‘My dear Friend,—I must again try your patience
by throwing my burden upon you. The following, though
| 108 | ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES |
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Know I went forth, one of that gallant crew,
And saw, and wonder’d whence his Power He drew;
Yet how much more had wonder’d had I there
Known all that pass’d in earth, and sea, and air;
Then uninstructed.1
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‘Now I will confess to you that I shall be better pleased if you continue firm for the first reading, as I hope you will do, and in that case pray send the inclosed to Knight in Bolt Court; but if the new lines (and all things are possible) strike you (bad though they are) as decidedly the best, pray let them be inserted in p. 204. But, remember, no further reference is to be made to me. I would rather that it should continue as it is, whatever may be your opinion, than that any further delay should arise. I think, the moment you read these new lines, you will wonder at my hesitation and continue firm to the old. In that case, pray send the inclosed to Knight, without a comment; and if the least preference in your mind remains for the old reading, pray send the inclosed to Knight in like manner; but if otherwise, and you should incline in the least to the new, it will only increase the page by an additional line, and I know you
| A QUIET RETREAT | 109 |
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Great Ocean’s self! Tis He who fills
That dark and awful depth of hills!
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‘In a week or ten days I hope to visit Loch Katherine. In the meantime, should you be commissioned to offer me the Archbishopric of York or the Chancellorship, my direct1on is at the Earl of Dunmore’s, Glenfinnart, by Greenock, N.B.
‘We receive our letters twice a week by his packet (only think of it—a packet!) and in the intervals I wander and look up a mountain vista eighteen miles in length! But pray don’t write on the subject of the poem, as I shall be well satisfied, whatever way you decide. Pray could you convey a copy to Mackintosh, paying the carriage?
‘From Lowther I flew to Luss—then rowed to
Tarbet—then crossed the isthmus on foot to Arrochar, where I met with the
Mackintoshes, and then by water came
down Loch Long to Glenfinnart, a singular voyage, as I met with a grampus, a
shoal of herrings, and (after dark) a luminous sea, no unusual phenomenon on
this
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‘After all I have written I think I see a great objection to the new lines. If he saw all that passed, he would see the interposition of the good Angel in favour of Columbus, and no longer wonder. I will, however, send you the letter. I cannot close the letter without adverting to our sad loss in Mrs. Pigou. The few lines she wrote to me at parting—for I did not see her—were (now I am convinced) written under the impression that she should never see me again. How our friends (the friends of our earlier days) drop off, one by one—and how much it should teach us to value the remainder! The friends of our youth (like the wife of our youth, as Solomon expresses it) are indeed to be prized—for what can supply the place of them?’
