If you send it with a copy or two of the ode (: printed at Oxford) to Mr. Clarke, at Winchester he will forward it to me here. I am, Sir,
"With great respect,
"Your obliged humble servant,
"William Collins. " Chichester, Sussex, November 8, 1750."
"P.S. Mr. Clarke past some days here while Mr. Worgan was with me; from whose friendship, I hope, he will receive some advantage."
Soon after this period, the disease which had long threatened to destroy Collins's intellect assumed a more decided character; but for some time the unhappy poet was the only person who was sensible of the approaching calamity. A visit to France was tried in vain; and when Johnson called upon him, on his return, an incident occurred which proves that Collins wisely sought for consolation against the coming wreck of his faculties, from a higher and more certain source than mere human aid. Johnson says, "he paid him a visit at Islington, where he was then waiting for his sister, whom he had directed to meet him: there was then nothing of disorder discernible in his mind by any but himself; but he had withdrawn from study, and travelled with no other book than an English Testament, such
