to avail myself of all other strictures that either your good neighbour, Lord Bagot, the bishop, or yourself,

παντων ἐκπαγλότατ ̓ ἀνδρων,

may happen to have made, and will be so good as to favour me with. Those of the good Evander contained in your last have served me well, and I have already, in the three different places referred to, accommodated the text to them. And this I have done in one instance even a little against the bias of my own opinion.

ἐγὼ δέ κεν αὐτὸς ἕλωμαι

Ελθὼν σὺν πλεόνεσσι.

The sense I had given of these words is the sense in which an old scholiast has understood them, as appears in Clarke's note in loco. Clarke indeed prefers the other, but it does not appear plain to me that he does it with good reason against the judgement of a very ancient commentator, and a Grecian. And I am the rather inclined to this persuasion, because Achilles himself seems to have apprehended that Agamemnon would not content himself with Briseïs only, when he says,

But I have OTHER precious things on board,

Of THESE take NONE away without my leave, &c.

It is certain that the words are ambiguous, and that the sense of them depends altogether on the punctuation. But I am always under the correction of so able a critic as your neighbour, and have altered, as I say, my version, accordingly.

As to Milton, the die is cast. I am engaged, have

bargained with Johnson, and cannot recede. I should otherwise have been glad to do as you advise, to make the translation of his Latin and Italian, part of another volume; for, with such an addition, I have nearly as much verse in my budget as would be required for the purpose. This squabble, in the mean time between Fuseli and Boydell, does not interest me at all; let it terminate as it may, I have only to perform my job, and leave the event to be decided by the combatants.

Suave, mari magno turbantibus æquora ventis

E terrá magnum alterius spectare laborem.

Adieu, my dear friend, I am most sincerely yours,

W. C.

Why should you suppose that I did not admire the poem you showed me? I did admire it, and told you so, but you carried it off in your pocket, and so doing left me to forget it, and without the means of inquiry. I am thus nimble in answering, merely with a view to ensure myself the receipt of other remarks in time for a new impression.

DEAR SIR,

TO THE REV. MR. HURDIS.

Weston, Dec. 10, 1791. I AM much obliged to you for wishing that I were employed in some original work rather than in translation. To tell you the truth, I am of your mind; and unless I could find another Homer, I shall promise (I

believe) and vow, when I have done with Milton, never to translate again. But my veneration for our great countryman is equal to what I feel for the Grecian; and consequently I am happy, and feel myself honourably employed whatever I do for Milton. I am now translating his Epitaphium Damonis, a pastoral in my judgement equal to any of Virgil's Bucolics, but of which Dr. Johnson (so it pleased him) speaks, as I remember, contemptuously. But he who never saw any beauty in a rural scene, was not likely to have much taste for a pastoral. In pace quiescat!

I was charmed with your friendly offer to be my advocate with the public; should I want one, I know not where I could find a better. The reviewer in the Gentleman's Magazine grows more and more civil. Should he continue to sweeten at this rate, as he proceeds, I know not what will become of all the little modesty I have left. I have availed myself of some of his strictures, for I wish to learn from every body.

W. C.

TO SAMUEL ROSE, ESQ.

MR DEAR FRIEND,

The Lodge, Dec. 21, 1791.

Ir grieves me, after having indulged a little hope that I might see you in the holidays, to be obliged to disappoint myself. The occasion too is such as will ensure me your sympathy.

On Saturday last, while I was at my desk near the window, and Mrs. Unwin at the fireside, opposite to it, I heard her suddenly exclaim, "Oh! Mr. Cowper,

don't let me fall!" I turned and saw her actually falling, together with her chair, and started to her side just in time to prevent her. She was seized with a violent giddiness, which lasted, though with some abatement, the whole day, and was attended too with some other very, very alarming symptoms. At present however she is relieved from the vertigo, and seems in all respects better.

She has been my faithful and affectionate nurse for many years, and consequently has a claim on all my attentions. She has them, and will have them as long as she wants them; which will probably be, at the best, a considerable time to come. feel the shock, as you may suppose, in every nerve. God grant that

there may be no repetition of it.

I

Another such a

stroke upon her would, I think, overset me completely; but at present I hold up bravely.

W. C.

TO THE REV. JOHN NEWTON.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

Weston, Jan. 1, 1792.

WHAT you call a note I call a letter, and a very kind one, and as such entitled to my grateful acknowledgments. You must receive a note indeed in return, for more I shall not be able to afford you at present, but I write to relieve you from a part at least of your friendly anxiety on our account.

Mrs. Unwin is better, and I hope gathers strength daily. She rises not much later than her usual hour, and sits up till about eight in the evening, but does not yet leave her chamber.

You have learned, I suppose, from Mr. Bean the manner in which this illness seized her. Nothing could be more sudden or alarming. She would have fallen to the floor, if I had not sprang to her help, for while I was writing at the other side of the room, she called to me to save her from falling. She seemed to have lost for a few moments all use of her limbs from the waist downward, for it was with the utmost difficulty that I replaced her in her seat, having caught her in the moment when she was sliding from it. It was a violent vertigo that seized her brain, and disturbed her sight so much that for a day or two she saw objects inverted.

I thank God-no symptoms of the paralytic kind remain. Her senses were never affected, but her speech acquired a rapidity which would not allow it to be perfectly distinct. She has however now nearly regained her usual utterance, and will, I hope, soon resume her place in the study, and all her former functions in the family.

It was a fortnight yesterday since she was taken with this illness. You would not have received your first notice of it from Mr. Bean, had I not during the first week found myself incapable of writing, and abstained from it during the second with a design of communicating to you the news of her indisposition and of her recovery both together.

Cætera desunt.