Oh, I shudder to think of the lines which might have been 'nicked in,' and all through Mr. Chorley's good nature. As if I had not sins enough to ruin me in the new poems, without reviving juvenile ones, sinned when I knew no better. Perhaps you would like to have the series of epic poems which I wrote from nine years old to eleven. They might illustrate some doctrine of innate ideas, and enrich (to that end) the myths of metaphysicians. And also agree with me in reverencing that wonderful genius _Keats_, who, rising as a grand exception from among the vulgar herd of juvenile versifiers, was an individual _man_ from the beginning, and spoke with his own voice, though surrounded by the yet unfamiliar murmur of antique echoes.[107] Leigh Hunt calls him 'the young poet' very rightly. Most affectionately and gratefully yours, E.B.B. Do thank Mr. Chorley for me, will you? [Footnote 106: Henry Fothergill Chorley (1808-1872) was one of the principal members of the staff of the _Athenaeum_, especially in literary and musical matters. Dr. Garnett (in the _Dictionary of National Biography_) says of him, shortly after his first joining the staff in 1833, that 'his articles largely contributed to maintain the reputation the _Athenaeum_ had already acquired for impartiality at a time when puffery was more rampant than ever before or since, and when the only other London literary journal of any pretension was notoriously venal.' He also wrote several novels and dramas, which met with but little popular success.] [Footnote 107: Compare Aurora Leigh's asseveration: 'By Keats' soul, the man who never stepped In gradual progress like another man, But, turning grandly on his central self, Ensphered himself in twenty perfect years And died, _not_ young.' ('Aurora Leigh,' book i.; _Poetical Works_, vi. 38.)] _To Mrs. Martin_ Thursday, August 1844.