iliary Bible Society. Many ladies went, not indeed to speak, but to hear speaking; and they tell me they were much entertained and interested. I honour the zeal of these societies; but it is become a sort of rage, and I suspect outgoes the occasion.

Stoke Newington, Sept. 1813.

WE have had great pleasure in seeing again our friend Dr. H. after a tour through Spain, Sicily, and Greece. Pray do you intend to learn modern Greek? I suspect it will grow quite fashionable, from the many tourists to Athens we have had of late; particularly if Eustace succeeds in persuading us to have nothing to do with the French jargon, as he is pleased to call the lanof Bossuet and of Racine. I suppose you guage have read Lord Byron's Giaour,—and which edition? because there are five, and in every one he adds about fifty lines; so that the different editions have rather the sisterly likeness which Ovid says the Nereids had, than the identity expected by the purchasers of the same work. And And pray do you say Lord Byron, or Byron, in defiance of the y and our old friend in Sir Charles Grandison? And do you pronounce Giaour hard g or soft g? And do you understand the poem at first reading ?-because Lord Byron and the Edinburgh

Reviewers say you are very stupid if you don't; and yet the same Reviewers have thought proper to prefix the story to help your apprehension. All these, unimportant as you may think them, are matters of discussion here.

Stoke Newington, Jan. 1814.

MY DEAR MRS. BEECROFT,

THERE are animals that sleep all the winter;-I am, I believe, become one of them: they creep into holes during the same season;-I have confined myself to the fireside of a snug parlour. If, indeed, a warm sunshiny day occurs, they sometimes creep out of their holes ;-so, now and then, have I. They exist in a state of torpor ;—so have I done : the only difference being, that I have all the while continued the habit of eating and drinking, which, to their advantage, they can dispense with. But my mind has certainly been asleep all the while; and whenever I have attempted to employ it, I have felt an oppression in my head which has obliged me to desist. What wonderful events have passed during the last few months! How new is the very name of peace to us all; and to those of thirty and under, it is a state that, since they were able to reflect at all on public affairs, they have never known. London seems to have nothing to do now but to give feasts and pop away all the spare gun

powder in rockets and feur-de-joie in honour of its illustrious guests. Everybody has been idle since these royal personages came amongst us. It is in vain even to bespeak a pair of shoes,-not a man will work; and I imagine Alexander must be greatly puzzled, when the concourse in the streets from morning till night shows how many there are that are doing nothing, and the shops and manufactures how much has been done.

Stoke Newington, Jan. 1815.

MY DEAR MRS. BEECROFT,

THANKS for your kind letter, and for the finest turkey I ever saw, which arrived without accident, and fulfilled the end of its being,-its fattening at least, last Tuesday amid the commendations of the whole party. I cannot tell where the spirit went; but I hope it is animating some other vehicle, and rising by degrees in the scale of existence, till perhaps it may come at length (who knows) to eat turkeys itself.

I give you joy of the peace. It ought to last at least for this next twenty years.: for though I am afraid war and peace must always take their turns, like day and night in the natural world, I think War ought to be satisfied, as the other dark and unlovely power is, with share and share alike. The two striking features of the present times in

Britain are religion and charity; and I should think they are both of them well inclined to pacific measures.

Stoke Newington, Nov. 14, 1818.

OUR tourists are mostly now returned. Such numbers have resided more or less abroad, that I cannot help thinking the intercourse must influence in some degree the national manners, which I find by Madame de Stael are not yet to the taste of our neighbours. They allow us to be respectable, but they plainly intimate they do not think us amiable. When I read such censures, I cannot help saying in my mind to the author,—I wish you knew such a one, and such a one, of my acquaintance; I am sure you could not but love them.-Yet, after all, I fear we must acknowledge something about us dry, cold, and reserved; more afraid of censure, than gratified by notice; very capable of steadiness in important pursuits, but not happy in filling up and intervals of pauses life with ingenious trifles and spontaneous, social

hilarity

the

It seems to me that there is more room for authors in history than in any other department. It is continually growing. It is like a tree, the dead leaves and branches of which are continually pruned and cleared away, and fresh green shoots

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arising. How much less interesting since the French Revolution are the glories and conquests of Louis XIV.! What is the whole field of ancient history, which knew no sea but the Mediterranean, to the vast continent of America, with its fresh and opening glories! Will they be wise by our experience, peaceable, moderate, virtuous? No: they will be learned by our learning, but not wise by our experience. Each country, as each man, must buy his own experience.

Stoke Newington, Feb. 1824.

MY DEAR MRS. BEECROFT,

THE state of my eyes, which have been very weak of late, and are giving me a hint that they have served me nearly long enough, have hindered me for some time from answering your kind letter.-Long may you enjoy that activity and flow of spirits which make life indeed a blessing; and which by conversation, by the very look of a happy and social spirit, communicates pleasure to all within its influence. But, you will say, a social spirit often leads one to mourn. It is very true: we are just now sympathizing with .................. But what is all this to you? will you say these are not your acquaintance or connexions. Why, that is very true; but I have so long been accustomed to see you take part with ready and

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