102 EULOGIUM ON LETTERS. 



LETTER XIII. 



FROM CAROLINE TO EMILY. 



DEAR EMILY, 



" Blest be the gracious power who taught mankind 

 To stamp a lasting image of the mind ! 

 Beasts may convey, and tuneful birds may sing, 

 Their mutual feelings in the opening spring ; 

 But man alone has skill and power to send 

 The heart's warm dictates to the distant friend .- 

 ■'Tis his alone to please, instruct, advise, 

 Ages remote, and nations yet to rise." 



In these sentiments of gratitude for the invention 

 of letters^, I cordially unite with Mr. Crabbe, the 

 author of the lines I have borrowed for the expression 

 of my own feelings upon the subject. What, indeed, 

 would have been my distress, on my first retirement 

 into Wales, if all intercourse with you, my dear 

 Emily, had been impossible ! But, by means of this 

 delightful invention, wherever a post can reach, an 

 exchange of sentiments may be enjoyed : — our joys, 

 our sorrows, may be communicated to the friend of 



