seem to say it, and unwilling as I should be to say it to any person less candid than yourself, I will nevertheless say, that I have not entered on this work, unconnected as it must needs appear with the interests of the cause of God, without the direction of his Providence, nor altogether unassisted by him in the performance of it. Time will show to what it ultimately tends. I am inclined to believe that it has a tendency to which I myself am, at present, perfectly a stranger. Be that as it may, He knows my frame, and will consider that I am but dust; dust, into the bargain, that has been so trampled under foot and beaten, that a storm less violent than an unsuccessful issue of such a business might occasion, would be sufficient to blow me quite away. But I will tell you honestly, I have no fears upon the subject. My predecessor has given me every advantage.

As I know not to what end this my present occupation may finally lead, so neither did I know, when I wrote it, or at all suspect, one valuable end, at least, that was to be answered by the Task. It has pleased God to prosper it; and being composed in blank verse, it is likely to prove as seasonable an introduction to a blank verse Homer, by the same hand, as any that could have been devised: yet when I wrote the last line of the Task, I as little suspected that I should

ever engage in a version of the old Asiatic tale, as you do now. Let me now boast of some favours that the Task has procured me from benefactors at present unknown, and likely to continue so. In the first place I am indebted to it, at least I have every reason to think so, for a most elegant writing-desk: it is of cedar, and mounted with silver. Lady Hesketh sent it, but assured me that she is not the giver, neither will he be known. In the next place it has been the occasion unequivocally, of my receiving from another anonymous donor a handsome snuff-box, embellished on the lid with a landscape overlaid with a crystal. The background of the drawing, which is extremely neat, consists of a hill with a cottage on its top surrounded by trees, and in the foreground are seen the figures of three hares. Above, it is inscribed with these words-The peasant's nest; and below with these-Puss, Tiney, and Bess. My benefactor learned those names from an history of these three captives that I published two years since in the Gentleman's Magazine, and has characterised them exactly according to that account of them.

I should choose for your general motto,

Carmina tum melius, cùm venerit ipse, canemus.

For vol. i.

For vol. ii.

Unum pro multis dabitur caput.

Aspice, venturo lætentur ut omnia sæclo.

It seems to me that you cannot have better than

these.

S. C.-5.

S

Our best love to Mrs. Newton, with thanks for

Russia tongues.

Yours, my dear friend,

WM. COWPER.

P. S. We wish S. Johnson very happy, and think that if a good Christian husband and a rural retreat can make her so, she has every thing on her side.

TO LADY HESKETH.

MY DEAREST COUSIN,

Olney, Feb. 19, 1786. SINCE So it must be, so it shall be. If you will not sleep under the roof of a friend, may you never sleep under the roof of an enemy! An enemy, however, you will not presently find. Mrs. Unwin bids me mention her affectionately, and tell you that she willingly gives up a part, for the sake of the rest, willingly, at least, as far as willingly may consist with some reluctance. I feel my reluctance too. Our design was, that you should have slept in the room that serves me for a study, and its having been occupied by you would have been an additional recommendation of it to me. But all reluctances are superseded by the thought of seeing you; and because we have nothing so much at heart as the wish to see you happy and comfortable, we are desirous therefore to accommodate you to your own mind, and not to ours. Mrs. Unwin has already

secured for

you an apartment, or rather two, just such as we could wish. The house in which you will find them is within thirty yards of our own, and opposite