When you told Mrs. that my Homes would come forth in May, you told her what you believed, and, therefore, no falsehood. But you told her at the same time what will not happen, and therefore not a truth. There is a medium between truth and falsehood; and I believe the word mistake expresses it exactly. I will therefore say that you were mistaken. If instead of May you had mentioned June, I flatter myself that you would have hit the mark. For in June there is every probability that we shall publish. You will say, "Hang the printer! for it is his fault!" But stay, my dear; hang him not just now! For to execute him and find another will cost us time, and so much, too, that I question if, in that case, we should publish sooner than in August. To say truth, I am not perfectly sure that there will be any necessity to hang him at all; though that is a matter which I desire to leave en tirely at your discretion, alleging only, in the meantime, that the man does not appear to me during the last half year to have been at all in fault. His remittance of sheets in all that time has been punctual, save and except while the Easter holidays lasted, when I sup pose he found it impossible to keep his devils to their business. I shall, however, receive the last sheet of the Odyssey to-morrow, and have already sent up the Preface, together with all the needful. You see, therefore, that the publication of this famous work cannot be delayed much longer. As for politics, I reck not, having no room in my head for anything but the Slave bill. That is lost; and all the rest is a trifle. I have not seen Paine's book,* but refused to see it, when it was offered to me. No man shall convince me that I am improperly governed while I feel the contrary. Adieu, W. C. TO JOHN JOHNSON, ESQ. Weston, June 1, 1791. My dearest Johnny,-Now you may rest. Now I can give you joy of the period, of which I gave you hope in my last; the period of all your labors in my service.† But this I can foretell you, also, that, if you persevere in serving your friends at this rate, your life is likely to be a life of labor. Yet persevere ! Your rest will be the sweeter hereafter! In the mean time I wish you, if at any time you sitould find occasion for him, just such a friend as you have proved to me! W. C. * The "Rights of Man," a book which created a great ferment in the country, by its revolutionary character and statements. As a transcriber. PART THE THIRD HAVING now arrived at that period in the 1 story of Cowper when he had brought to a ziose his great and laborious undertaking, his version of Homer, we suspend for a moment the progress of the correspondence, to afford room for a few observations. We have seen in many of the preceding letters, with what ardor ef application and liveliness of hope he devoted himself to this favorite project of enriching the literature of his country with an English Homer, that might justly be esteemed a faithful yet free translation: a genuine and graceful representative of the justly admired original. After five years of intense labor, from which nothing could withhold him, except the pressure of that unhappy malady which retarded his exertions for several months, he published his complete version in two quarto volumes. on the first of July, 1791, having inscribed the Iliad to his young noble kinsman, Earl Cowper, and the Odyssey to the dowager Countess Spencer-a lady for whose virtues he had long entertained a most cordial and affectionate veneration. He had exerted no common powers of genius and of industry in this great enterprise, yet, we lament to say, he failed in satisfying the expectations of the public. Hayley as sign a reason for this failure, which we give in his own words. "Homer," he observes, "is so exquisitely beautiful in his own language, and he has been so long an idol in every literary mind, that any copy of him, which the best of modern poets can execute, must probably resemble in its effect the portrait of a graceful woman, painted by an excellent artist for her lover: the lover indeed will acknowledge great merit in the work, and think himself much indebted to the skill of such an artist, but he will never admit, as in truth he never can feel, that the best of resemblances exhibits all the grace that he discerns in the beloved original." This illustration is ingenious and amusing, but we doubt its justness; because the pain er may produce a correct and even a flattering likeness of the lover's mistress, though it is true that the lover himself will thi:k otherwise. But where is the translator that can do justice to the crits of mer? Who can exhibit his majestic simplicy, his sententious force, the lofty granden of his conceptions, and the sweet charm of his imagery, embellished with all the graces of a language never surpassed either in harmony or richness The two competitors, who are alone entitled to be contrasted with each other, are Pope and Cowper. We pass over Ogilby, Chapman, and others. It is Hector alone that is worthy to contend with Achilles. To the version of Pope must be allowed the praise of melody of numbers, richness of poetic diction, splendor of imagery and brilliancy of effect; but these merits are acquired at the expense of fidelity and justness of interpretation. The simplicity of the heroic ages is exchanged for the refinement of modern taste, and Homer sinks under the weight of ornaments not his own. Where Pope fails, Cowper succeeds; but, on the other hand, where Pope succeeds, Cowper seems to fail. Cowper is more faithful, but less rich and spirited. He is singularly exempt from the defects at tributable to Pope. There is nothing extraneous, no meretricious ornament, no labored elegance, nothing added, nothing omitted. The integrity of