I thank you much for Bloomfield's note, and as much for your own kind
letter. I agree with you in the praise you have given to his verse.
That he has living life about his productions there can be little
doubt. He trusts too much to Nature and to truth to be a fleeting
favourite, and he will be long in the highway where Fame dispenses
her favours. I have often felt indignant at the insulting way his
name has been introduced both by critics and poets. To scorn him
because of the humility of his origin is ridiculous anywhere, and
most of all here, where so many of our gentles and nobles have come
from the clods of the valley. Learned men make many mistakes about
the value of learning. I conceive it is chiefly valuable to a man's
genius in enabling him to wield his energies with greater readiness
or with better effect. But learning, though a polisher and a refiner,
is not the creator. It may be the mould out of which genius stamps
its coin, but it is not the gold itself. I am glad to hear that you
are a little better. Keep up your heart and sing only when you feel
the internal impulse, and you will add something to our poetry more
lasting than any of the peasant bards of old England have done yet.