Your  friend's  Ode  I  have  read — it  is  no  great  compliment  to  pronounce
it  far  superior  to  B  *  *'a  on  the  same  subject,  or  to  the  merits  of  the
new  Chancellor.  It  is  evidently  Ihe  production  of  a  man  of  taste,  and
a  poet,  though  1  should  not  be  willing  to  say  it  was  fully  equal  to  what
might  be  expected  from  the  author  of  ^lone  lomeaS  I  thank  you  for
it,  and  that  is  more  than  I  would  do  for  any  other  Ode  of  the  present
day

t!I  am  very  sensible  oC  your  good  wishes,  and,  indeed,  I  have  need
of  them.  My  whole  life  has  been  at  variance  with  propriety,  not  to
say  decency  ;  my  circumstances  are  become  involved  j  my  friends  are
dead  or  estranged,  and  my  existence  a  dreary  void.  In  Matthews  1
have  lost  my  'guide,  philosopher,  and  friend  f  in  Wingfield  a  friend
only,  but  one  whom  1  could  have  wished  to  have  preceded  in  his  long
journey.
"Matthews  was  indeed  an  extraordinary  man  ;  it  has  not  entered  into
the  hear!  of  a  stranger  to  conceive  such  a  man  ;  there  was  the  stamp  of
immortality  in  all  he  said  or  did;  and  now  what  is  he?  When  we  see
such  men  pass  away  and  be  no  more— men,  who  seem  created  to  dis-
play what  the  Creator  could  rnake  his  creatures,  gathered  into  corrup-
tion, before  ihe  maturity  of  minds  that  might  have  been  the  pride  of
posterity,  what  are  wc  to  conclude?  For  my  own  part  1  am  bewildered.
