Hayley-XII-23

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Oct 27 1782

My dear Sister

Tho a thousand perverse Circumstances have prevented my writing, I have not failed to sympathise with you both in yr Sorrow & yr joy - When I saw the name of Martin in the Newspaper, I trembled with the presentiment that the unhappy accident must prove a Wound to you. How severe that the delight which yr good Father must feel on yr return should be instantly turned into Sorrow by this calamitous Event!- but I rejoice in the Idea of the Consolation you received from the seasonable Visit of our Fair Friend, that happy Compound of rational Vivacity & chearful Religion!- I am glad that I could in any Shape contribute to yr Amusement, & am not a little Proud of the animated Praise, which you mutually lavished on my Work:

Blest be those Rhymes (Let none abuse
The Poem or its Maker)
Which could divert a weeping Muse
& move a silent Quaker!–

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& could you both contrive to spend but an Evening with Giovanni?

Dull Ceremony! boast thy Powers!
To female Life'^s poor mangled Hours
How cruel thy decree!
When Muse'^s \Harmony with/ Friendship, illeg illeg\twin'd/
Are by their Votaries resigned
A Sacrifice to Thee.—

My Indignation against that drowsy Tyrant, whom I detest, extorts from me these instantaneous Rhymes: Let Him not execute a base revenge upon me by smothering that dear Embryo of yr pregnant Imagination the swarthy Hero, as I have set my Heart on seeing \Him/ rise into \visible/ existence & Immortality —

It is now Time to give you a little History of yr Southern Friends – Blessed be the Fingers of honest dame Nature for twisting the thread of a good old Woman^s Life so tight, that a desperate doctor could not snap it.– The beloved Euryclea

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lives & blooms again in spite of Sandino^s prediction.- Let us however honour our Physician with the Honour due to Him! He has done her great Service, & thank Heaven She is marvellously recovered.–

It is certain that her strong emotion^s in beholding the wretched state of her Grandson reallly endangered her Life - Who would not love such a feeling Heart, retaining the warmest Sensibility in the icy Season of Age? The young Man is also happily restored, & exults at present not only in returning Health, but in a fine Boy born & Christened - So all is joy again in the Hearts of these honest humble Folks–

I have myself been much indisposed since I wrote to you - I was foolish enough, after a very hot & oppressive walk, to indulge myself in a nap under one of the spreding [sic] Beeches, which you so much admired on the Summit of the Nore [More?], trusting I suppose to the protection of the

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dryad, & the Spirit of my Father; but these two invisible Guardians, being perhaps better employed, left their poor sleeping Votary unprotected — I suffered for some Time after this idle Frolick a very uncomfortable State of Existence between Sickness & Health, & they tell me I should have had a severe Fever, had not Nature exerted herself in my Favour, & presented me (God help her) with a rich necklace of Carbuncles - in plain English I have been vilely pestered with a set of Boils succeeding each other on my Throat - They are not yet departed — my neck is so enlarged at this instant that I look like a stag in the season of his amours – But be not afraid, my chaste & gentle Muse, I have only the tumour of the Animal, without anything of his furious disposition either to Love or War — Having one of Job's Plagues I am endeavouring to learn a little of his Patience–

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sheet 2

Well! is yr admirable Portrait arrived at Litchfield? - To shew you how rapidly I wish to second all yr wishes, In giving notice to Longinus, that I had packed up These Treasures of the Pencil, I begged Him to prevail on the great Artist to take out of the Packing Box only the sketches which He wanted, & leaving the most valuable jewel at the Bottom of the Casket, to send it forward to sparkle in the Presence of yr delighted Father — whether this request has been complied with I have not yet learnt, for Longinus has been engaged in a rural [?] Expedition, & has only written to me in haste on subjects of a different nature.

The paragraph in yr last concerning yr amiable Friend Mr Whalley

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affected us very sensibly – it is a general infirmity in literary Men to neglect Money too much - I have my full share of this weakness, & cannot for the Soul of me correct it so much as I wish to do — What wonderful Power has enabled you to write so well as you do, the most opposite of Qualities, & be at once an Œconomist & a Poet? - Ill [sic] tell you; for perhaps you know not the Source of this Wonder. you are indebted for this marvellous union of irreconcileable excellencies to a certain \blind/ little Pagan & poetical divinity, who is I believe the very best Teacher of Arithmetick in the World - Indeed the Rogue is forever dealing in Multiplication; but that too simple & easy Branch of this Art

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you have had the Happiness & the Wisdom to avoid – Good Heaven^s How did I slip into this nonsensical Rhapsody – I certainly was not born for an Œconomist, for I never tried to be Œconomical, or even to talk about Œconomy, as at present, without shewing more Folly than discretion -

Forgive me & Farewell! my Eyes oblige me to throw down my Pen tho I have a thousand things to say to you – – Give our kind Love to Giovanni - Eliza is much obliged to Him for His illeg \Kind Letter & Songs/ - Harris'^s \Air/ is a great Favourite of Mine - its Festivity is enchanting– it makes the Blood dance in my veins – Eliza by the way has just got a couple of delightful new Songs, which we shall

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hope hereafter to hear still more delightful from the animated Expression of Giovanni –

I have been much perplexed of late in my literary Projects – but am fighting my way through all my Embarrassments, & shall hope to produce a publication in the opening of the new year that will \in some points at least/ surprize, & I flatter myself entertain you

once more Farewell – I charge you do not fail in your devotions to Apollo, nor cease to love one of his humblest Votaries who is most faithfully

yr affectionate Brother
H

remember me most kindly to yr Father, & excuse a Scrawl, which is, if compared to the letter for whose Orthography you apologize, like the Sign of the Saracen^s Head compared to yr Portrait by Romney —Adio - Alphonso is well & sends his Love to the Moose.