MY DEAR MRS. ADERS,--By my illness or oversight I have occasioned a very sweet vignette to have been made in vain--except for its own beauty. Had I sent you the lines that were to be written on the upright tomb, you and our excellent Miss Denman would have, first, seen the dimension requisite for letters of a distinctly visible and legible size; and secondly, that the homely, plain _Church-yard Christian_ verses would not be in keeping with a Muse (though a lovelier I never wooed), nor with a lyre or harp or laurel, or aught else _Parnassian_ and allegorical. A rude old yew-tree, or a mountain ash, with a grave or two, or any other characteristic of a village rude church-yard,--such a hint of a landscape was all I meant; but if any figure, rather that of an elderly man
Thoughtful, with quiet tears upon his cheek.
(Tombless Epitaph. See "Sibylline Leaves.")
But I send the lines, and you and Miss Denman will form your own opinion.
Is one of Wyville's proofs of my face worth Mr. Aders' acceptance? I wrote under the one I sent to Henry Coleridge the line from Ovid, with the translation, thus:
Not / handsome / was / but / was / eloquent / "Non formosus erat, sed erat facundus Ulysses."
"In truth, he's no Beauty!" cry'd Moll, Poll, and Tab; But they all of them own'd He'd the gift of the Gab.
My best love to Mr. Aders, and believe that as I have been, so I ever remain your affectionate and trusty friend,
The lines when printed would probably have on the preceding page the advertisement--
EPITAPH ON A POET LITTLE KNOWN, YET BETTER KNOWN BY THE INITIALS OF HIS NAME THAN BY THE NAME ITSELF.
Stop, Christian Passer-by! Stop, Child of God! And read with gentle heart. Beneath this sod A Poet lies: or that, which once seem'd He. O lift one thought in prayer for S. T. C. That He, who many a year with toilsome breath Found Death in Life, may here find Life in Death. Mercy for Praise--_to be forgiven_ for Fame He ask'd, and hoped thro' Christ. DO THOU the Same.
MY DEAR SIR,--I very much regret that I am not to see you again for so many months. Many a fond dream have I amused myself with, of your residing near me or in the same house, and of preparing, with your and Mr. Green's assistance, my whole system for the press, as far as it exists in writing in any _systematic_ form; that is, beginning with the Propyleum, On the power and use of Words, comprising Logic, as the canons of _Conclusion_, as the criterion of _Premises_, and lastly as the discipline and evolution of Ideas (and then the Methodus et Epochee, or the Disquisition on God, Nature, and Man), the two first grand divisions of which, from the Ens super Ens to the _Fall_, or from God to Hades, and then from Chaos to the commencement of living organization, containing the whole scheme of the Dynamic Philosophy, and the deduction of the Powers and Forces, are complete; as is likewise a third, _composed_ for the greater part by Mr. Green, on the "Application of the Ideas, as the _Transcendents_ of the Truths, Duties, Affections, etc., in the Human Mind." If I could once publish these (but, alas! even these could not be compressed in less than three octavo volumes), I should then have no objection to print my MS. papers on "Positive Theology, from Adam to Abraham, to Moses, the Prophets, Christ and Christendom." But this is a dream! I am, however, very seriously disposed to employ the next two months in preparing for the press a metrical translation (if I find it practicable) of the Apocalypse, with an introduction on the "Use and Interpretation of Scriptures." I am encouraged to this by finding how much of _original_ remains in my views after I have subtracted all I have in common with Eichhorn and Heinrichs. I write now to remind you, or to beg you to recall to my memory the name of the more recent work (Lobeck?) which you mentioned to me, and whether you can procure it for me, or rather the loan of it. Likewise, whether you know of any German translation and commentary on Daniel, that is thought highly of? I find Gesenius' version exceedingly interesting, and look forward to the Commentaries with delight. You mentioned some works on the numerical Cabbala, the Gematria (I think) they call it. But I must not scribble away your patience, and after I have heard from you from Cambridge I will try to write to you more to the purpose (for I did not begin this scrawl till the hour had passed that ought to have found me in bed).