17, 1856, "In the evening, Darwin, a geologist and traveller, came to dinner" (at Lord Stanhope's). Little did Macaulay suspect that one greater than Macaulay was there. There is this to be said by way of excuse for him, that "The Origin of Species" had not at that time been published. Of that work Carlyle wrote, " Wonderful to me, as indicating the capricious stupidity of mankind; never could read a page of it, or waste the least thought upon it." A contemporary of Milton's described the immortal poet as "one Mr. Milton, a blind man." Carlyle, with all his learning and all his genius, here puts upon himself a scarcely less ridiculous mark.

From the gentle poet William Cowper I have a letter dated Olney, March 8, 1786, addressed to Mr. Johnson, Bookseller

No. 72

St. Paul's Church Yard

London.

It is marked "Post pd 4" Had Cowper been writing to a man whom he considered his equal or superior in rank, he would not have prepaid his letter. To do so might have been looked upon as an insult, for it would have implied that his correspondent was too poor to afford the postage. Above the address there is the following strange indorsement:

Capt. Parker

on board Sarah
Griffin's Warf [sic]
Cask of wine,

Stone Bottlells [sic]

A Cradle &c.

As this letter is printed in full in the fifteenth volume of Southey's edition of Cowper's works, I shall quote no more than this extract:

"I learn with pleasure from my friends in Town that the Subscrip! prospers, and is likely to be brilliant and numerous. It is very little that in my situation I can contribute to it myself. I have however disposed of most of my papers, and some time about Easter, a friend of mine will attend you with 2 or 3 names and payments that have been pick'd up in this part of the world. The name of that friend is Bull. He is an Humourist and in some respects an oddity, but at the same time a man of excellent qualities and of much learning. Him I can see but seldom, for he lives at the distance of 5 miles from Olney, and he is the only neighbour of mine with whom I can converse at all."

It was a new version of the Iliad that Cowper was publishing by subscription. He had begun it almost by chance. Three months before the date of his letter he had written to John New

a Cradle te

Fone Bottle Co

Zack of time Griffins warf.

board Sarah. Cap. parker

ton: "For some weeks after I had finished the "Task," and sent away the last sheet corrected, I was through necessity idle, and suffered not a little in my spirits for being so. One day, being in such distress of mind as was hardly supportable, I took up the Iliad; and merely to divert attention, and with no more perception of what I was then entering upon than I have at this moment of what I shall be doing this day twenty years hence, translated the twelve first lines of it. The same necessity pressing me again, I had recourse to the same expedient, and translated more." With the success of the subscription he was well pleased. "All the Scotch universities subscribed. Some friend who tried his influence at Oxford received for answer that they subscribed to nothing." To Cambridge he felt himself "much more obliged, and much disposed to admire the liberality of the spirit which had been shown there." Oxford had indeed sunk low in this indifference to literature, and had sunk rapidly. A quarter of a century earlier, when an edition of Swift's works, in seventeen volumes, octavo, was announced, fifty-two copies were subscribed for by the college libraries and residents in Oxford, while in addition fifty-four were ordered by the booksellers. In Cambridge, but thirty copies in all were taken. Pope's success was far greater than Cowper supposed, for he had five