Johnson, who heartily disliked his political creed, and never loses an opportunity of stigmatising it, Akenside "deafened the place with clamours for liberty."1 During his stay at Northampton (in 1744), he produced his very powerful satire, " An Epistle to Curio," i. e. to Pulteney, who, having been long the strenuous supporter of the people's cause in opposition to the measures of the government, had suddenly deserted his party, and become an object of popular execration, for the sake of an empty title, the Earldom of Bath. This justly-admired piece he afterwards injudiciously altered into an ode. The following letter, undoubtedly genuine, and never before printed in England, is given from a fac-simile of the original in an American edition of our author's works: 3 Northampton, May 21st, 1745. "DEAR SIR, When I look on the date of your letter, I am very glad that I have any excuse, however disagreeable, for not answering it long 1 Life of Akenside. 2 Quarto, price 1s. See List of Books for November, 1744, in the Gent. Mag. On the title-page is this motto: "Neque tam ulciscendi causa dixi, quam ut et in præsens sceleratos cives timore ab impugnanda patria detinerem; et in posterum documentum statuerem, nequis talem amentiam vellet imitari."-Tull. 8 Printed at New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1808, 2 vols. 8vo. ere this. About a month ago, when I was thinking every post to write to you, I was thrown from my horse, with a very great hazard of my life, and confined a good while afterwards from either writing or reading. But, thank Heaven, for these ten days I have been perfectly well. You are very good-natured about the verses. If they gave you any pleasure, I shall conclude my principal. end in publishing them to be fairly answer'd. And that you look upon your reading them in manuscript, and this way of seeing them in print, as an instance of real friendship, gives me great satisfaction. As for public influence, if they have any, I hope it will be a good one. But my expectations of that kind are not near so sanguine as they once were. Indeed, human nature, in its genuine habit and constitution, is adapted to very powerful impressions from this sort of entertainment; but, in the present state of manners and opinions, it is almost solely on the retir'd and studious of nature that this effect can be looked for; for hardly any besides these have been able to preserve the genuine habit of the mind in any tolerable degree. I am, dear Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant, "M. AKINSIDE." "To M. WILKES, jun. St. John's-street, London." Here, probably, he alludes to his "Odes on Several Subjects," which had been published more than two months before the date of this letter, and which require particular notice, though they have not obtained the slightest mention from Mr. Bucke. They are prefaced by an Advertisement worthy of preservation: "The following Odes were written at very distant intervals, and with a view to very different manners of expression and versification. The author pretends chiefly to the merit of endeavouring to be correct, and of carefully attending to the best models. From what the ancients have left of this kind, perhaps the Ode may be allowed the most amiable species of poetry; but certainly there is none which in modern languages has been generally attempted with so little success. For the perfection of lyric 1 Quarto, price 1s. 6d. See List of Books for March, 1745, in the Gent. Mag. This tract consists of fifty-four pages, and has the following motto from Pindar: χρυσὸν εἴχονται, πεδίον δ' έτεροι χθονὶ γυῖα καλύψαι μ', αἰνέων αἰνητὰ, μομ φὴν δ ̓ ἐπισπείρων ἀλιτροῖς. Another edition of these Odes, in small octavo, was printed in the same year. Horace Walpole writes to Sir H. Mann, March 29th, 1745: "There is another of these tame geniuses, a Mr. Akenside, who writes odes; in one he has lately published, he says, 'Light the tapers, urge the fire.' Had you not rather make gods jostle in the dark, than light the candles for fear they should break their heads?" — - Letters, &c. ii. 32. Walpole's editor, in a kindred spirit, calls the Pleasures of Imagination a poem of some merit." poetry depends, beyond that of any other, on the beauty of words and the gracefulness of numbers; in both which respects the ancients had infinite advantages above us. A consideration which will alleviate the author's disappointment, if he, too, should be found to have miscarried." The contents of this tract are: I. Allusion to Horace [now entitled Preface to Odes, Book I.]. II. On the Winter Solstice. III. Against Suspicion. IV. To a Gentleman whose Mistress had married an Old Man [now entitled To a Friend Unsuccessful in Love]. V. Hymn to Cheerfulness. VI. On the Absence of the Poetic Inclination [now entitled To the Muse]. VII. To a Friend on the Hazard of Falling in Love [now entitled On Love, to a Friend]. VIII. On Leaving Holland. IX. To Sleep. X. On Lyric Poetry. A new edition of these Odes, materially altered and improved, was published in 1760; and, after the author's death, they were again reprinted, with still farther alterations, in that collection of his various Odes which he had left behind him for the press. How the text, as finally arranged, differs from that of the first edition, the following quotations will evince. A celebrated stanza in the Ode "On the Winter Solstice" is now read thus: "Hence the loud city's busy throngs Meantime perhaps, with tender fears, She sighs, and wonders at his stay." It stood in the edition of 1745: — "Now, through the town, promiscuous throngs To charm the midnight hours conspire. As o'er the hearth she sits alone: She sighs, and wishes him at home." The Ode "To a Friend Unsuccessful in Love" now ends thus: "Q just escap'd the faithless main, "Fix but on these your ruling aim, |