Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/388

348 348 EDWARD MOXON. his longings for a literary career, brought him into contact with some of the greatest writers of the day, and attracted their support and friendship. As early as 1824 he was made a welcome member of the brilliant circle that owned Charles Lamb as its chief, and to be a protege of Lamb's was a passport into all literary society. In 1826, he published his first volume, " The Prospect ; and other Poems ;" and his friends received it with all possible kindness, as, perhaps, containing germs of something better. Even Wordsworth, usually very niggard of praise, wrote him a letter of encouragement and warning : l( Fix your eye upon acquiring independence by an honour- able business, and let the Muse come after rather than go before." But advice of this nature, even when given with the practical illustrations that Wordsworth's own career might have furnished, had little likelihood of being accepted by a young and impetuous poetaster; and in 1829 we find Moxon launching another venture on the world " Christmas, a poem " to be as coldly received by the "general public" as the former. What, however, the advice of a veteran poet could not effect, a stronger power was able to accomplish. During Lamb's residence at Enfield, their acquaint- ance ripened into a very frequent intercourse, and eventually resulted in Moxon's engagement to a young lady who spent most of her time under the protection of Lamb and his sister. Lamb had met Miss Isola some years before at Cambridge, and had taken so much interest in the little orphan girl, who was then living with her grandfather an Italian refugee, and a teacher of languages that by degrees he came to be looked upon as almost a natural guardian. Marriage, however, was out of the question until her lover had