tom: but I can't help that. I never meant to make a yourself, it seems, with only making one fool instead of two, parade of it: but if he chose to question me, I could only which is the more approved method of proceeding on such answer the Diain truth; and I confess I did not see any occasions. For my part, I think you are quite right, thing in the letter to hurt him, unless I said he was 'a bore, which I don't remember. Had their Journal gone on well, and I could have aided to make it better for them, I should then have left them, after my safe pilotage off a lee shore, to make a prosperous voyage by themselves. As it is, I can't, and would not if I could, leave them among the breakers. As to any community of feeling, thought, or opinion between Leigh Hunt and me, there is little or none. We meet rarely, hardly ever; but I think him a good-principied and able man, and must do as I would be done by. I do not know what world he has lived in, but I have lived in three or four, but none of them like his Keats and kangaroo terra incognita. Alas! poor Shelley! how we would have laughed had he lived, and how we used to laugh now and then at various things which are grave in the suburbs! and be assured from me that a woman (as society is constituted in England,) who gives any advantage to a man may expect a lover, but will sooner or later find a tyrant; and this is not the man's fault either, perhaps, but is the necessary and natural result of the circumstances of society which, in fact, tyrannize over the man equally with the women, that is to say, if either of them have any feeling or honour. "You can write to me at your leisure and inclination. I have always laid it down as a maxim, and found it justified by experience, that a man and a woman make far better friendships than can exist between two of the same sex; but these with this condition, that they never have made, or are to make, love with each other. Lovers may, and, indeed, generally are enemies, but they never can be friends; because there must always be a spice of jealousy and a something of self in all their speculations. "You are all mistaken about Shelley. You do not "Indeed, I rather look upon love altogether as a sort know how mild, how tolerant, how good he was in society; of hostile transaction, very necessary to make or to break and as perfect a gentleman as ever crossed a drawing-matches, and keep the world going, but by no means a room, when he liked, and where liked. sinecure to the parties concerned. "I have some thoughts of taking a run down to Naples "Now, as my love-perils are, I believe, pretty well (solus, or, at most, cum sola) this spring, and writing, over, and yours, by all accounts, are never to begin, we when I have studied the country, a Fifth and Sixth Canto shall be the best friends imaginable as far as both are of Childe Harold: but this is merely an idea for the pre-concerned, and with this advantage, that we may both sent, and I have other excursions and voyages in my fall to loving right and left through all our acquaintance, mind. The busts are finished: are you worthy of them? without either sullenness or sorrow from that amiable "Yours, &c. passion which are its inseparable attendants. "N. B. "P. S. Mrs. Shelley is residing with the Hants at some distance from me. I see them very seld: ɔm, and generally on account of their business. Mrs. Shelley, I believe will go to England in the spring. "Count Gambia's family, the father and mother and daughter, are residing with me by Mr. Hill (the minister's) recommendation, as a safer assylum from the political persecutions than they could have in another resi dence; but they occupy one part of a large house, and I the other, and our establishments are quite separate. "Since I have read the Quarterly, I shall erase two or three passages in the latter six or seven cantos, in which I had lightly stroked over two or three of your authors; but I will not return evil for good. I liked what I read of the article much. "Mr. J. Hunt is most likely the publisher of the new Cantos; with what prospects of success I know not, nor does it very much matter, as far as I am concerned; but I hope it may be of use to him, for he is a stiff, sturdy, conscientious man, and I like him: he is such a one a Prynne or Pym might be. I bear you no ill-will for declining the Don Juans. "Have you aided Madame de Yossy, as I requested? I sent her three hundred francs. Recommend her, will you, to the Literary Fund, or to some benevolence within your circles." LETTER DLXXV. TO LADY "Albaro, Nov. 10, 1822. * * "Believe me, &c." LETTER DLXXVI TO MR. PROCTOR. "Pisa, Jan. 1823. "Had I been aware of your tragedy when I wrote my note to Marino Faliero, although it is a matter of no consequence to you, I should certainly not have omitted to insert your name with