the text is happily preserved. But though it is in the page of Cowper that we must seek for the true interpretation of Homer's meaning-though there are many passages distinguished by much grace and beauty-yet, on the whole, the lofty spirit, the bright glow of feeling, the "thoughts that breathe, the words that burn," are not sufficiently sustained. Each of these distinguished writers, to a certain extent, has failed, not from any want of genius, but because complete success is difficult, if not unattainable. Two causes may perhaps be assigned for this failure; first, no copy can equal the original, if the original be the production of a master artist. The poet who seeks to transfuse into his own page the meaning and spirit of an author, endowed with extraordiary powers, resembles the chemist in his laboratory, who, in endeavoring to condense the properties of different substances, and to extract their essence, has the misfortune to see a great portion of the volatile qualities evaporate in the process, and elude all the efforts of his philosophic art. Secondly, Homer still remains untranslated, because of all poets he is the most untranslateable. He seems to claim the lofty prerogative of standing alone, and of enjoying the solitary grandeur of his own unrivalled genius; allowing neither to rival nor to friend, to imitator nor to translator, the honors of participation: but exercising the exclusive right of interpreting Yet come it will, the day decreed by fates; uotice of yours, and am much obliged to you for it. We have contrived, or rather my bookseller and printer have contrived (for they have never waited a moment for me) to publish as critically at the wrong time, as if iny whole interest and success had depended upon it. March, April, and May, said John-years, and the study of the Scripture, and His Spirit whose word it is, will, in due time, bring you to my way of thinking. I am not one of those sages who require that young men should be as old as themselves before they have time to be so. good when we are pleased, but she is the With my love to your fair sisters, I remain, W. C. son to me in a letter that I received from him in February, are the best months for publication. Therefore now it is determined that Homer shall come out on the first of July; that is to say, exactly at the moment when, eapt a few lawyers, not a creature will be left in town who will ever care one farthing about him. To which of these two friends of mine I am indebted for this management, I know not. It does not please, but I wond be a philosopher as well as a poet, and therefore make no complaint, or grumble at all about it. You, I presume, have had dealings with them both-how did they manage for you? And, if as they have for me, how did you behave under it? Some who lose me complain that I am too passive; and 1 shot be glad of an opportunity to justify myself by your example. The fact is, should I thunder ever so loud, no efforts of that sort will avail me now; therefore, like a good economist of my bolts, I choose to reserve them for more profitable occasions. The Lodge, June 15, 1791. My dear Friend,-If it will afford you any comfort that you have a share in my affec tions, of that comfort you may avail yourself at all times. You have acquired it by means less myself to an uncommon degree, will alwhich, unless I should have become worthways secure you from the loss of it. You are learning what all learn, though few at so early an age, that man is an ungrateful animal; and that benefits, too often, instead of securing a due return, operate rather as provocations to ill-treatment. This I take to be Towards God we are all guilty of it more or the summum malum of the human heart. less; but between man and man, we may thank God for it, there are some exceptions. He leaves this peccant principle to operate, some degree against himself, in all, for our humiliation, I suppose; and because the pernicious effects of it in reality cannot injure I am glad to find that your amusements have been so similar to mine; for in this instance too I seemed in need of somebody to keep me in countenance, especially in my attention and attachment to animals. All the notice that we lords of the creation vouchsafe to bestow on the creatures is generally to abuse them; it is well, therefore, that here and there a man should be found a little womanish, or perhaps a little childish, in this matter, who will make some amends, by kiss-him, he cannot suffer by them; but he knows ing and coaxing and laying them in one's that, unless he should retain its influence on bosom. You remember the little ewe lamb, the dealings of mankind with each other, the bonds of society would be dissolved, and all mentioned by the prophet Nathan; the prophet perhaps invented the tale for the sake charitable intercourse at an end amongst us. of its application to David's conscience; but It was said of Archbishop Cranmer, “Do him it is more probable that God inspired him an ill turn, and you make him your friend with it for that purpose. If he did, it amounts forever;" of others it may be said, "Do them to a proof, that he does not overlook, but, on a good one, and they will be forever your the contrary, much notices such little partial- enemies." It is the grace of God only that ities and kindnesses to his dumb creatures, as we, because we articulate, are pleased to call them. makes the difference. Your sisters are fitter to judge than I, whether assembly-rooms are the places, of all others, in which the ladies may be studied to most advantage. I am an old fellow, but I had once my dancing days as you have now, yet I could never find that I learned half so much of a woman's real character by dancing with her as by conversing with her at home, where I could observe her behavior at the abs at the fire-side, and in all the trying Firstances of domestic life. We are all TO SAMUEL ROSE, ESQ, The absence of Homer (for we have now shaken hands and parted) is well supplied by three relations of mine from Norfolk-my cousin Johnson, an aunt of his,* and his sister. I love them all dearly, and am well content to resign to them the place in my of Greece and Troy. His aunt and I have attentions so lately occupied by the chiefs spent many a merry day together, when we were some forty years younger; and we make shift to be merry together still. His sister is a sweet young woman, graceful, *Mrs. Bodham. † Mrs. Hewitt. good-natured, and gentle, just what I had imagined her to be before I had seen her.