engaged also to publish my new Epic, as soon as it is finished, on the terms of my sharing with them the clear profits. Surely I may now say with Agag, the bitterness of death is past. Surely all to come will now be comfort, if not happiness. I am going to hasten into the country, taking Chippenham, by desire, in my route; and sit down in sweet retirement to my studies, blest with such peace as none can tell, save those who have weathered the storms and buffetings of adverse fortune. Content is, again mine, and that is the To-Kalon, the summum bonum on earth; for "Pauper enin non est, cui rerum suppetit usus :" while the reflection of past miseries gives a double relish to present enjoyment. think, with Seneca, Thus I "Quæ fuit duram pati, Meminisse dulce est." Yours very truly, SYLVATICUS. LETTER CII. L Cottage. DEAR FRANK, NOTWITHSTANDING the agreement which I made with the W's when in town, and their promise most certainly to publish my second Epic as soon as I should complete the work, their subsequent correspondence left its appearance still doubtful, and a tedious and painful period was suffered to elapse before I was apprised that their High Mightinesses would "publish it on the terms originally agreed on." Close study and application have enabled me to complete the remaining part of this my second Epic, thus making another arduous attempt to reach the pinnacle of poetic glory. How I have succeeded must be left for others to decide. My tale has little or no foundation in history; yet why should it be the less heroic on that account. The "tale of Troy divine," if many are to be believed, is equally devoid of the evidence of truth; unless, what some author has asserted be correct,—namely, that the almost exterminating VOL. III. F engaged also to publish my new Epic, as soon as it is finished, on the terms of my sharing with them the clear profits. Surely I may now say with Agag, the bitterness of death is past. Surely all to come will now be comfort, if not happiness. I am going to hasten into the country, taking Chippenham, by desire, in my route; and sit down in sweet retirement to my studies, blest with such peace as none can tell, save those who have weathered the storms and buffetings of adverse fortune. Content is, again mine, and that is the To-Kalon, the summum bonum on earth; for "Pauper enin non est, cui rerum suppetit usus: :" while the reflection of past miseries gives a double relish to present enjoyment. think, with Seneca, Thus I LETTER CII. L Cottage. DEAR FRANK, NOTWITHSTANDING the agreement which I made with the W's when in town, and their promise most certainly to publish my second Epic as soon as I should complete the work, their subsequent correspondence left its appearance still doubtful, and a tedious and painful period was suffered to elapse before I was apprised that their High Mightinesses would "publish it on the terms originally agreed on.” Close study and application have enabled me to complete the remaining part of this my second Epic, thus making another arduous attempt to reach the pinnacle of poetic glory. How I have succeeded must be left for others to decide. My tale has little or no foundation in history; yet why should it be the less heroic on that account. The "tale of Troy divine," if many are to be believed, is equally devoid of the evidence of truth; unless, what some author has asserted be correct,—namely, that the almost exterminating VOL. III. F war which the other tribes of Israel carried on against that of Benjamin, was the story on which Homer grounded his inimitable epic of the Iliad. It was my aim to obtain a tale highly romantic, full of incident and vicissitude, to suit the general taste of the present age more than that of the strictly classical critic; and a story, the interest of which could not in the least be abated by foreknowledge in my readers of any of its events. I applied solely to my own imagination for its characters and incidents, clothing them in the garb of antiquity, as far as my researches into past ages would enable me, without destroying that poetic charm which it was indispensably necessary to throw around them; while the machinery which I have adopted, though certainly not original, is wrought into such a new shape as will, I should hope, obtain for me at least the credit of ingeniousness. What the result of these midnight labours will be, Heaven only knows: I must leave it to fate. The lofty steep which I have attempted to climb, has been both hazardous and arduous to achieve; but the Muses have scattered flowers in my path, and their smiles have cheered me on my way : and although the unfeeling world should now wholly neglect me, could I but know that in |