these of the other writers who still do honour to the drama. My own notions on the subject altogether are so different from the popular ideas of the day, that we differ essentially, as indeed I do from our whole English literati, upon that topic. But I do nɔt contend that I am right-I merely say that such is iny harm. But it does not prevent me from doing justice opinion, and as it is a solitary one, it can do no great the powers of those who adopt a different system." "I must again refer you to those two letters addressed to you at Passy before I read your speech in Galignani, &c., and which you do not seem to have received. "Of Hunt I see little-once a month or so, and then on his own business, generally. You may easily suppose that I know too little of Hampstead and his satellites to have much communion or community with him. My whole present relation to him arose from Shelley's unexThe Chevalier persisted in declaring himself an ill-pected wreck. You would not have had me leave him used gentleman, and describing you as a kind of cold in the street with his family, would you? and as to the Calypso, who lead astray people of an amatory disposition other plan you mention, you forget how it would humiliate without giving them any sort of compensation, contenting him-that his writings should be supposed to be dead weight! Think a moment-he is perhaps the vainest Of the bust of himself by Bartollini he says, in one of his letters to man on earth, at least his own friends say so pretty Mr. Murray: The bust does not turn out a good one,-though it may be like for aught I know, as it exactly resembles a superanuated Jesuit. loudly; and if he were in other circumstances, I nught Again," i assure you Bartollini's is dreadful, though my mind misgives be tempted to take him down a peg; but not now-it me that it is hideously like. If it is, I cannot be long for this world, for would be cruel. It is a cursed business; but neither the k overlooks seventy." Moore. motive nor the means rest upon my conscience, and it ter for the first time, and I suffered a good deal of pain happens that he and his brother have been so far benefited but no peril. My health is now much as usual. Mr. by the publication in a pecuniary point of view. His Hill is, I believe, occupied with his diplomacy. I shall orother is a steady, bold fellow, such as Prynne, for exam-give him your message when I see him again.* ple, and full of moral, and, I hear, physical courage. "My name, I see in the papers, has been dragged into "And you are really recanting, or softening to the the unhappy Portsmouth business, of which all that I know clergy! It will do little good for you-it is you, not the is very succinet. Mr. Hanson is my solicitor. I found poem, they are at. They will say they frightened you-him so when I was ten years old-at my uncle's deathforbid it, Ireland! "Yours ever LETTER DLXXVIII. TO MRS. "N. B." "I presume that you, at least, know enough of me to be sure that I could have no intention to insult Hunt's poverty. On the contrary, I honour him for it; for I know what it is, having been as much embarrassed as ever he was, without perceiving aught in it to diminish an honourable man's self-respect. If you mean to say that, had he been a wealthy man, I would have joined in this Journal, I answer in the negative. *** I engaged in the Journal from good-will towards him, added to respect for his character, literary and personal; and no less for his political courage, as well as regret for his present circumstances: I did this in the hope that he might, with the same aid from literary friends of literary contributions, (which is requisite for all Journals of a mixed nature,) render himself independent. * * * * "I have always treated him, in our personal intercourse, with such scrupulous delicacy, that I have foreborne intruding advice, which I thought might be disagreeable, lest he should impute it to what is called 'taking advantage of a man's situation.' "As to friendship, it is a propensity in which my genius is very limited. I do not know the male human being, except Lord Clare, the friend of my infancy, for whom I foel any thing that deserves the name. All my others are men of the world friendships. I did not even feel it for Shelley, however much I admired and esteemed him; so you see not even vanity could bribe me into it, for, of all men, Shelley thought highest of my talents,—and, perhaps, of my disposition. that and he was continued in the management of my legal business. He asked me, by a civil espistle, as an old acquaintance of his family, to be present at the marriage of Miss Hanson. I went very reluctantly, one misty morning (for I had been up at two balls all night,) to witness the ceremony, which I could not very well refuse without affronting a man who had never offended