mirable "Pleasures of Imagination," where, speaking of the Soul, he says, she "Rides on the volley'd lightning thro' the heav'ns, And yok'd with whirlwinds, and the northern blast, Many of these instances of sublimity will occur to you in Thomson. James begs leave to present you with Bloomfield's Farmer's Boy. Bloomfield has no grandeur or height; he is a pastoral poet, and the simply sweet is what you are to expect from him; nevertheless, his descriptions are sometimes little inferior to Thomson. How pleased should I be, Neville, to have you with us at Nottingham! Our fire-side would be delightful.—I should profit by your sentiments and experience, and you possibly might gain a little from my small bookish knowledge. But I am afraid that time will never come; your time of apprenticeship is nearly expired, and, in all appearance, the small residue that yet remains will be passed in hated London. When you are emancipated, you will have to mix in the bustle of the world, in all. probability, also, far from home; so that when we have just learnt how happy we might mutually make ourselves, we find scarcely a shadow of a probability of ever having the opportunity. Well, well, it is in vain to resist the immutable decrees of fate. TO HIS BROTHER NEVILLE. DEAR NEVILLE, Nottingham, April, 1801. AS I know you will participate with me in the pleasure I receive from literary distinctions, I hasten to inførm you, that my poetical Essay on Gratitude is printed in this month's Preceptor-that my Remarks on Warton are promised insertion in the next month's Mirror, and that my Essay on Truth is printed in the present (April) Monthly Visitor. The Preceptor I shall not be able to send you until the end of this month. The Visitor you will herewith receive. The next month's Mirror I shall consequently buy. I wish it were not quite so expensive, as I think it a very good work. Benjamin Thomson, Capel Lofft, Esq. Robert Bloomfield, Thomas Dermody, Mr. Gilchrist, under the signature of Octavius, Mrs. Blore, a noted female writer, under the signature of Q. Z. are correspondents; and the Editors are not only men of genius and taste, but of the greatest respectability. As I shall now be a regular contributor to this work, and as I think it contains much good matter, I have half an inclination to take it in, more especially as you have got the prior volumes; but in the present state of my finances, it will not be prudent, unless you accede to a proposal which, I think, will be gratifying to yourself. It is, to take it in conjunction with me; by which means we shall both have the same enjoyment of it, with half the expence. It is of little consequence who takes them, only he must be expeditious in reading them. If you have any the least objection to this scheme, do not suppress it through any regard to punctilio. I have only proposed it, and it is not very material whether you concur or not; only exercise your own discretion. You say, (speaking of a passage concerning you in my last,) "this is compliment sufficient; the rest must be flattery."-Do you, seriously, Neville, think me capable of flattery? As you well know I am a carping, critical little dog, you will not be surprised at my observing, that there is one figure in your last that savours rather of the ludicrous, when you talk of a "butterfly hopping from book to book." As to the something that I am to find out, that is a perpetual bar to your progress in knowledge, &c. I am inclined to think, Doctor, it is merely conceit. You fancy that you cannot write a letter-you dread its idea; you conceive that a work of four volumes would require the labours of a life to read through; you persuade . yourself that you cannot retain what you read, and in despair do not attempt to conquer these visionary impediments. Confidence, Neville, in one's own abilities, is a sure forerunner (in similar circumstances with the present) of success. As an illustration of this, I beg leave to adduce the example of Pope, who had so high a sense, in his youth, or rather in his infancy, of his own capacity, that there was nothing of which when once set about it, he did not think himself capable; and, as Dr. Johnson has observed, the natural consequence of this minute perception of his own powers, was his arriving at as high a pitch of perfection as it was possible for a man, with his few natural endowments, to attain. * When you wish to read Johnson's Lives of the Poets, send for them: I have lately purchased them. I have now a large library. My mother allows me ten pounds per annum for clothes. I always dress in a respectable, and even in a genteel manner, yet I can make much less than this sum suffice. My father generally gives me one coat in a year, and I make two serve. I then receive one guinea per annum for keeping my mother's books; one guinea per annum pocket-money; and by other means I gain, perhaps, two guineas more per annum: so that I have been able to buy pretty many; and when you come home, you will find me in my study, surrounded with books and papers. I am a perfect garetteer: great part of my library, however, consists of professional books. Have you read Burke on the Sublime? Knox's Winter Evening?-Can lend them to you, if you have not. Really, Neville, were you fully sensible how much my time is occupied, principally about my profession, as a primary concern, and in the hours necessarily set apart to relaxation on polite literature, to which, as a hobby horse, I am very desirous of paying some attention, you would not be angry at my delay in writing, or my short letters. It is always with joy that I devote a leisure hour to you, as it affords you gratification; and rest assured, that I always participate in your pleasure, and poignantly feel every adverse incident which causes you pain. Permit me, however, again to observe, that one of my sheets is equal to two of yours; and I cannot but consider this as a kind of fallacious deception, for you always think that your letters contain so much more than mine, because they occupy more room. If you were to count the words, the difference would not be so great. You must also take in account the unsealed communications to periodical works, which I now reckon a part of my letter, and therefore you must excuse my concluding, on the first sheet, by assuring you that I still remain Your friend and brother, H. K. WHITE. · P. S. A postscript is a natural appendage to a letter.-I only have to say, that positively you shall receive a |