dden the same ground as Gray, in his 'Ode upon a
distant Prospect of Eton College.' What he has been contented to treat
in the abstract, she has represented in particular, and with admirable
spirit. But again, my dear Sir, let me exhort you (and do you exhort
your sister) to deal little with modern writers, but fix your attention
almost exclusively upon those who have stood the test of time. _You_
have not leisure to allow of your being tempted to turn aside from the
right course by deceitful lights. My household desire to be remembered
to you in no formal way. Seldom have I parted, never I was going to say,
with one whom after so short an acquaintance, I lost sight of with more
regret. I trust we shall meet again, if not [sentence cut off with the
autograph]. Postscript. Pray do not forget to remember me to Mr. Otway.
I was much pleased with him and with your fellow-traveller Mr. Nimmo,
as I should have been, no doubt, with the young Irishman, had not our
conversation taken so serious a turn. The passage in Tacitus which
Milton's line so strongly resembles is not in the 'Agricola,' nor can I
find it, but it exists somewhere.

W. WORDSWORTH.[97]

61. _Of Collins, Dyer, Thomson, &c._

LETTER TO REV. ALEXANDER DYCE.

Rydal Mount, Kendal, Jan. 12. 1829.

DEAR SIR,

I regret to hear of the indisposition from which you have been
suffering.

That you are convinced[98] gives me great pleasure, as I hope that every
other editor of Collins will follow your example. You are at perfect
liberty to declare that you have rejected Bell's copy in consequence of
my opinion of it; and I feel much satisfaction in being the instrument
of rescuing the memory of Collins from this disgrace. I have always felt
some concern that Mr. Home, who lived several years after Bell's
publication, did not testify more regard for his deceased friend's
memory by protesting against this imposition. Mr. Mackenzie is still
living; and I shall shortly have his opinion upon the question; and if
it be at all interesting, I shall take the liberty of sending it to you.

[97] _Memoirs_, ii. 212-14, with important additions from the original.
G.

[98] _i.e._ convinced by what Wordsworth had remarked to me, that those
portions of Collins's 'Ode on the Superstitions of the Highlanders,'
which first appeared in Bell's edition of that Ode, were forgeries.
_A.D._

Dyer is another of our minor poets--minor as to quantity--of whom one
w