“I am very sensible of the value of your kind
approbation of my efforts, and trust I shall, under such good auspices, keep my
ground with the public. I have studied their taste as much as a thing so
variable can be calculated upon, and I hope I have again given them an
acceptable subject of entertainment. What you say of the songs is very just,
and also of the measure. But, on the one hand, I wished to make a difference
between my former poems and this new attempt, in the general tenor of
versification, and on the other, having an eye to the benefits derivable from
the change of stanza, I omitted no opportunity which could be given or taken,
of converting my dog-trot into a hop-step-and-jump. I am impatient to see Kehama; James Ballantyne, who has a good deal of tact,
speaks very highly of the poetical fire and beauty which pervades it; and,
considering the success of Sir William
Jones, I should think the Hindhu mythology would not revolt the
common readers, for in that lies your only danger. As for Don Pelayo, it should be exquisite under
your management; the subject is noble, the parties finely contrasted in
manners, dress, religion, and all that the poet desires to bring into action;
and your complete knowledge of every historian who has
| 300 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“Twenty times twenty thanks for the History of Brazil, which has been my amusement, and solace, and spring of instruction for this month past. I have always made it my reading-book after dinner, between the removal of the cloth and our early tea-time. There is only one defect I can point out, and that applies to the publishers—I mean the want of a good map. For, to tell you the truth, with my imperfect atlas of South America, I can hardly trace these same Tups of yours (which in our Border dialect signifies rams), with all their divisions and subdivisions, through so many ramifications, without a carte de pays. The history itself is most singularly entertaining, and throws new light upon a subject which we have hitherto understood very imperfectly. Your labour must have been immense, to judge from the number of curious facts quoted, and unheard-of authorities which you have collected. I have traced the achievements of the Portuguese adventurers with greater interest than I remember to have felt since, when a schoolboy, I first perused the duodecimo collection of Voyages and Discoveries called the World Displayed—a sensation which I thought had been long dead within me; for, to say the truth, the philanthropic and cautious conduct of modern discoverers, though far more amiable, is less entertaining than that of the old Buccaneers, and Spaniards and Portuguese, who went to conquer and achieve adventures, and met with strange chances of fate in consequence, which could never have befallen a well-armed boat’s crew, not trusting themselves beyond their watering-place, or trading with the natives on the principles of mercantile good faith.
“I have some thoughts of a journey and voyage to the
Hebrides this year, but if I don’t make that out, I
| LETTER TO MR SOUTHEY. | 301 |
