[Footnote 59: Mr. Thomas Westwood was the author of a volume of 'Poems,' published in 1840, 'Beads from a Rosary' (1843), 'The Burden of the Bell' (1850), and other volumes of verse. Several of his compositions were appearing occasionally in the _Athenaeum_ at the time when this correspondence with Miss Barrett commenced.]
_To H.S. Boyd_ 50 Wimpole Street: January 6, 1842.
My dear Friend,--I have done your bidding and sent the translations to the 'Athenaeum,' attaching to them an infamous prefatory note which says all sorts of harm of Gregory's poetry. You will be very angry with it and me.
And you _may_ be angry for another reason--that in the midst of my true thankfulness for the emendations you sent me, I ventured to reject one or two of them. You are right, probably, and I wrong; but still, I thought within myself with a womanly obstinacy not altogether peculiar to me,--'If he and I were to talk together about them, he would kindly give up the point to me--so that, now we cannot talk together, _I might as well take it_.' Well, you will see what I have done. Try not to be angry with me. You shall have the 'Athenaeum' as soon as possible.
My dear Mr. Boyd, you know how I disbelieved the probability of these papers being accepted. You will comprehend my surprise on receiving last night a very courteous: note from the editor, which I would send to you if it were legible to anybody except people used to learn reading from the pyramids. He wishes me to contribute to the 'Athenaeum' some prose papers in the form of reviews--'the review being a mere form, and the book a mere text.' He is not very clear--but I fancy that a few translations of _excerpta_, with a prose analysis and synthesis of the original author's genius, might suit his purpose. Now suppose I took up some of the early Christian Greek poets, and wrote a few continuous papers _so_?[61] Give me your advice, my dear friend! I think of Synesius, for one. Suppose you send me a list of the names which occur to you! _Will_ you advise me? Will you write directly? Will you make allowance for my teazing you? Will you lend me your little Synesius, and Clarke's book? I mean the one commenced by Dr. Clarke and continued by his son. Above all things, however, I want the advice.