319.2. EBB to Edmund Henry Barker
Addendum to The Brownings’ Correspondence, vol. 2.
Hope End.
August 27th 1828
Sir
I have delayed longer than I should have done in returning you my acknowledgements for the valuable present which you did me the honor of sending to me,—& for the kind & flattering letter by which that present was accompanied. But I was unwilling to write till I had given a due consideration to your books,—& I have been a good deal interrupted.
I had never given any attention to the discussion relating to the authorship of Junius’s letters, into which you have entered with so much ability, but your statements, and your reasonings upon them, are sufficiently minute & impressive to enable a previously ignorant person to form a judgment on the question. My judgment is clear, that you have done right in unlaurelling the bust of Sir Philip Francis, tho’ there remains an uncertainty, upon what other bust to fix the wreath. It is better, left on a cenotaph, than appropriated without right: and if the real claimant should ever appear in ghostly dignity
Βασιδειου τιαρας φαᾶαρον πιφαυακων,
you will be thanked for having cleared his path, & diminished his difficulties. I have been extremely interested by your Parriana. I admire the candour & honesty which are characteristics of both your works; & which are such surprisingly rare characteristics of works of biography, in general. Some birds are said to sing better when their eyes are put out: and,—upon, I suppose, a similar principle,—editors & biographers take especial pains to extinguish the eyes of their judgments. It is not so with you. I like to observe that you are able & willing to see—“amicus par sec magis amica veritas” and thus “es par tibi!”
The whole of your reply to the reviewer’s attack on Dr Parrs orthodoxy respecting the sacramental question, appears to me very able, just, & convincing. I wish you had given us more original composition, & somewhat less liberal compilation. I wish the compiled matter had been subjected to more compression,—to a more precise arrangement; for I venture to think that, in such a case, the work would have been even more interesting than it is actually. You know you required candour from me, so you must not quarrel with it when it comes.
Mr Boyd complains of your depreciating Porson; perhaps with some reason. I have lent your books to Lady Mary Shepherd—(with whom I am very slightly acquainted—) who was desirous of seeing it: therefore I cannot at this moment refer to the page & satisfy myself as to the fact; but I think that when you give the extraordinary relations about Maximus Tyrius & Plutarch, you name Mr Taylor the Platonist as your authority. He may have received them in a revelation from Jupiter, or from some personage equally in nubibus: It is certainly incomprehensible how Plutarch could be “too much”, for Porson,—unless Porson meant to apply the expression to Plutarch’s occasional mysticism which might be “too much” for anybody!–
I am surprised that the criticism, on Gray’s translation of the ῾υγεον νωτον of Pindar’s eagle, which occurs in a note at page 68 of Sir Uvedale Price’s first essay on the Picturesque, should have escaped your attention. If you will now refer to it I think you will allow, that altho’ Dr Parr may have written on the subject to Mr Payne Knight, the credit of the original criticism, as well as its apt & beautiful appreciation, belongs exclusively to Sir Uvedale Price. I am unwilling to intrude upon your time & attention by making this letter longer than it need be. I must however say, that one of the greatest of the many obligations which I owe to my valued friend Mr Boyd, has been the result of his enabling me to communicate with you. In letters to him & to myself, you have honored my work with your liberal praise & its writer with your kind interest—and you cannot doubt my being gratified & grateful as to criticism, tho’ you threw at me the shield with the bracelet, you did not mean to crush me like Tarfeia,—& tho’ I addressed some remarks on the subject to Mr Boyd, I assure you, I no more wrote in a spirit of “ire”, than I intended to write in a spirit of arrogance. Surely to speak freely, & to be freely spoken to, are privileges of literary republicans–
It is another privilege,—to which I am not insensible,—to be able to subscribe myself, with much esteem,
Your obliged & faithful servant
E. B. Barrett.
Did you receive, thro’ Mr Boyd, my thanks for your kindness in procuring Mr Harn’s opinion? I hope you did–
Address, on integral page: E. H. Barker Esqr / Thetford / Norfolk.
Publication: None traced.
Source: Author’s draft at Armstrong Browning Library.
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