PETER'S LETTERS. 21 



nature, that I suspect they are, in some measure, familiar 

 to every poet who excels in depicting the manifestations, 

 and in tracing the spirit of beauty in the external uni- 

 verse. Professor Jameson, indeed, informed me that his 

 young friend is, in truth, no less a poet than a naturalist, 

 and has already published several little pieces of exquisite 

 beauty, although he has not ventured to give his name 



along with them 



" I have never, indeed, met with any man who seemed 

 to possess a greater power of illustrating subjects of 

 natural history by quotations from writers of all kinds, 

 and in particular from the poets. Milton and Words- 

 worth, above all, he appears to have completely by heart ; 

 and it was wonderfully delightful to me to hear matters 

 which are commonly discussed in the driest of all pos- 

 sible methods, treated of in so graceful a manner by one 

 who is so much skilled in them. Nothing could be more 

 refreshing than to hear some minute details about birds 

 and insects, interrupted and illuminated by a fragment 

 of grand melancholy music from the ' Paradise Lost/ oi 

 the ' Excursion.' " * 



* Peter's Letters to Lis Kinsfolk (1819), pp. 256-259. 



