oftened in its
spirit,--how can it be otherwise unless the doctrine of Infallibility be
given up? that such concessions would set all other dissenters in
motion--an issue which has never fairly been met by the friends to
concession; and deeming the Church Establishment not only a fundamental
part of our constitution, but one of the greatest upholders and
propagators of civilization in our own country, and, lastly, the most
effectual and main support of religious Toleration, I cannot but look
with jealousy upon measures which must reduce her relative influence,
unless they be accompanied with arrangements more adequate than any yet
adopted for the preservation and increase of that influence, to keep
pace with the other powers in the community.

I do not apologise for this long letter, the substance of which you may
report to any one worthy of a reply who, in your hearing, may animadvert
upon my political conduct. I ought to have added, perhaps, a word on
_local politics_, but I have not space; but what I should have said may
in a great measure be deduced from the above.

I am, my dear L----,
Yours, &c. &c.,
W.W.[75]

[75] _Memoirs_, ii. 23-27.

45. _Of his Poems and others_.

LETTER TO BERNARD BARTON.

Rydal Mount, near Ambleside, Jan. 12. 1816.

DEAR SIR,

Though my sister, during my absence, has returned thanks in my name for
the verses which you have done me the honour of addressing to me, and
for the obliging letter which accompanies them, I feel it incumbent on
me, on my return home, to write a few words to the same purpose, with my
own hand.

It is always a satisfaction to me to learn that I have given pleasure
upon _rational_ grounds; and I have nothing to object to your poetical
panegyric but the occasion which called it forth. An admirer of my
works, zealous as you have declared yourself to be, condescends too much
when he gives way to an impulse proceeding from the ----, or indeed from
any other Review. The writers in these publications, while they
prosecute their inglorious employment, cannot be supposed to be in a
state of mind very favourable for being affected by the finer influences
of a thing so pure as genuine poetry; and as to the instance which has
incited you to offer me this tribute of your gratitude, though I have
not seen it, I doubt not but that it is a splenetic effusion of the
conductor of that Re