Thou only critic of my verse that is to be found in all the earth, whom I love, what shall I say in answer to your own objection to that passage—­

            Softly he placed his hand
    On th’ old man’s hand, and pushed it gently away.

I can say neither more nor less than this, that when our dear friend the general sent me his opinion on the specimen, quoting those very words from it, he added, “With this part I was particularly pleased; there is nothing in poetry more descriptive.”

Taste, my dear, is various; there is nothing so various, and even between persons of the best taste there are diversities of opinion on the same subject, for which it is by no means possible to account.

To John Johnson, Esq.

Weston, June 7, 1790.  You never pleased me more than when you told me you had abandoned your mathematical pursuits.  It grieved me to think that you were wasting your time merely to gain a little Cambridge fame, not worth having.  I cannot be contented that your renown should thrive nowhere but on the banks of the Cam.  Conceive a nobler ambition, and never let your honour be circumscribed by the paltry dimensions of a university!  It is well that you have already, as you observe, acquired sufficient information in that science to enable you to pass creditably such examinations as, I suppose, you must hereafter undergo.  Keep what you have gotten, and be content.

You could not apply to a worse than I am to advise you concerning your studies.  I was never a regular student myself, but lost the most valuable years of my life in an attorney’s office and in the Temple.  It seems to me that your chief concern is with history, natural philosophy, logic, and divinity.  As to metaphysics, I know little about them.  Life is too short to afford time even for serious trifles.  Pursue what you know to be attainable, make truth your object, and your studies will make you a wise man.  Let your divinity, if I may advise, be the divinity of the glorious Reformation.  I mean in contradiction to Arminianism, and all the isms that were ever broached in this world of ignorance and error.

Obiter Dicta

Men of lively imaginations are not often remarkable for solidity of judgement.  They have strong passions to bias it, and are led far away from their proper road, in pursuit of petty phantoms of their own creating.

Excellence is providentially placed beyond the reach of indolence, that success may be the reward of industry, and that idleness may be punished with obscurity and disgrace.

I do not think that in these costermonger days, as I have a notion Falstaff calls them, an antediluvian age is at all a desirable thing, but to live comfortably while we do live is a great matter, and comprehends in it everything that can be wished for on this side the curtain that hangs between time and eternity.