1852-54 
R. H. HORNE 
387 
night as to the public neglect of your works — you 
who possess the highest European reputation. 
Profoundly as I have long felt the sympathy that 
must exist between Science and Poetry at the pre- 
sent time and in all the future, I was not prepared 
to hear one in your position display a similarity 
of treatment to this which now drives me — to 
Australia. 
‘ I sail on the 30th inst. for Port Phillip. 
‘ The highest private appreciation of my poetry 
by the noblest intellects of the time would forbid 
me to despond, even if I did not find self-sustain- 
ing energies; but the fact of the public neglect 
for twenty years drives me to Australia. . . . 
‘ I shall be a miner or a shepherd, as the case 
may be. I do not go to seek for great wealth, 
but only an independence, so that I may indulge 
in the luxury of printing what I can but write. 
I shall occasionally make an exploring e.xpedition. 
If I can in any way serve you, pray command me. 
‘ I am, my dear Sir, with kindest regards, and 
farewell to yourself and Mrs. Owen, 
‘ Y ours always, 
‘ R. H. Horne.’ 
After the publication of his ‘ Archetype of 
the Skeleton,’ Owen had a seal engraved with the 
idea symbolised, and he gives the following account 
of it to his sister Maria : ‘ I enclose with pleasure 
a wax impression of my adopted cognizance. . . 
