Читать книгу The Works of William Cowper - William Cowper - Страница 230
TO THE REV. JOHN NEWTON.
ОглавлениеOlney, June 19, 1783.
My dear Friend—The translation of your letters[191] into Dutch was news that pleased me much. I intended plain prose, but a rhyme obtruded itself, and I became poetical when I least expected it. When you wrote those letters, you did not dream that you were designed for an apostle to the Dutch. Yet, so it proves, and such among many others are the advantages we derive from the art of printing—an art in which indisputably man was instructed by the same great Teacher, who taught him to embroider for the service of the sanctuary, and which amounts almost to as great a blessing as the gift of tongues.
The summer is passing away, and hitherto has hardly been either seen or felt. Perpetual clouds intercept the influence of the sun, and for the most part there is an autumnal coldness in the weather, though we are almost upon the eve of the longest day.
We are well, and always mindful of you: be mindful of us, and assured that we love you.
Yours, my dear friend,
W. C.