See how the great poet depends upon the thricerepeated epithets to produce a growing impression of horror! "Oft have I seen a timely-parted ghost, Of ashy semblance, meagre, pale, and bloodless." "The gaudy, babbling, and remorseful day And now loud-howling wolves arouse the jades Who, with their drowsy, slow, and flagging wing, Milton, as well as Shakespeare, sometimes produces a beautiful effect, by placing his substantive in the midst of epithets, thus: "Now is the pleasant time, The cool, the silent." And again, "Save what the glimmering of these livid flames, That extremely sublime character of Richard III. given by his mother, consists wholly of epithets. "Tetchy, and wayward, was thine infancy, Thy school-days frightful, desperate, wild, and furious, Some of these epithets may be deemed exuberant, from having meanings too kindred-but it is natural for the embittered and accusing spirit to pour them from the lip, regardless of tautology— and on the whole it is an heart-striking summary of a villain's life. You seem to think my writings infected by the affectation of using uncommon words. I hope not; but I choose, and always shall choose the strongest which spontaneously occur, to express my idea, whether in prose or verse, if the idea is elevated; mindless whether they do, or do not form a part of the fashionable vocabulary of Lord Fillagree and Lady Pamtickle. When I converse in such circles I stoop my style to their level, but I write for other kind of persons. As to my Louisa Epistles, they, however inferior, are professedly on the level of Pope's Epistle from Eloisa. None have a right to say that any passage, or epithet of mine in that work is too elevated for the epistolary style, if it is not more above that level than is Pope's epistle. You observe to me that you correspond with many whose hearts are as ingenuous as mine, and whose abilities are as brilliant. Respecting the latter, instead of as, you might doubtless have used the word more. These, you say, think entirely with you upon the insufficiency of Mason and Hayley to be styled fine poets, and upon that of Johnson's claim to eloquence. With such, a literary correspondence must be as mutually pleasant, as it proves the reverse between you and me ; since however impossible that any two people should see every object in the same light, yet a great degree of parity in taste, and in ideas of every kind, is necessary to make such an intercourse desirable. It was vain to hope for this parity between a fastidious Wit, and a glowing Enthusiast. I know you do me honour in giving yourself the trouble to reform what strikes you as defective in my own writings, and as erroneous judgment on the composition of others;-but, differing so materially about the component parts of a receipt for making beautiful style, I am not likely to improve by your corrections. You are in high life, I am in obscurity, from which I do not wish to emerge, since peace is dearer to me than distinction. Our acquaintance is not in common, therefore anecdote can seldom be interesting. Why therefore should we pursue our correspondence? I shall be happier in giving my epistolary leisure to friends whose more congenial tastes ensure a warm welcome to all my communications, than to you, who are so often disgusted with my style both in prose and verse, especially since I cannot wish to slacken its nerves, because it is naturally energetic; and to become light, it must be light by affectation. Suffer me, then, to bid you a long adieu, with a grateful sense of your desire to have instructed, and of the great amusement your wit afforded nie, ere my relish of frolic humour was lost in the gloom of a Parent's death-bed.-He yet lives— but I must lose him soon if I live myself. Think of me as a friend, who will always sincerely, and warmly wish your happiness, and pursue, with a distant, but gladdened eye, your bright track of public fame and emolument. My peace requires that I should not be of your correspondence. When you took me up, the measure of mine was so full, that I should neglect all those who have prior claims upon my attention, ere I could answer your letters with any sort of precision. Pain would be attached to the consciousness that beneath your astonishing facility, or plenitude of leisure, my replies must prove "But as the morn-dew on the myrtle leaf LETTER LI. MISS WESTON. Lichfield, Dec. 23, 1786. ONE of the oldest, and dearest of my friends, Mrs Mompessan, is coming to me soon. My heart feels gladdened by that consciousness. She is so cheerful, and her mind is so enriched with useful, interesting, and amusing information, that to delight in her society it is not even necessary to love her ;-but to converse with her often, and not to love her, it is very necessary that Nature should have given a dose of opium to the affections. You know my dear father's late imminent danger, and my sufferings on his account, from my letter to Mr Whalley, sent to Ludlow for your perusal. He continues to amend, though slowly. I have not yet been lucky enough to meet with Robertson's History, and I did not read Marmontel's Incas, till after I had read Helen's Poem, Peru. On perusing the former, I confess it struck me that the author of the latter might have improved her composition, had she adopted, from |