ABSTRACT
I more & more admire the beginning of the Leech gatherer improved . . . long very long may you live in that blessed vale together.
b. From a letter to Wordsworth, 25 November 1805
The Highland Lass [i.e. ‘Solitary Reaper’] is delightful, when all is so exquisite & highly finished, perhaps I should not select any particular passage, but I was [Ms. incomplete]
c. From a letter to Wordsworth, late August/early September 1806
I know it will be a pleasure to you to hear when I am oppressed by that morbid dejection your works are a balm to my mind. Lady B. has several times read over to me lately the lines on Nelson [i.e. ‘Character of the Happy Warrior’] & I like them better & better every time I hear them – this is certainly the test of excellence – but why should I mention those lines in particular except that the doctrine in them is congenial with the present state of my mind.
