grace, flowing from so inexperienced a pen, which yet never transgresses the strict laws of that measure, sufficiently refutes the idle assertion, that legitimate sonnets suit not the genius of our language. If that assertion is grounded upon the French and Italian having a much greater variety than ours of similar terminations, that reason militates against using rhymes at all; while Johnson, you know, fancied that blank verse did not become the English muse. It is my opinion that she has the power of looking graceful in every possible dress, and almost equally so in all. Accustomed to contemplate the lovely images of poetry, I am afraid Lister will be soon weary with the perpetual sight of our sovereign liege's phiz in a pair of scales. He may hereafter, too, probably, reproach the muse somewhat in Cowley's manner, when he says to her, "To all the ports of honour, and of gain, I often steer my course in vain, Thy gale comes cross, and drives me back again; By making them so oft to be The tinkling strings of thy loose minstrelsy." That ingenious Being, whom the muses condescended to visit in a saw-pit, the sometime car penter, now joint-master of a cotton-mill, passed a week here lately; the mornings of which we devoted to poetic studies, and the evenings to the sublime music of Handel, through the energetic tones of Giovanni, and the melting notes of his daughter. The mechanical genius and industry of this bard of the Peak mountain, have procured him more of life's solid good than he was likely to have obtained from the nymphs who gilded his day-dreams. He lately wrote the inclosed verses (printed in the Sheffield newspapers) to promote the interest of a brother genius, now stricken in years, and whose ardent pursuit of the sciences cost him his eye-sight. An intention so benevolent, adorned with so pleasing an effluence of Aonian inspiration, will, I dare believe, make them acceptable to you. As to Giovanni taking a pupil: he is often called away from Lichfield to distant concerts ;— his vicarial stewardship takes up so much of his time when he is here; and in its recesses, he is so absorbed by his attention to Flora, that his own Elizabeth has not half the number of lessons she ought to have.. I can recommend Giovanni as a friend, as a critic in fine writing as a sublime performer in his own profession; as a botanist, a florist, and a mechanic ;-but not as a master-since, though few are better qualified to teach, yet an impatience of temper makes that employment so irksome, that things, not half so material as the daily lesson, seem to him sufficient reasons for postponing it from day to day; often through elapsing weeks -he and his daughter desire to join my poor dear old father, and myself, in affectionate respects. It rejoices me that you are able to range through the sweetest bowers in the world, and to ascend and descend your airy hill, with the strength and readiness of former years. The Muses are, I hope and trust, companions of your way; and that, ere long, the poetic world will be yet further enriched by the glowing fruits of those blest perambulations-Adieu! I inclose this letter to our benevolent friend, whom I do not love the less for receiving letters from Eartham in such envied frequency. Your's, &c. LETTER XVIII. MRS KNOWLES. Lichfield, April 20, 1788. THE date of your last letter, dear Mrs Knowles, sufficiently proves me the busiest of all creatures, of whose business there are no ostensible proofs. And now behold me about to commence the payment of my long debt, by a renewal of former chiding. I entreat you not to expect that mock modesty can ever pass muster with me from your pen. You have perhaps forgotten that you reproached me in your letter, now before me, with partiality in classing you and Mrs in the same scale of wit and intellect. Her letters are lively, brilliant; yet, either my taste has no accuracy, or she is the complimented in that classification. In languages she is more learned, I grant-but I, who from long observation imagine myself justified in believing that the English is sufficient to cultivate the understanding, as high as it is possible to be cultivated, think not much of that ad vantage. Is not our own language a master-key to all sciences and arts ?—and was not one of the greatest, if not the very greatest genius the world has produced, unlearned, according to the common, but corrupted sense of the word? Mrs has perhaps as much wit as anybody ;—but she has not so much efflorescence of fancy, eloquence, clearness and depth in the reasoning powers, as M. Knowles. Maria, thou knowest this-and hast never, in thy secret heart, felt Mrs accomplished as she is, thy superior in the order of ingenious being. Therefore is it that I am half as much vexed at the fibs of thy humility, as I should be at those fabricated by the envy of others, in degradation of thy talents. And now, what say you to the last publication of your other sister-wit, Mrs Piozzi? It is well that she has had the good nature to extract almost all the corrosive particles from the old growler's letters. By means of her benevolent chemistry, these effusions of that expansive, but gloomy spirit, taste more oily and sweet than one could have imagined possible. To my taste, however, that sweetness is mawkishly luscious. A general vapidness pervades his coaxing, which proves how little it was the natural language of an heart, |