Letter to George Dyer
27 Albany Street Regents Park
12 Aug. 1831
My dear Sir
In the second Vol. of your "Privileges of the Uni Camb."" which you were so obliging as to have sent to me, in the Sect. on "Rise & Prog. of Printing"-p.2 note* there are three short quotations from Longinus, Plutarch & Fabricius, of which, if it were not troubling you too much, I should be greatly obliged to you for as close & literal a translation as the idiom of our lang. will bear. As, also, of the quotations from Herodotus, Diod. Sic., Dion, Halic. & Longinus, in the not upon p. 3-of Herodotus note % in p. 4 & a fragment of Euripides note p. 4.
If I am not mistaken, some of these passages may furnish important illustrations of some of the principle of that system of Universal prosody which I am endeavouring to develop and mature; & by which I hope to satisfy the learned that the prosody of the English language (& indeed of all prosodic languages-however diversified in the superstructures/rests upon the same eternal bases & is regulated by the same eternal principles, as the prosodies of Greece & Rome.
I am almost ashamed to trouble you on such an occasion, considering that, but for untoward circumstances, I ought not to have been obliged to look beyond my own family for resource on such subjects, but where the interest of science & literature are concerned, --if home resources fail, perhaps one may be excused, for attempting to draw from the comparatively remote circles of friendly acquaintanceship
Wishing you as long a continuance of the comforts & enjoyments of life as the course of nature can permit
I remain, my dear Sir,
Yours sincerely
John Thelwall