“When I had once addressed your Lordship in public, I had exhausted all the art of pleasing which a retired and uncouthly scholar can possess… Is not a Patron, my Lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help? The notice, which you have been pleased to take of my labour, had it been earlier, had been kind; but it has been delayed until I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and cannot impart it; till I am known and do not court it. ”
This letter is the writers' declaration of independence, signifying the opening of a new era in the development of literature.