me. I saw nothing particular in the marriage. Of course I could not know the preliminaries, except from what he said, not having been present at the wooing, nor after it, for I walked home, and they went into the country as soon as they had promised and vowed. Out of this simple fact I hear the Débats de Paris has quoted Miss H. as 'autrefois très liée avec le celèbre,' &c. &c. I am obliged to him for the celebrity, but beg leave to decline the liaison, which is quite untrue; my liaison was with the father, in the unsentimental shape of long lawyers' bills, through the medium of which I have had to pay him ten or twelve thousand pounds within these few years. She was not pretty, and I suspect that the indefatigable Mr. Aattracted by her title than her charms. I regret very much was (like all her people) more that I was present at the prologue to the happy state of horsewhipping and black jobs, &c. &c., but I could not foresee that a man was to turn out mad, who had gone about the world for fifty years, as competent to vote, and walk at large; nor did he seem to me more insane than any other person going to be married. "I have no objection to be acquainted with the Marquis Palavicini, if he wishes it. Lately, I have gone little into society, English or foreign, for I had seen all that was worth seeing in the former before I left England, and at the time of life when I was more disposed to like it; and of the latter I had a sufficiency in the first few years of my residence in Switzerland, chiefly at Madame de Stael's, where I went sometimes, till I grew tired of conversazioni and carnivals, with their appendages; and the bore is, that if you go once, you are expected to be there I will do my duty by my intimates, upon the principle daily, or rather nightly. I went the round of the most of doing as you would be done by. I have done so, I noted soirées at Venice or elsewhere (where I remained trust, in most instances. I may be pleased with their con- not any time) to the Benzona, and the Albrizzi, and the versation-rejoice in their success-be glad to do them a Michelli, &c. &c., and to the Cardinals and the various service, or to receive their counsel and assistance in re- potentates of the Legation in Romagna (that is, Ravenna,) turn. But, as for friends and friendship, I have (as I al-and only receded for the sake of quiet when I came into ready said) named the only remaining male for whom I Tuscany. Besides, if I go into society, I generally get, in feel any thing of the kind, excepting, perhaps, Thomas Moore. I have had, and may have still, a thousand friends, as they are called, in life, who are like one's partners in the waltz of this world, not much remembered when the ball is over, though very pleasant for the time. Habit, business, and companionship in pleasure or in pain, are links of a similar kind, and the same faith in politics is another." * * the long run, into some scrape of some kind or other, which do n't occur in my solitude. However, I am pretty well settled now, by time and temper, which is so far lucky as it prevents restlessness; but, as I said before, as an acquaintance of yours, I will be ready and willing to know your friends. He may be a sort of connexion for aught I know, for a Palavicina, of Bologna, I believe, married a distam relative of mine half a century ago. I happen to know the fact, as he and his spouse had an annuity of five hundred pounds on my uncle's property, which ceased at his demise, though I recollect hearing they attempted, natu rally enough, to make it survive him. If I can do any thing for you here, or elsewhere, pray order, and be obeyed." LETTER DLXXX. TO MR. MOORE. Mr. Hill is here: I dined with him on Saturday before last; and on leaving his house at S. P. d'Arena, my carriage broke down. I walked home, about three miles, -no very great feat of pedestrianism; but either the coming out of hot rooms into a bleak wind chilled me, or "Genoa, April 2, 1823. the walking up-hill to Albaro heated me, or something or "I have just seen some friends of yours, who paid me a other set me wrong, and next day I had an inflammatory attack in the face, to which I have been subject this win-about this time in the English Courts to prove him, insane. The Earl of Portsmouth married Miss Hanson. Attempts were made I re visit yesterday, which, in honour of them and of you, turned to-day-as I reserve my bear-skin and teeth, and paws and claws, for our enemies. LETTER DLXXXI. TO THE EARL OF BLESSINGTON. "MR. DEAR LORD, "April 5, 1823, "I have also seen Henry Fox, Lord Holland's son, whom I had not looked upon since I left him a pretty mild boy without a neckcloth, in a jacket, and in delicate health, seven long years agone, at the period of mine "How is your gout? or rather, how are you? I return eclipse-the third, believe, as I