To Lady
Melbourne I write with most pleasure--and her answers, so sensible, so
_tactique_--I never met with half her talent. If she had been a few
years younger, what a fool she would have made of me, had she thought it
worth her while,--and I should have lost a valuable and most agreeable
_friend_. Mem. a mistress never is nor can be a friend. While you agree,
you are lovers; and, when it is over, any thing but friends.
I have not answered W. Scott's last letter,--but I will. I regret to
hear from others, that he has lately been unfortunate in pecuniary
involvements. He is undoubtedly the Monarch of Parnassus, and the most
_English_ of bards. I should place Rogers next in the living list (I
value him more as the last of the best school)--Moore and Campbell both
_third_--Southey and Wordsworth and Coleridge--the rest, [Greek: hoi
polloi]--thus:
W. SCOTT.
^
ROGERS.
MOORE.--CAMPBELL.
SOUTHEY.--WORDSWORTH.--COLERIDGE.
< THE MANY. >
There is a triangular _Gradus ad Parnassum_!--the names are too numerous
for the base of the triangle. Poor Thurlow has gone wild about the
poetry of Queen Bess's reign--_c'est dommage_. I have ranked the names
upon my triangle more upon what I believe popular opinion, than any
decided opinion of my own. For, to me, some of Moore's last _Erin_
sparks--"As a beam o'er the face of the waters"--"When he who adores
thee"--"Oh blame not"--and "Oh breathe not his name"--are worth all the
Epics that ever were composed.
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