292. EBB to Hugh Stuart Boyd
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 2, 121–122.
Hope End
Wednesday. [March 1828] [1]
My dear Sir,
You must allow me to thank you rather by my feelings than my words, for the present I have just received. I hate affectation of any kind, & hate more particularly, an affectation of modesty,—but I know too well, that you have considerably over-rated my actue [sic] merit. Knowing this, it is a real satisfaction to me to think, that, do what you will, you cannot over-rate my gratitude & sincerity towards yourself. It is not necessary to say that I will highly value your book, or that I will doubly value the first page—since I see what is written there, & recollect by whom, it was written! The writing surprises me, because it is yours [2] —& the kindness hardly surprises me—because it is yours!
As far as concerns Homer, you make me sorry that I should have written what I did. Some of my illnatured friends might tell you that I rather like to be “contradicted”,—& rather dislike perpetual smooth sailing thro’ sympathies. However this may be, my actions shall prove my desires respecting your acquaintance. I meant to have been with you today or tomorrow—but my Father’s uncertainties about going to London, make me disinclined to leave home just now, even for a few hours, for fear I should find him gone, on my return.
I send you three notices of my poem, which I am ashamed of sending in their “tattered & torn” condition. They are the only ones I have seen, tho’ I have heard of one or two others, of a rather favorable character. The flat contradiction between the Eclectic Review & Literary Gazette, with respect to Akenside, will amuse you,—& did not increase my veneration for my critics. [3] I was put out of humour for at least ten minutes, by the charge of my having imitated Darwin. I never could bear Darwin! I have tried his Botanic Garden four or five times, & never could get thro’ above twenty pages! [4]
You are too indulgent, in the paper which has so much delighted me,—but your animated remarks are likewise so animating, that if I were to begin speaking of them now, I should keep your messenger longer than he might like to be kept. I think your criticisms unquestionably just, in general. If I were to tell you I thought so in every instance, I should not be myself,—& I like you to be assured of my identity, when I subscribe myself
Most sincerely yours
E B Barrett.
Will you read Irving’s Prefatory Discourse, in the book I send you? [5]
Publication: EBB-HSB, pp. 29–30.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. In letter 291, EBB promised to write “a great deal” about Homer. This letter is missing, but reference to it dates the present letter.
2. Because of Boyd’s blindness, he usually had other people write for him.
3. A review of An Essay on Mind appeared in The Eclectic Review, Vol. XXVI (July–December 1826), pp. 78–82. It included these comments: “That this little volume is the essay of no ordinary mind,—that it discovers considerable talents, informed by extensive reading, no one, we think, can hesitate to admit. … Akenside, we need not be reminded, has made philosophy speak the language of poetry, and his Pleasures of Imagination is a splendid achievement. But he is likely to stand alone.”
The Literary Gazette reviewed the poem in No. 495, 15 July 1826, p. 436. It said: “This poem is represented to be the production of a young lady, and … it certainly displays a much more extraordinary degree of philosophical, we might say, metaphysical acumen, than could be expected either from the youth or sex of the writer. … We see much to admire in the Essay on Mind, which often reminds us of Akenside, and not to the disadvantage of the writer. …”
4. The Botanic Garden, a Poem, by Erasmus Darwin (1731–1802). The article in The Eclectic Review (note 3 above) went on to say, “The subject of the present Essay is decidedly ill chosen, and the most brilliant success alone could have redeemed this original fault. In order to this, a style far more remote from the sparkling, crackling style of Pope … or from the tinsel and affectation of Darwin, should have been adopted.”
5. The preface to The Coming of Messiah in Glory and Majesty (1827), Irving’s translation of the work by Manuel Lacunza y Diaz (1731–1801).
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