have generally one every the Count *'s Journal, which is a very extraordinary two or three years. I think that he has the softest and production, and of a most melancholy truth in all that most amiable expression of countenance I ever saw, and regards high life in England. I know, or knew, per manners correspondent. If to those he can add heredi-sonally, most of the personages and societies, which he tary talents, he will keep the name of Fox in all its fresh-describes; and after reading his remarks have the sensaness for half a century more, I hope. I speak from a tion fresh upon me as I had seen them yesterday. I transient glimpse-but I love still to yield to such im-would however plead in behalf of some few exceptions, pressions; for I have ever found that those I liked longest which I will mention by-and-by. The most singular and best, I took to at first sight; and I always liked that thing is, how he should have penetrated not the fact, but boy; perhaps, in part, from some resemblance in the less the mystery of the English ennui, at two-and-twenty. I fortunate part of our destinies ; I mean, to avoid mistakes, was about the same age when I made the same dishis lameness. But there is this difference, that he appears covery, in almost precisely the same circles-(for there is a halting angel, who has tripped against a star; while I scarcely a person mentioned whom I did not see nightly am Le Diable Boiteux,-a soubriquet, which I marvel that, or daily, and was acquainted more or less intimately with among their various nominis umbra, the Orthodox have not most of them)-but I never could have described it so hit upon. well. Il faut être Francais, to effect this. "Your other allies, whom I have found very agreeable "But he ought also to have been in the country during personages, and Milor Blessington and épouse, travelling the hunting season, with 'a select party of distinguished with a very handsome companion, in the shape of a guests,' as the papers term it. He ought to have seen 'French Count,' (to use Farquhar's phrase in the Beaux' the gentlemen after dinner, (on the hunting days,) and Stratagem,) who has all the air of a Cupidon déchainé, the soirée ensuing thereupon-and the women looking as and is one of the few specimens I have seen of our ideal if they had hunted, or rather been hunted; and I could of a Frenchman before the Revolution-an old friend with have wished that he had been at a dinner in town, which a new face, upon whose like I never thought that we I recollect at Lord C**'s-small, but select, and comshould look again. Miladi seems highly literary, to which, posed of the most amusing people. The dessert was and your honour's acquaintance with the family, I attri- hardly on the table, when, out of twelve I counted five bute the pleasure of having seen them. She is also very asleep; of that five, there were Tierney, Lord * *, and pretty, even in a morning,—a species of beauty on which Lord **-I forget the other two, but they were either the sun of Italy does not shine so frequently as the chan-wits or orators-perhaps poets. delier. Certainly, Englishwomen wear better than their "My residence in the East and in Italy has made me continental neighbours of the same sex. M✶✶ seems somewhat indulgent of the siesta-but then they set very good-natured, but is much tamed, since I recol- regularly about it in warm countries, and perform it in lect him in all the glory of gems and snuff-boxes, and solitude, (or at most in a tête-à-tête with a proper comuniforms, and theatricals, and speeches in our house-panion,) and retire quietly to their rooms to get out of the 'I mean, of peers' (I must refer you to Pope-whom sun's way for an hour or two. you do n't read, and won't appreciate-for that quota- "Altogether, your friend's Journal is a very formidable tion, which you must allow to be poetical,) and sitting to Stroeling, the painter (do you remember our visit, with Leckie, to the German?) to be depicted as one of the heroes of Agincourt,' with his long sword, saddle, bridle, whack fal de, &c. &c. "I have been unwell-caught a cold and inflammation, which menanced a conflagration, after dining with our ambassador, Monsieur Hill,-not owing to the dinner, but my carriage broke down on the way home, and I had to walk some miles, up-hill partly, after hot rooms, in a very bleak windy evening, and over-hotted, or overcolded myself. I have not been so robustious as formerly, ever since the last summer, when I fell ill after a long swim in the Mediterranean, and have never been quite right up to this present writing. I am thin, -perhaps thinner than you saw me, when I was nearly transparent, in 1812,-and am obliged to be moderate of my mouth, which, nevertheless, won't prevent me (the gods willing) from dining with your friends the day after to-morrow. They give me a very good account of you, and of your nearly 'Emprisoned Angels.' But why did you change your title?