[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—The writer of the article on " Obscurity in Literature" in the Spectator of Dezember 12th appropriately instances the aesthetic value, in Keats's famous line, of the epithet "forlorn." His point may, I think, be still further reinforced by recalling that the other epithet which contributes so much to the effect, " perilous," was a correction, and, in a sense, an illogical correction. Keats first wrote (the MS. has been published in facsimile) " keelless." From the Johnsonian point of view, how admirable ! If the lands were forlorn, it stands to reason the seas would be keelless ; whereas perilous—why perilous, Sir, implies the presence of persons obnoxious to the peril ! But lo ! while we are arguing the poet has waved his wand, and instead of that unexception- able pictorial detail, has given us the sublimated essence of all romantic adventure, distilled into a single word. No doubt in this instance the suggestive value of the vaguer epithet is indefinitely multiplied by an occult factor,—the less easily explicable power of an elusive syllable and a delicate sequence of liquids.—I am, Sir, &c., W. MONTGOMERY.
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