The poetical works of James Thomson ...

MIEMOIP OF THOMISON. XXix
TO AARON HILL, ESQ.
"April 5, 1726.
" SIR,
"' HAVING seen a letter you wrote to my friend Mr.
Mallet, on Saturday last, though I cannot boast the
honour and happiness of your acquaintance, and ought
with the utmost deference and veneration to approach
so supreme a genius, yet my full heart is not to be repressed by formalities; and you must allow me the
pleasure of pouring forth my best acknowledgments.
" I will not affect a moderate joy at your approbation, your praise: it pleases, it delights, it ravishes
me! Forgive me for the lowness of the truth, when I
vow, I'd rather have it than the acclamations of thousands:'tis so sincere, so delicate, so distinguishing,
so glowing, and what peculiarly marks and endears it,
so beautifully generous. That great mind, and transcendent humanity, that appear in the testimony you
have been pleased to give my first attempt, would have
utterly confounded me, if I had not been prepared for
such an entertainment, by your well-known character;
which the voice of fame, and your own masterly writings, loudly proclaim.
"It would both be disingenuous, and rudely unjust,
in me, after what you have observed, to dissemble my
satisfaction at several passages in the poem: this let
me say, that your reflections have entered into the very
soul of my purpose,'and, even to myself, cast a light
over the whole.
" How rare, how happy, is it to find a judge whose
discerning goodness overlooks the faults of what is
well meant, at the same time that his fine enthusiastic
taste improves the beauties. To you alone it belongs
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