* Farewell, W. C. TO DR. JAMES COGSWELL, NEW YORK. June 15, 1791. Weston-Underwood, near Olney, Bucks, Dear Sir,-Your letter and obliging present from so great a distance deserved a speedier acknowledgment, and should not have wanted one so long, had not circumstances so fallen out since I received them as to make it impossible for me to write sooner. It is indeed within this day or two that I have heard how, by the help of my bookseller, I may transmit an answer to you. My title-page, as it well might, misled you. It speaks me of the Inner Temple; and so I am, but a member of that society only, not as an inhabitant. I live here almost at the distance of sixty miles from London, which I have not visited these eight-and-twenty years, and probably never shall again. Thus it fell out that Mr. Morewood had sailed again for America before your parcel reached me, nor should I (it is likely) have received it at all, had not a cousin of mine, who lives in the Temple, by good fortune received it first, and opened your letter; finding for whom it was intended, he transmitted to me both that and the parcel. Your testimony of approbation of what I have published, coming from another quarter of the globe, could not but be exceedingly flattering, as was your obliging notice that "The Task" had been reprinted in your city. Both volumes, I hope, have a tendency to discountenance vice, and promote the best interests of mankind. But how far they shall be effectual to these invaluable purposes depends altogether on His blessing, whose truths I have endeavored to inculcate. In the meantime I have sufficient proof, that readers may be pleased, may approve, and yet lay down the book unedified. During the last five years I have been occupied with a work of a very different nature, a translation of the Iliad and Odyssey into blank verse, and the work is now ready for publication. I undertook it, partly because Pope's is too lax a version, which has lately occasioned the learned of this country to call aloud for a new one; and partly because I could fall on no better expedient to amuse a mind too much addicted to melancholy. I send you, in return for the volumes with which you favored me, three on religious subjects, popular productions that have not been Mrs. Hewitt fully merited this description. She departed a few years before her brother, the late Dr. Johnson. Their remains lie in the same vault, at Yaxham, Bear Dereham, Norfolk. long published, and that may not therefore yet have reached your country: "The Chris tian Officer's Panoply, by a marine officer" "The Importance of the Manners of the Great," and "An Estimate of the Religion of the Fashionable World." The two last are said to be written by a lady, Miss Hannah More, and are universally read by people of that rank to which she addresses them. Your manners, I suppose, may be more pure than ours, yet it is not unlikely that even strictures are applicable. I return you my among you may be found some to whom her thanks, sir, for the volumes you sent me, two of which I have read with pleasure, Mr. Edwards's* book, and the Conquest of Canaan. rest I have not had time to read, except Dr. Dwight's Sermon, which pleased me almost more than any that I have either seen or heard. I shall account a correspondence with you an honor, and remain, dear sir, Your obliged and obedient servant, TO THE REV. JOHN NEWTON.† Weston, June 24, 1791. I lear Friend,-Considering the multi plicity of your engagements, and the importance, no doubt, of most of them, I am bound instead of grumbling that they come seldom, to set the higher value on your letters, and, to be thankful to you that they come at all. You are now going into the country, where, presume, you will have less to do, and I am rid of Homer. Let us try, therefore, if, in the next busy season (for I, too, if I live, ti interval between the present hour and shall probably be occupied again), we can than for some time past. continue to exchange letters more frequently I when you assure yourself that to hear of You do justice to me and Mrs. Unwin, your health will give us pleasure: I know not, in truth, whose health and well-being could give us more. The years that we have brance; and, so long as we remember them, seen together will never be out of our rememthe pulpit, and out of the pulpit, you have la we must remember you with affection. In bored in every possible way to serve us; anc kindness of a friend, could we by any means we must have a short memory indeed for the become forgetful of yours. It would grieve me more than it does to hear you complain of the effects of time, were not I also myself the subject of them. While he is wearing out you and other dear friends of mine, he spares not me; for which I ought to account *The celebrated American Edwards, well known for his two great works on "The Freedom of the Huma Will," and on "Religious Affections." Dr. Dwight's Ser mons are a body of sound and excellent theology. † Private correspondence. |