-you will regret this some day. The bigots are not to be conciliated, and, if they were, are they worth it? I suspect that I am a more orthodox Christian than you are; and, whenever I see a real Christian, either in practice or in theory, (for I never yet found the man who could produce either, when put to the proof,) I am his disciple. But, till then, I cannot truckle to tithe-mongers,-nor can I imagine what has made you circumcise your Seraphs. production. Alas! our dearly-beloved countrymen have only discovered that they are tired, and not that they are tiresome; and I suspect that the communication of the latter unpleasant verity will not be better received than truths usually are. I have read the whole with great attention and instruction. I am too good a patriot to say pleasure-at least I won't say so, whatever I may think. 1 showed it (I hope no breach of confidence,) to a young Italian lady of rank, très instruite also; and who passes, or passed, for being one of the three most celebrated belles in the district of Italy, where her family and connexions resided in less troublesome times as to politics, (which is not Genoa, by-the-way,) and she was delighted with it, and says that she has derived a better notion of English society from it than from all Madame de Staël's metaphysical disputations on the same subject, in her work on the Revolution. I beg that you will thank the young philosopher, and make my compliments to Lady B. and her sister. "Believe me your very obliged and faithful "N. B. "P. S. There is a rumour in letters of some disturbanc or complot in the French Pyrenean army-generals sus pected or dismissed, and ministers of war travelling to see what's the matter. 'Marry, (as David says,) this hath an angry favour.' "Tell Count✶✶ that some of the names are not quite intelligible, especially of the clubs; he speaks of In another letter to Lord Blessington, he says of this gentleman, "he seems to have all the qualities requisite to have figured in his brother-in-law's ancestor's Memoirs." Wats-perhaps he is right, but in my time Watters was LETTER DLXXXII. TO THE EARL OF BLESSINGTON. man may do in London with impunity while he is 'à l mode; which I think it well to state, that he may not suspect me of taking advantage of his confidence. The observations are very general.” LETTER DLXXXIII. ΤΟ ΤΗΣ ΣARL OF BLESSING TΟΝ, "April 14, 1823. "I am truly sorry that I cannot accompany you in your ride this morning, owing to a violent pain in my face, arising from a wart to which I by medical advice applied a caustic. Whether I put too much, I do not know, but the consequence is, not only I have been put to some pain, but the peccant part and its immediate environ are as black as if the printer's devil had marked me for an author. As I do not wish to frighten your horses, or their riders, I shall postpone waiting upon you until six o'clock, when I hope to have subsided into a more Christianlike resemblance to my fellow-creatures. My infliction has partially extended even to my fingers for on trying to get "April 6, 1823. "It would be worse than idle, knowing, as I do, the utter worthlessness of words on such occasions, in me to attempt to express what I ought to feel, and do feel for the loss you have sustained;* and I must thus dismiss the subject, for I dare not trust inyself further with it for your sake, or for my own. I shall endeavour to see you as soon as it may not appear intrusive. Pray excuse the levity the black from off my upper lip at least, I have only of my yesterday's scrawl-I little thought under what circumstances it would find you. transfused a portion thereof to my right hand, and neither lemon-juice nor eau de Cologne, nor any other cau, have been able as yet to redeem it also from a more inky appearance than is either proper or pleasant. But 'out damn'd spot-you may have perceived something of the kind yesterday, for on my return, I saw that during my visit it had increased, was increasing, and ought to be diminished; and I could not help laughing at the figure I must have cut before you. At any rate, I shall be with you at six, with the advantage of twilight. "Ever most truly, &c. "I have received a very handsome and flattering note from Count * *. He must excuse my apparent rudeness and real ignorance in replying to it in English, through the medium of your kind interpretation. I would not on any account deprive him of a production, of which I really think more than I have even said, though you are good enough not to be dissatisfied even with that; but whenever it is completed, it would give me the greatest pleasure to have a copy-but how to keep it secret! literary secrets are like others. By changing the names, or