It arrived on the eve of his birthday, and on that very day, therefore, I sent it, accompanied with a letter to his little self, in which I informed him that it came from you. I have not seen any of the family since, but have heard that they were much pleased, and so forth.

I have taxed my wits for six complimentary lines on Sir John Fenn and his lady. Of the latter you speak decidedly, giving me to understand that she is everything a panegyrist would wish; but concerning the merits of the former you are so silent that I stand in doubt whether I ought to compliment him at all. Yet to present him with my name and handwriting to be inserted in his collection, taking at the same time no notice of him, but of his wife only, would be a palpable affront. I have therefore found it necessary to make them equal sharers in my praise. But praise I have none for the undeserving. I have praised none such yet, and, knowing them to be such, I never will. Tell me therefore how the case stands, but first read the lines, which done, you will be able to judge better.

TO SIR JOHN FENN

Two omens seem propitious to my fame,

Your spouse embalms my verse, and you, my name;
A name which, all self-flatt'ry far apart,
Belongs to one who ven'rates in his heart
The wise and good, and therefore, of the few
Known by those titles, Sir, both yours and you.

W. C.

I must know likewise if he binds these matters together in a book, or whether he keeps them in a bundle. If the latter, then I can send them to you properly transcribed in my next letter. But if he binds them, as Miss More does, then I must wait till you can take them hence with you, for in that case they must not be creased and bumbled. Patty More's I put between two boards shaped and shaven for the purpose. Tell me in any case, is he wise and good, such at least as may be honestly so entitled, or is he not? If not, then the affair is desperate, for I cannot give him my handwriting without some compliment, and I must not compliment his wife exclusively.

Give my love to Mrs. Balls and to Catharine. Thank the last for her letter to me, and the first for hers to Mrs. Unwin. She will answer it as soon as she is able to write without incurring some disorder or other in her head, and I will write to your aunt as soon as my perpetual engagements will allow me a moment to do it in.

I rejoice, my dear boy, that you have methodized your reading so judiciously and have put yourself into a course of study. Suffer

nothing to divert you from it. Especially I rejoice that you have a due sense of the importance of your future function. May the great Bishop of the Church himself be present at your ordination, and send you forth to preach with better credentials than any Right Reverend can give you !

Mrs. Unwin unites in love to you all. We are sorry to want you so long, but approve so much of your reason for not coming sooner that we complain not.

Yours, my dear Johnny,
WILLIAM COWPER

6

Weston Underwood, November 5th, 1792*

MY DEAREST JOHNNY,

I give you many thanks for your very entertaining account of the characters and conversation you met with at my little bookseller's. But you forget to tell me if anything passed between you and Johnson on the subject of my present backwardness in my work and unavoidable procrastination. I have done nothing since you went except that I have finished the sonnet which I told you I had begun, and sent it to Hayley, who is well pleased therewith, and has by this time transmitted it to whom it most concerns. By the way, you omit likewise to tell me if you called on Romney, and if you gave him proper directions for sending Hayley's portrait hither. This it is necessary that I should know, because if you did not give him such directions, I must. I wish to know, likewise, if you scraped acquaintance with the Turkish maker of razor-strops. Among your other omissions, omit not, I beseech you, by any means to make our united thanks in the handsomest manner to Mr. Heath for the pheasants he was so kind as to favour us with, which arrived in fine preservation, and were excellent.

I would not give the Algebraist sixpence for his encomiums on my "Task" if he condemns my Homer, which I know in point of language is equal to it, and in variety of numbers superior. But the character of the former having been some years established, he follows the general cry, and, should Homer establish himself as well, and I trust he will hereafter, I shall have his warm suffrage for that also. But if not it is no matter. Swift says somewhere, there are a very few good judges of poetry in the world, who lend their taste to those who have none, and your man of figures is probably one of the borrowers.

I thank thee, my dear Johnny, for fighting my battles with this critic so manfully as you did, and felicitate myself and you on the victory you gained. May you argue as syllogistically and with as * A small part of this letter has been already printed.

you

much success when you come to dispute in the schools, and, if recollect that I am, and feel myself to be, nearly interested in that event too, perhaps you may. You will discover in due time that you have no need to hold your peace through fear of any man. In the mean time I commend your silence while religion was the topic. There was no hope that you could convince the disputants, and you might possibly have entangled yourself. But of this I am sure, and rejoice to find you so much of the same mind, that, if they do not choose to be born again, unless God gives them grace to repent of their folly, they shall never see his kingdom.

The post that brought me yours brought me likewise a letter from Mr. Rose. He speaks of you in the kindest manner, and says you have won all their hearts.

You mention a new edition of my poems in quarto which Johnson means to give me. You mean a set of them, I presume? But the expression, having some ambiguity in it, calls for an explanation.

