Richard Hurd to Thomas Gray (7 January 1757) Alexander Huber Editor Thomas Gray Archive
info@thomasgray.org https://www.thomasgray.org/
Oxford

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 UK Hartlebury Hartlebury Castle Hurd Library

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 The Correspondence of Richard Hurd & William Mason. And letters of Richard Hurd to Thomas Gray. With introduction & notes by the late Ernest Harold Pearce. Ed. with additional notes by Leonard Whibley. Cambridge: University Press, 1932, 33-35 Correspondence of Thomas Gray, 3 vols. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and Leonard Whibley, with corrections and additions by H. W. Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], letter no. 231*, vol. ii, 492-494 http://www.e-enlightenment.com/search/letters/print/?printref_sourceedition=graythOU0084&printref_docnumber=231* Hurd, Richard, 1720-1808 Cambridge, United Kingdom Gray, Thomas, 1716-1771

Gregorian

 English Mason, William, 1724-1797 Pope, Alexander Milton, John Hurd, Dr. Richard

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 Library of Congress Name Authority File (LCNAF) Dear Sir,

I will beg the favour of your Milton once more. I have considerd your Observations in the Paper you oblig'd me with yesterday. I think them excellent and shall correct accordingly.

The only one of the least consequence that sticks with me is your hint about the Introduction. And I owe it to your frankness, to tell you my sincere sentiments. I hate the hypocrisy of those men who think to cover their own dullness under the mask of piety, as much as you can do. I know too what is to be said for those who have not devoted themselves to a Profession And still further for those who read the Poets, not for amusement only, but to contend with the best of them. I honour, in a word, true poetry and true Poets as much as any body. And I think, in particular, with you that Mr Pope's apologies for himself were very needless. Yet still in my own case I must profess to you with sincerity, that what I say in the Letter is my real opinion. The Profession, I am of, is a sacred one. And tho' it does not oblige me to renounce the poets, my business, I think, should lie elsewhere. I assure you, I take this design to be but a decent one in my circumstances, and, considering the circumstances of the time, an absolute Duty. So that when these things are out of my hands, and the few Dialogues I mention'd to you, I have determin'd long since to pass the remainder of my Life (I mean if in that remainder I do any thing as a writer) in the concerns of my own Profession. However there are some things in the Introduction put more strongly than they needed to have been, and these I shall soften; principally because what I leave will then be understood, not as words of course, but as my real meaning.

You will think I treat you very formally, in entering into this serious explanation. I do it to show you on what grounds, and with what reluctance, I deny myself the use of any part of your kind Intimations to me.

I am, Dear Sir, Your very oblig'd humble Servant R. Hurd. Emman. Friday morning