at least omitting several, and altering the circumstances indicative of the writer's real station, the author would render it a most amusing publication. His countrymen have not been treated either in a literary or personal point of view with such deference in English recent works, as to lay him under any very great national obligation of forbearance; and really the remarks are so true and so piquante therefore pardon me, and not mistake this rueful excuse that I cannot bring myself to wish their suppression; though, as Dangle says, 'He is my friend,' many of these personages' were my friends, but much such friends as 'Dangle and his allies. "I return you Dr. Parr's letter-I have met him at Payne Knight's and elsewhere, and he did me the honour once to be a patron of mine, although a great friend of the other branch of the House of Atreus, and the Greek teacher (I believe) of my moral Clytemnestra-I say moral, because it is true, and so useful to the virtuous, that it enables them to do any thing without the aid of an Egisthus. "I beg my compliments to Lady B. Miss P. and to your Alfred. I think, since his Majesty of the same name, there has not been such a learned surveyor of our Saxon society. "Ever yours most truly, "N. B." "April 9, 1823. "11 o'clock. "P.S. I wrote the above at three this morning. 1 regret to say that the whole of the skin of about an inch square above my upper lip has come off, so that I cannot even shave or masticate, and I am equally unfit to appear at your table, and to partake of its hospitality. Will you for a 'make-believe,' as you will soon recognise whenever I have the pleasure of meeting you again, and I will call the moment I am, in the nursery phrase, 'fit to be seen.' Tell Lady B. with my compliments, that I am rummag ing my papers for a MS. worthy of her acceptation. I have just seen the younger Count Gamba, and as I cannot prevail on his infinite modesty to take the field without me, I must take this piece of diffidence on my myself also, and beg your indulgence for both." LETTER DLXXXIV. TO THE COUNT "April 22, 1823. "My dear Count **, (if you will permit me to address you so familiarly,) you should be content with writing in your own language, like Grammont, and succeeding in London as nobody has succeeded since the days of Charles the Second and the records of Antonio Hamilton, without deviating into our barbarous language,which than it deserves. "P. S. I salute Miledi, Madamoiselle Mama, and the dlustrious Chevalier Count** who, I hope, will continue "My 'approbation,' as you are plaased to term it, was his history of his own times.' There are some strange very sincere, but perhaps not very impartial; for though i coincidences between a part of his remarks and a certain love my country, I do not love my countrymen—at least, work of mine, now in MS. in England, (I do not mean such as they now are. And besides the seduction of the hermetically sealed Memoirs, but a continuation of talent and wit in your work, I fear that to me there was certain Cantos of a certain poem,) especially in what a the attraction of vengeance. I have seen and felt much of what you have described so well. I have known the persons, and the reunions so described-(many of them. • The death of Lord Blessington's son, which had been long expected, but of which the acomat had just then arrived that is to say,)—and the portraits are so like that cannot but admire the painter no less than his perform ance. "But I am sorry for you; for if you are so well acquainted with life at your age, what will become of you when the illusion is still more dissipated? but never mind—en avant !—live while you can; and that you may have the full enjoyment of the many advantages of youth, talent, and figure, which you possess, is the wish of anEnglishman,-I suppose,-but it is no treason; for my mother was Scotch, and my name and my family are both Norman; and as for myself, I am of no country. As for my Works,' which you are pleased to mention, let them go to the devil, from whence (if you believe many persons) they came. "I have the honor to be your obliged, &c. &c." mysteries. Tell Milor that I am deep in his MS., and will do him justice by a diligent perusal. "The letter which I enclose was prevented from sending, by my despair of its doing any good. I was perfectly sincere when I wrote it, and am so still. But it is difficult for me to withstand the thousand provocations on that subject, which both friends and foes have for seven years been throwing in the way of a man whose feelings were once quick, and whose temper was never patient. But returning were as tedious as go o'er.' I feel this as much as ever Macbeth did; and it is a dreary sensation. which at least avenges the real or imaginary wrongs of one of the two unfortunate persons whom it concerns. "But I am going to be gloomy;-so, 'to bed, to bed. Good night, or rather morning. One of the reasons why I wish to avoid society is, that I can never sleep after it, and the pleasanter it has been, the less I rest. "Ever most truly, &c. &c " "My request would be for a copy of the miniature of Lady B., which I have seen in possession of the late Lady Noel, as I have no picture, or indeed memorial of any kind of Lady B., as all her letters were in her own possession before I left England, and we have had no correspondence since at least on her part. 44 LETTER DLXXXVII.