dedicated to some person of rank; and the Countess of Derby was
applied to, who declined, on the ground that she never accepted a
compliment of that nature. He then addressed the Duchess of
Devonshire; and a letter, with the manuscript, was left at her
house. The difficulty of obtaining access to her Grace proved so
great, that more than one letter to his brother was written on the
subject, in which he indignantly says, "I am cured of patronage
hunting; as for begging patronage, I am tired to the soul of it,
and shall give it up." Permission to inscribe the book to the
Duchess was at length granted: the book came out in 1803; and a
copy was transmitted to her, of which, however, no notice whatever
was taken.

On the publication of the volume, a copy was sent to each Review,
with a letter deprecatory of the severity of criticism, an act as
ill judged as it was useless, since all that a young writer could
properly say was to be found in the preface, in which he stated
that his inducement to publish was, "the facilitation through its
means of those studies which, from his earliest infancy, have been
the principal objects of his ambition, and the increase of the
capacity to pursue these inclinations, which may one day place him
in an honourable station in the scale of society."

His feelings received a severe wound from the notice of his Poems
in the Monthly Review, the writer of which, not satisfied with saying
that the production did not "justify any sanguine expectations,"
selected four of the worst lines in support of his opinion, and
showed himself insensible of the numerous beauties scattered
through the various pieces. Writing to a friend soon afterwards,
he thus spoke of himself; and more mental wretchedness has seldom