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    Clapton , Sir , * Dec . 22 , 1825 . YOUR transatlantic critic ( XX . 549 , col . 1 ) is , I dare say , unacquainted with Wakefield ' s ** Obser * vations on Pope , " published in 1796 , or he had not failed to remark that the author has there exposed his

    own attempts € C to comment" on the " Song by a Person of Quality , " ( which , however , extended no further than to two notes on the first stanza , ) as freely as any foe might desire , or at least any foe less ie gross and illnatured" than a * ' Blackwood's

    'Magazine . " nr u Wakefield had published in 1794 a first volume of €€ the Works of Alexander Pope , Esq ., with Remarks and

    Illustrations , " then * expecting siicli encouragement as would have allowed him to proceed . Disappointed in these expectations , lie formed his further collections on Pope into the Observations , and thus concluded his

    address to the reader : " Some verses of my friend Mr W . Touhnin , bantering a mistake committed by me , at p . 326 of my former volume , will form an agreeable termination of this

    preface . " The verses are thus entitled : " By a Person of no Quality , on reading Mr . Wakefield ' s Criticisms on Pope's Song , Flutfring spread thy purple pinions . " The following is the first of the seven stanzas :

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    Watchful Wakefield , late and early , Slumbering o * er the page of Pope ! Wit has catch'd her Critic fairly , Twisting sand into a rope . Your correspondent T . F . B . ( XX ; 678 ) appears not to have seen , or he could hav $ scarcely omitted to notice , the Review of Dr . Chalmers ' s

    Astronomical Discourses in your Xllth Volume ( pp . 418- ^ -426 ) . I wish it were in my power fully to satisfy H . W . ( XX . 681 } as to an inquiry which a subscriber to P $ e& | - ley ' s Works might , perhaps , \^|^ more propriety have addressed iiiririfl

    diately to the Editor . The XXfVth Volume , containing the Lectures on History , from the enlarged American edition , will , I have no doubt , be through the press before the end of February . In the mean time , I must request every subscriber , with whom

    I am not already in correspondence * forward a letter to my friend Mr . Eaton , 1 87 * High Holborn , containing his full address , what volumes he lias received , and where , in London , the rest which are printed may be

    sent , with an order for payment on delivery . Circumstances which I have been under the unpleasant necessity of detailing in your work on a former occasion , constrain me to add , that without such communication no

    volume will be delivered . H . W . must excuse me , if I cannot inform him how soon the labour which I , perhaps unadvisedly , encountered when ten years younger than at present , will be at an end , I can assure him that the delay of € t more than twelve months" is not more than

    prudence fully justified ; and that strict prudence would rather have further detained me amidst literary engagements which , except as to one of them soon to appear before the public , were less inviting , though not so unproductive . I trust , notwithstanding- the unfavourable appearance of a plan left incomplete , that no

    subscriber will be materially injured by possessing , on the terms of the subscription , nearly the whole of Dr . Priestley ' s Theological and Miscellaneous Works , ( several of which cannot now be procured on any terms , ) in a correct and connected form , and with additions intended to illustrate them , and thus to subserve the author ' s favourite and truly honourable designs .

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    ^ ^ W ^ v / 43

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    much beyond the spirit of their age or people : Here truth ought to be spoken . If a high tone or piety , if particular strictness in manners , if a certain quantity of attention to the

    private interests of . members of their congregations were absolutely re * quired , Were made a point of by those congregations , who can doubt that the demand would be answered ?

    Not , perhaps , immediately , but surely eventually . If , on the contrary , talent and eloquence are more * in demand than Christian zeal and religious usefulness , then Unitarians themselves are settling the character of their ministry , and , far as * i * e 1 tiiay be from wishing to shelter indolence , we must admit that censures which

    often fall so heavily upon ministers , should at least be shared by the people , to whom , ia a great measure , are attributable their prevailing deficiencies .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1826, page 43, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2544/page/43/