* TO LADY BYRON. (To the care of the Hon. Mrs. Leigh, London.) "I have to acknowledge the receipt of 'Ada's hair, which is very soft and pretty, and nearly as dark already as mine was at twelve years old, if I may judge from what I recollect of some in Augusta's possession, taken at that age. But it don't curl,-perhaps from its being let grow. My message, with regard to the infant, is simply to this effect-that in the event of any accident occurring to the mother, and my remaining the survivor, it would be "I also thank you for the inscription of the date and my wish to have her plans carried into effect, both with name, and I will tell you why-I believe that they are regard to the education of the child, and the person or the only two or three words of your handwriting in rav persons under whose care Lady B. might be desirous that she should be placed. It is not my intention to interfere possession. For your letters I returned, and except the two words, or rather the one word, 'Household,' writter with her in any way on the subject during her life; and I twice in an old account-book, I have no other. I burnt presume that it would be some consolation to her to know, (if she is in ill health, as I am given to understand,) your last note, for two reasons:-1stly, it was written in a that in no case would any thing be done, as far as I am style not very agreeable; and, 2dly, I wished to take your word without documents, which are the worldly resources concerned, but in strict conformity with Lady B.'s own wishes and intentions-left in what manner she thought of suspicious people. "I suppose that this note will reach you somewhere about Ada's birthday-the 10th of December, I believe. She will then be six, so that in about twelve more I shall have some chance of meeting her ;-perhaps sooner, if I am obliged to go to England by business or otherwise. Recollect, however, one thing, either in distance or nearness-every day which keeps us asunder should, after so long a period, rather soften our mutual feelings, which must always have one rallying-point as long as our child exists, which I presume we both hope will be long after either of her parents. "MY DEAR LADY ** I send you the letter which I had forgotten, and the "The time which has elapsed since the separation, has book, which I ought to have remembered. It contains been considerably more than the whole brief period of (the book, I mean) some melancholy truths; though I our union, and the not much longer one of our prior believe that it is too triste a work ever to have been popu-acquaintance. We both made a bitter mistake; but now lar. The first time I ever read it, (not the edition I send it is over, and irrevocably so. For, at thirty-three on my you, for I got it since,) was at the desire of Madame de Stael, who was supposed by the good-natured world to be the heroine-which she was not, however, and was furious at the supposition. This occurred in Switzerland, in the summer of 1816, and the last season in which I ever saw that celebrated person. "I have a request to make to my friend Alfred, (since he has not disdained the title,) viz. that he would condescend to add a cap to the gentleman in the jacket,-it would complete his costume, and smooth his brow, which is somewhat too inveterate a likeness of the original, God help me! "I did well to avoid the water-party,-why, is a mystery, which is not less to be wondered at than all my other • Adolphe. by M. Benjamin Constar part, and a few years less on yours, though it is no very extended period of life, still it is one when the habits and thought are generally so formed as to admit of no modification; and as we could not agree when your ger, we should with difficulty do so now. But "I say all this, because I own to you that, retwithstanding every thing, I considered our reunion as not impossible for more than a year after the separation;→ but then I gave up the hope entirely and for ever. this very impossibility of reunion seems to me at least a reason why, on all the few points of discussion which can arise between us, we should preserve the courtesies of life, and as much of its kindness as people who are never to meet may preserve, perhaps more easily than neare • Enclosed in Letter 582. |