“Some time previous to the receipt of the letter with which you honoured me, dated the 29th April, 1829, and accompanying the present of your valuable Memoir of Governor Clinton, I had an attack of paralysis, which interfered with my usual occupations, and for some time interrupted my correspondence; and although, by the blessing of God and by the aid of repeated depletion and other remedies, I have been restored to such a state of health as to be able to devote a prescribed portion of my
* The following is the title which he intended to give to the selection:—“Poems, Original and Fugitive; written between the years 1770 and 1830: by William Roscoe. To which are added, Poems by some of his Children. Liverpool, 1831.” |
| 412 | LIFE OF WILLIAM ROSCOE. |
“At the same time, I have imbibed a very distinct idea and favourable opinion of the truly great and good man whose character you have so admirably depicted; and whose great and various merits you have so ably illustrated and explained.
“Writing, as I now do, under the immediate impressions derived from the perusal of your noble tribute to the memory of your friend, it would be unjust in me to suppress the feelings with which I have been actuated, or to deny that, highly as I estimate such a character in a nation abounding in great men, I consider your production as having shown you worthy to have been his biographer, and whilst you have raised an imperishable monument to his fame, to have given the surest earnest of your own.
“In addition to the regret I feel in not having been
able to reply sooner to your letter, I am sorry not to have transmitted you the
few documents requested by you respecting my late highly esteemed friend
Thomas Eddy, of whom
| LIFE OF WILLIAM ROSCOE. | 413 |
