LIFE'S LITTLE MISERIES [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sia,—I
was delighted to read your contributor's article in your issue of the 21st inst., in which she notices that admirable and unjustly neglected book, The Miseries of Human Life, and venture to offer a little information. The author, the Rev. James Beresford, was born in 1764, and was educated at Charterhouse and Merton College, Oxford. In 1812 he became Rector of Kibworth in Leicestershire, a position he held till his death in 1840.
His other works include, in poetry, a blank verse translation of the Aeneid (1794), to which Cowper subscribed, a poetical version of the Icelandic Edda (1805), a long poem, The Crescent and the Cross (1824), adapted from Mme. Cottin's Mathilde, and, in prose, a translation of Les Chevaliers du Cygne, by Mme. de Geniis (1796), a humorous skit on Dibdin called Bibliosophia (1810), and various sermons.
The Miseries went through seven editions in a year, and a second volume collie out in 1807. It made quite a sensation, and had numerous imitators.
I have long been a solitary enthusiast on the subject of this book, and am very happy to find a kindred spirit in Miss West. May her paper revive the memory of a wit whose bons mots Moore thought worth recording in his memoirs, and whose society lie found amusing.- --I am, Sir, &c.,
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