Autography [pp. 601-604]

SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER.
LETTER XXVIII.
Dear Sir,-Herewith I have the honor of sending you what you desire. If the Essay shall be found to give
you any new information, I shall not regret the trouble of having written it.
Respectfully,
JOSEPH D. MILLER, Esq.
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The MS. of Professor Dew is large, bold, very heavy, somewhat diffuse. Neither is the illegibility of the MS.
abrupt, and illegible. It is possible that he never thinks to be paralleled by any confusion of thought or expresof mending a pen. There can be no doubt that his sion. He is remarkably lucid. We must look for the
chirography has been modified, like that of Paulding, two last mentioned qualities of his MS. in the suppoby strong adventitious circumstances-for it appears sition that he has been in the habit of writing a great
to retain but few of his literary peculiarities. Among deal, in a desperate hurry, and with a stump of a pen.
the few retained, are boldness and weight. The abrupt- Paper good-but only a half sheet of it-wafered.
ness we do not find in his composition-which is indeed
LETTER XXIX.
Dear Sir,-In reply to your query touching the "authenticity of a singular incident," related in one of my
poems, I have to inform you that the incident in question is purely a fiction.
With respect, your obedient servant,
JOsEPH E. F. MILLER, Esq.
The hand-writing of Mr. Mellen is somewhat pecu- by frequent moods of doubt and depression, and by
liar, and partakes largely of the character of the signa. unsettled ideas of the beautiful. The formation of the
ture annexed. It would require no great stretch of fancy G in his signature alone, might warrant us in supposing
to imagine the writer (from what we see of his MS.) a his composition to have great force, frequently impaired
man of excessive sensibility, amounting nearly to dis- by an undue straining after effect. Paper excellentease-of unbounded ambition, greatly interfered with red seal.
LETTER XXX.
Dear Sir,-I have not the pleasure of your acquaintance, but thank you for the great interest you seem to
take in my welfare. I have no relations by the name of Miller, and think you must be in error about the family
connection.
Respectfully,
JOSEPH G. H. MILLER, Esq.
The MS. of Mr. Simms resembles, very nearly, that we spoke of Mr. Simms also as possessing "the eye of
of Mr. Kennedy. It has more slope, however, and less a painter," and we had not then seen his hand-writing.
of the picturesque-although still much. We spoke of The two MSS. are strikingly similar. The paper here
Mr. K.'s MS. (in our February number) as indicating is very fine and wafered.
"the eye of a painter." In our critique on the Partisan
602
JOSEPH E. F. MILLER, Esq.
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JP HILLER,Esq