Tuesday Sept 27th.
I wrote this morning to my dear Papa; that my letter might go with 2 brace & ½ of partridges. No letters in return. Composing a Greek song, for an air to the guitar. I rather like the ideas; but the harmony has been torn to pieces, by my looking first to the musical measure, & next to the poetical measure. “How happy could I be with either”![1]—and how unsuccessful with both. Reading besides. Mr. Boyd lent me Dr. Clarke’s Sermon “What shall I do to be saved?”[2] which I began. By the bye, I thought yesterday that I had let it fall out of the carriage. If I had, I would have taken Sappho’s leap of forgetfulness.[3] Perhaps I shd. have taken it, before the loss!— Singing on the guitar, in the evening.
1. John Gay, The Beggar’s Opera (London, 1728), p. 35, Air XVII, sung by Macheath.
2. Adam Clarke, The Doctrine of Salvation by Faith Proved; or, an Answer to the Important Question, What Must I do to be Saved? (London, 1816).
3. Her supposed jump into the sea from the Leucadian cliff, in consequence of her advances having been rejected.