Mrs. Unwin is as well as when you went, and I hope a little better. Adieu in great haste. Our united love attends yourself and yours, whose I am most truly and affectionately,

WILLIAM COWPER

7

MY DEAREST JOHNNY,

Friday, January 18th, 1793

Two or three lines written as fast as I can scratch are all that you will get from me this morning. Mrs. Unwin is coming down, and will immediately want my attentions. I have a mind not to tell thee how we do, traitor and varlet as thou art, not to come thyself and see. All that you sent has arrived safe, and for all we thank you heartily, but no letter enclosed with the hare, nor any other letter have I had from you save the letter I am now answering, and which I have this moment received. The coachman and post-boy are both thieves, no doubt.

The Roses have left us some time, and, hoping to see you immediately after their departure, I did not write. And to this you may add, if you please, that I have not lately had a moment to spare for the purpose.

Mrs. Rose is a sensible and very agreeable woman, and I love her husband; consequently we were happy in their company. But company that is indeed company, and that makes any alteration in our table necessary, is now too much for Mrs. Unwin-costs her more thought and contrivance than her poor head can bear.

You say not a word about coming, for which reason it is that I make you wait till the last moment before I tell you that Mrs. Unwin is as well as usual, and myself not worse. We love and

thank you, however, for your kind anxieties about us, and shall be happy to see you soon.

Adieu, my dearest Johnny. I have not time to add more, except that I am, with our united best remembrances to all friends, affectionately and most affectionately yours,

8

WILLIAM COWPER

March 3rd, 1793

MY DEAREST JOHNNY,

Are you so lately from the egg-shell as not yet to know that trustees are of all mankind the least to be trusted? I thought that you had had some experience of that truth in your own concerns already. I am afraid you have but one remedy, which is to hang these same trustees immediately. It may be an affair of some little difficulty, but it will be an act of consummate justice, and in the way to such an act all difficulties are to be disregarded. They will otherwise infallibly cheat you all by making a bargain with some needy rogue of a parson, and how can you prevent it?

You are a rogue yourself, though not yet a parson. Did not you tell me in your last letter but one, that in your next you would fix a time for coming to Weston, and behold here is not one word about it in all that you have said. Had you been here, I should for some time past have found you full employment in transcribing for me the alterations that I have made and am still making in my Homer, which alterations I shall publish at the same time with the new edition for the use and behoof of the purchasers of the first. I am very busy in this matter, correcting and improving with one hand, and making a fair copy of the improvements with the other, for the occasion is urgent, and I wish to finish the work as soon as possible, that my hands may be clear for Milton. I have made a second bargain with Johnson, still keeping the copyright in my own hands. The second edition is to be a small one, 750 copies only, for which he agrees to give me £200 clear of all deductions. This, indeed, was a measure of his own proposing, and I acceded to it the rather because, by the sale of this edition, I shall learn with more precision what price to ask for the copyright, should I choose to sell it hereafter. I have put an eternal stop to all engravings of my phiz, by choosing rather to accept the profits of a common edition of my poems, than to wait for those of a bedizened one. Portraits and vignettes and such fine things are slowly produced, and the stone-cutter at Olney might perhaps have been employed in cutting a stone for my sepulchral honour before I should have been one farthing the better for such a splendid project. I therefore chose the short road to emolument, and am now actually in possession of a part of what I might otherwise never have had.

This being the case, you may send for my picture from Abbott's when you please. It has been a spectacle long enough.

I thank you, my dear Johnny, for the turkey, which came safe, and will, I doubt not, prove a good one. It now hangs (I would that the Trustees last mentioned were hanging with it) in the Hall larder.

We are both tolerably well, and have been doing great things. Have bought a cow, and converted a useless coachhouse into a useful dairy. My study is likewise going to be much improved. Going where, you may ask. The expression, child, is idiomatic, and very good English, whatever you may think of it.

Adieu. With love to all, I remain yours,

WILLIAM COWPER

9

June 4th, 1793

MY DEAREST JOHNNY,

Not to make you wait, I will tell you at once that I have done my best. I have sent up your letter to Lady Hesketh, not knowing the Bishop of B.'s address myself. She will take care that your business shall want nothing to further it that she can do, and she can do with our cousin the Bishop all that can be done by anybody. I have advised her by all means to send him your letter to me as likely to be your best advocate with a person of his humane and gentle disposition.

Lay aside your anxiety; I have little doubt of your success. At any rate remember that you will be admitted into your sacred office exactly at the time and by the means that God's providence has appointed. I should have sent you a longer letter, in which I should have inserted a few lines addressed to yourself, had this day been less a busy one; but I shall now content myself with giving them to you in person. Adieu, with Mrs. Unwin's love and our united assurances that we shall rejoice to see you again. I remain, my dear Johnny,

Ever yours,

WM. C.

10

Weston, June 7th, 1793

MY DEAREST JOHNNY,

I send you a short line merely to thank you for your kind and handsome present of a Norwich shawl, which we both admire, and which Mrs. Unwin will wear with particular pleasure for the donor's sake. Before we see you, I hope to receive some account