In thus addressing myself to you, and in expressing my regard for your
person, my anxiety for your health, and my devotion to your welfare, I
enjoy an advantage over those dedicators who indulge in adulation;--I
shall at least be believed.
Should you arrive at that period when reason shall be mature, and
affection or curiosity induce you to look back on your father's
poetical progress through life, you may conclude that he had many to boast
as friends, whose names, in a dedication, would have honoured both him and
his children; but you must also reflect, that to particularize such
friends was a point of peculiar delicacy. The earliest patron of my
unprotected strains has the warm thanks which are his due, for the
introduction of blessings which have been diffused through our whole
family, and nothing will ever change this sentiment. But amidst a general
feeling of gratitude, which those who know me will never dispute, I feel
for you, Charles, what none but parents can conceive; and on your account,
my dear boy, there can be no harm in telling the world that I hope these
"Wild Flowers" will be productive of sweets of the worldly kind; for your
unfortunate lameness (should it never be removed) may preclude you from
the means of procuring comforts and advantages which might otherwise have
fallen to your share.
What a lasting, what an unspeakable satisfaction would it be to know that
the Ballads, the Plowman Stories, and the "Broken Crutch" of your father
would eventually contribute to lighten your steps to manhood, and make
your own crutch, through life, rather a memorial of affection than an
object of sorrow.
With a parent's feelings, and a parent's cares and hopes,