and came near to avowing his belief that art and supraprosaic relief in language was the better system."

*

After six weeks of ill health and mental anxiety, he attempts that serio-comic mood in which we so generally find him, when more than usually depressed; but it is only the voice of the sorrowful striving to be gay :

66

.

"March 13.

Afflicted with morning coughs, nightly headaches, depressed and dispirited by indifferent accounts of Thomas, and embarrassed with business, which is the more harassing that it is insignificant. Alas, for any good that this bulbous excrescence has for weeks performed for me! Saving the perusal of what goes into my journal-answering the complimentary petitions of bluestocking misses to insert their verses, in consideration of my universal character for generosity and candour'— declining invitations to dinners and at-homes, I might as well have carried about my unfortunate skull under my arm as worn it where it now stands. Still my heart has been, like a well-meaning friend, always vigilantly reminding me of my duty. Apropos of hearts:-I have a blank seal, and consulted Foscolo t'other day about a device for it. He came back in a few hours, looking as wild as Friday when first caught by Robinson Crusoe; and, in his most perfectly bad English, called out, I have got a device for you, and a drawing for the seal, my dear Camp-bell! It is

The letter concludes with this painful confession :-"Dr. Finch has been in town; he gives me no great hopes of T., and I have been otherwise distressed by a subject of domestic concern-that is, with my Scotch relatives the veriest dilemma in which I ever found myself. . T. C."

AT. 45.]

FOSCOLO-ANECDOTE-PEPÉ-DYER.

419

a perfect type of your character; a sleeping swan with the motto, Cor vigilat-the heart watches! I call this your proper motto,' said Foscolo, for your genius is reposing.' I looked at the drawing, and was overcome to fits of laughter at the unhappy resemblance which the intended swan bore to a goose. 'Yes, Foscolo,' I said,

'this is a very nice satire upon me-a sleeping goose!'

'On the subject of seals I long to show you one which I got from General Pepé, who says it is three thousand years old. The stone is calcined with age. I have not got the advice of any sapient person here about it; do you know anything of iconography? . . You must have read the account of Pepé's duel. He called upon me, poor fellow, the day before he went out last; and he said, afterwards, he would have told me of the affair, but thought me very unwell, and did not wish to give me any unnecessary trouble. He looked tranquil, as he always does. Do you know anything of Sir Thomas D—r? Though he is a whig, I think your heart will warm towards him when I tell you that, since Pepe's last arrival, he made the patriotic exile an offer-and strongly urged his acceptance of 400l. a year, whilst his circumstances required it. Pepé has enough for his wants, which are very moderate, and insisted on declining it; but he felt the magnificence and kindness of the offer very deeply. I assure you it made me proud of my countryman... I have just returned from seeing Haydon's Lazarus-many fine things in it: but why will he substitute a bad and blasphemous novelty,* for that picture which tradition has consecrated? T. C."

*He refers to the figure of our Saviour-drawn, I believe, from a living model.

The following extracts will be perused with deep sympathy:

"SEYMOUR STREET WEST, April 29, 1823.

Well, I have been a poor invalid this winter : I thought I should have added an unit to the marvellous bills of mortality. . . I was never, I think, so weary of my life as under this influenza--nothing less than epidemic. The lime-kiln sensation of fever in the head was past all description. I think I would rather die than endure a week of it again. As to other things-the main care of my heart about Thomas remains the same. Finch's opinion, on the whole, is favourable, but still wrapt up in all the uncertainty of an oracle. The complaint, indeed, admits of no certainty. Finch has persuaded me to postpone my visit to him, in hopes of giving his mode of cure a further trial. If I were single, I should not be able to bear this; but the consequences of my going to Salisbury, he says, might be fatal; and then I could not prevent others from going as naturally as myself. Ahit is sometimes an agonising business! . . I can bear the day-time-but, when I attempt to sleep, I dream of Thomas-I have horrible dreams. I see them torturing him-I waken-and can sleep no more. CC I think that, about the end of the twelvemonth, I may be able to take him again under my own charge. . The uncertainty about this issue makes me feel at times as if I were to be tried for my life at the end of a few months! Well-the most unhappy beings will have their hopes."

"In the meantime I have not been able to write poetry, and with difficulty competent to the dry task of editorship; but if I had not done that, I should have done nothing else. Was it not better then, to do something than nothing-something that enabled me to pay my apothecary's bill?"

ET. 45.]

YOUNG FRIENDS-CONTRAST-ANXIETIES.

421

"I was at S. ten days ago, and was struck by the kindness of your nephews, Dacres, Mayow, and William Pitt. Dearest boys! I would not for anything tell them how much I feel their young attentions to a man growing old; for it would spoil the unconsciousness of their kindWhen Dacres, especially, absent on all other occasions, comes to help me on with my great coat, I feel as if I had grown old-even to a second generation, in your family.

ness.

66

Now, in my own private affairs, I can tell you nothing greater than that the Lord Mayor has invited me to dine with him on the 17th of May. If that does not inspire you with respect for me, I know not what will. T. C."

The interval between this and the preceding date was marked by nothing that could relieve the anxiety under which his health was sinking; and besides, he writes :

“June 27th... My eldest sister is come to town in very bad health, and looking much more ghastly than your ordinary well-favoured ghost." Then turning to his own case, he adds A French proverb says, conspiracies are not put on paper. Heaven knows we are not conspirators but how many things have I to say to you, how many little things-but great things to little me-to consult you upon, that I cannot sit down to write. They would interest, at least, if they did not amuse you; but to detail them would be to write a rigmarolliad of petty cares and anxieties.

"In looking at the bright side of things, I am fain to think that I shall get two grand objects accomplished—

* These talented young favourites, Campbell, before he died, had the pleasure to see prospering in life. He felt the contrast. The passage quoted is very characteristic of the Poet-a forty years' friend of that family.

the settlement of my sister, and the furnishing of my house. Ay, you smile at the conjunction of ideas; but the latter object is no trifle. . . It will keep me in good humour-enable me to open my house to my friends, and to see society as I ought.* In the meantime I am going to Cheltenham with Matilda to visit Mrs. Sellar, and drink the water. Mr. S. being there, and having the civility to include me with my wife, will prove a very opportune incident for making trial of the Spa. If I can be spared for a whole month, young Roscoe is to be my locum-tenens; and, in case of emergency, I can be summoned to town.

T. C."

His visit to Cheltenham was short, but, in regard to health, very satisfactory. The improvement, however, could neither be ascribed to the water nor the walks, in which, at first setting out, he had promised himself great indulgence. He went very seldom out of doors, and made no trial of the Spa: yet the change of scene and respite from labour restored him to comparative health and spirits; and, in a confidential letter to Mr. Gray, he sends a ludicrous report of his "new furniture," with one or two striking observations respecting his last poem in the N. M. "SEYMOUR STREET WEST, Sept. 5.

Every article of the drawing-room is now purchased: the most amiable curtains-the sweetest of carpets the most accomplished chairs-and a highly

"I give you a sketch of the first dinner party which I mean to give :— Mrs. is to be sent for from Wales, and she will no doubt come to meet Lord L.; farther down, I mean to place Lady B., flanked by T. H.; Lady H. by Mr. C.; A. M. Porter and T. Courtenay; Mrs. Siddons and Mr. R. S. The entire party I have not determined upon but it will certainly contain Mrs. J. Baillie, Miss Benger, Horace T., Mr. Kean; and, if poor Mrs. Allsop be alive and forthcoming, I do not see why she should not join us-["a mirthful mixture of incongruities."]-T. C."