, 'I am sure I
have produced a great improvement.'[44]

[44] _Memoirs_, vol. i. pp. 166--174.

(_h_) OF THE PRINCIPLES OF POETRY AND HIS OWN POEMS.

_Letter to (afterwards) Professor John Wilson_ ['_Christopher North_'].

_To_ ----.

MY DEAR SIR,

Had it not been for a very amiable modesty you could not have imagined
that your letter could give me any offence. It was on many accounts
highly grateful to me. I was pleased to find that I had given so much
pleasure to an ingenuous and able mind, and I further considered the
enjoyment which you had had from my Poems as an earnest that others
might be delighted with them in the same, or a like manner. It is plain
from your letter that the pleasure which I have given you has not been
blind or unthinking; you have studied the poems, and prove that you have
entered into the spirit of them. They have not given you a cheap or
vulgar pleasure; therefore, I feel that you are entitled to my kindest
thanks for having done some violence to your natural diffidence in the
communication which you have made to me.

There is scarcely any part of your letter that does not deserve
particular notice; but partly from some constitutional infirmities, and
partly from certain habits of mind, I do not write any letters unless
upon business, not even to my dearest friends. Except during absence
from my own family I have not written five letters of friendship during
the last five years. I have mentioned this in order that I may retain
your good opinion, should my letter be less minute than you are entitled
to expect. You seem to be desirous of my opinion on the influence of
natural objects in forming the character of Nations. This cannot be
understood without first considering their influence upon men in
general, first, with reference to such objects as are common to all
countries; and, next, such as belong exclusively to any particular
country, or in a greater degree to it than to another. Now it is
manifest that no human being can be so besotted and debased by
oppression, penury, or any other evil which unhumanises man, as to be
utterly insensible to the colours, forms, or smell of flowers, the
(voices)[45] and motions of birds and beasts, the appearances of the sky
and heavenly bodies, the general warmth of a fine day, the terror and
uncomfortableness of a storm, &c. &c. How dead soever many full-grown
men may outwardly seem to these things, all are more or less affected by
the