Hayley-XII-1

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Friday Morn
August 10 1781

My dear Sister

By a most provoking mistake of the post your enchanting pacquet [sic] did not reach Eartham till ten oclock last night; & this hasty acknowledgement is to travel in the pocket of Eliza, who is preparing to mount her palfrey, & sally forth to breakfast at Chichester, six miles from our Village.

I scribble therefore in extreme Haste, merely to say, that I will write to you in a few days, & that I cannot let a single post depart without telling you this perverse Incident, because I well know how painful suspense, & any Idea of neglect is to such a Heart, as that of our dear Sister. When I look at the date of your charming letter, I am almost frantic with rage to think of the delay – the postman may thank his stars, I am not an absolute Tartar Prince. If I were, I should order him in my present wrath to be chained to a mail-cart for Life – yet

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on reflection the poor Devil is not to blame – for yr Frank wanted the name of Chichester our post Town, & so rambled to Lewes — But I have said too much already of this mortifying accident,– & not a word yet of yr lovely & delightful poem.

You are a dear good Girl to pay such quick obedience to my fraternal Injunctions, & to promise such implicit Submission. I shall try the extent of your Fidelity – yr Poem is a rose in the Bud;– I wish to see it expand to almost double its present size, & there is a certain canker-Worm in it, which (tho you forbid me to touch it) I am determined to dislodge, for it shall not spoil the Beauty of so promising a Flower – My dear generous warm-hearted Girl! you must allow me to temper yr Enthusiasm a little (tho Heaven

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knows I am a very scurvy Philosopher) But I must convince you, that your fancied Eagle is little better than a Raven.

of all these points in my next! let me only say, that I most sincerely think yr poem on Lady Miller with some additions, (which I am sure will occur to you) may be made one of the most beautiful of yr productions - I wish you to enlarge a little more on the female character & occupations in general, & those of the deceased in particular; by this your Episodical parts (If I may use so pedantic a phrase) will appear more proportioned to the main subject of the Poem, & their Beauty, which is truely [sic] Exquisite, will appear to more advantage. Courage ma chere sœur! you will convince the world, that an amiable Woman may be as happily immortalized as the most gallant of Heroes, & surely to give new Graces & diffuse new pleasures round the circle of polished society is an Enterprize as worthy of

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poetical applause, as the bestowing new Birds & animals on an Island of savages, which you have described in so engaging a manner. I am very anxious that yr present elegiac poem should have the magnitude & all the merit of its two predecessors (& I really think it bids fair to excell [sic] them) because I then wish to see you collected into an elegant elegiac Volume embellished by the pencil of my Friend Romney from whom I will procure you a Frontispiece on that occasion. But all of this hereafter - let me employ the little remainder of my paper in consoling you under the mortification you so feelingly describe & in which I may most truely [sic] be said to sympathise with you, for perhaps I am exactly in the same predicament or the author of Sympathy may possibly have printed a letter, which He very artfully obtained from me, as He has done yours. You have certainly taught Him to write good verses, & I wish you may be able to teach him good manners. I apprehend that poverty tempted him to make that unjustifiable use of yr Letters, & to poverty much may be forgiven – remember the Zone, my dr sister with yr usual partiality! & learn to look on a newspaper with the Eyes of yr favourite Serena - after all, the Generosity of yr praise must do you Honour in the Estimation of every feeling Heart - adieu - Eliza salutes you most kindly - receive my fraternal benediction & believe me ever yrs WH