musement, and made a member of a family whom it was
honour as well as pleasure to become in any degree associated with." The
time thus spent was profitable to Crabbe in other ways than by enlarging
his knowledge and ideas, and laying the foundation of many valued
friendships. He devoted himself in earnest to complete his unfinished
poems and revise others under Burke's judicious criticism. The poem he
first published, _The Library_, he himself tells us, was written partly
in his presence and submitted as a whole to his judgment. Crabbe
elsewhere indicates clearly what were the weak points of his art, and
what tendencies Burke found it most necessary he should counteract.
Writing his reminiscences in the third person years later, he naively
admitted that "Mr. Crabbe had sometimes the satisfaction of hearing,
when the verses were bad, that the thoughts deserved better; and that if
he had the common faults of inexperienced writers, he had frequently the
merit of thinking for himself." The first clause of this sentence might
be applied to Crabbe's poetry to the very end of his days. Of his later
and far maturer poems, when he had ceased to polish, it is too true that
the thoughts are often better than their treatment. His latest
publisher, John Murray, used to say that in conversation Crabbe often
"said uncommon things in so common a way" that they passed unnoticed.
The remark applies equally to much of Crabbe's poetry. But at least, if
this incongruity is to exist, it is on the more hopeful side. The
characteristic of so much poetry of our own day is that the manner is
uncommon, and the commonness resides in the matter.

When Crabbe had completed his revisions to his own satisfaction and his
adviser's, Burke suggested the publication of _The Library_ and _The
Village_, and the former poem was laid before Mr. Dodsley, who only a
few months before had refused a poem from the same hand. But
circumstances were now changed, and Burke's recommendation and support
were all-sufficient. Dodsley was all politeness, and though he declined
to incur any risk--this was doubtless borne by Burke--he promised his
best endeavours to make the poem a success. _The Library_ was published,
anonymously, in June 1781. The _Monthly_ and the _Critical Reviews_
awarded it a certain amount of faint praise, but the success with the
general public seems only to have been slight.

When Burke selected this poem to lay before Dodsley, he had already read