The year, however, is obviously 1781, for the letter consists of further details of Crabbe's early life, not supplied in the earlier effusion.

At the date of this second letter, Crabbe had been known to Burke three or four months.

During that time Crabbe had been constantly seeing Burke, and with his help had been revising for the press the poem of _The Library_, which was published by Dodsley in this very month, June 1781.
The first impression, accordingly, produced on us by the letter, is one of surprise that after so long a period of intimate association with Burke, Crabbe should still be writing in a tone of profound anxiety and discouragement as to his future prospects.

According to the son's account of the situation, when Crabbe left Burke's house after their first meeting, "he was, in the common phrase, 'a made man'-- from that hour." That short interview "entirely, and for ever, changed the nature of his worldly fortunes." This, in a sense, was undoubtedly true, though not perhaps as the writer meant.

It is clear from the letter first printed by Sir Henry Bunbury, that up to the end of June 1781, Crabbe's future occupation in life was still unfixed, and that he was full of misgivings as to the means of earning a livelihood.
The letter is of great interest in many respects, but is too long to print as a whole in the text[1].