in a friendly reply, to which reference has already been made. After
mentioning how for more than twenty years he had desired the pleasure of
a personal introduction to Crabbe, and how, as a lad of eighteen, he had
met with selections from _The Village_ and _The Library_ in _The Annual
Register_, he continues:--

"You may therefore guess my sincere delight when I saw
your poems at a late period assume the rank in the public
consideration which they so well deserve. It was a triumph
to my own immature taste to find I had anticipated the
applause of the learned and the critical, and I became very
desirous to offer my _gratulor_ among the more important
plaudits which you have had from every quarter. I should
certainly have availed myself of the freemasonry of authorship
(for our trade may claim to be a mystery as well as Abhorson's)
to address to you a copy of a new poetical attempt, which I
have now upon the anvil, and I esteem myself particularly obliged
to Mr. Hatchard, and to your goodness acting upon his
information, for giving me the opportunity of paving the way
for such a freedom. I am too proud of the compliments
you honour me with to affect to decline them; and with
respect to the comparative view I have of my own labours
and yours, I can only assure you that none of my little folks,
about the formation of whose tastes and principles I may be
supposed naturally solicitous, have ever read any of my own
poems--while yours have been our regular evening's amusement
My eldest girl begins to read well, and enters as well
into the humour as into the sentiment of your admirable
descriptions of human life. As for rivalry, I think it has
seldom existed among those who know by experience that
there are much better things in the world than literary
reputation, and that one of the best of those good things is
the regard and friendship of those deservedly and generally
esteemed for their worth or their talents. I believe many
dilettante authors do cocker themselves up into a great
jealousy of anything that interferes with what they are
pleased to call their fame: but I should as soon think of
nursing one of my own fingers into a whitlow for my private
amusement as encouraging such a feeling. I am truly sorry
to observe you mention bad health: those who contribute so
much to the improvement as well as the delight of society
should escape this evil. I h