did any one else. The
sultanas have a small poniard at the waist. The dialogue is drowsy--the
action heavy--the scenery fine--the actors tolerable. I can't say much
for their seraglio--Teresa, Phannio, or * * * *, were worth them all.

"Sunday, a very handsome note from Mackintosh, who is a rare instance of
the union of very transcendent talent and great good nature. To-day
(Tuesday) a very pretty billet from M. la Baronne de Stael Holstein. She
is pleased to be much pleased with my mention of her and her last work
in my notes. I spoke as I thought. Her works are my delight, and so is
she herself, for--half an hour. I don't like her politics--at least, her
_having changed_ them; had she been _qualis ab incepto_, it were
nothing. But she is a woman by herself, and has done more than all the
rest of them together, intellectually;--she ought to have been a man.
She _flatters_ me very prettily in her note;--but I _know_ it. The
reason that adulation is not displeasing is, that, though untrue, it
shows one to be of consequence enough, in one way or other, to induce
people to lie, to make us their friend:--that is their concern.

"* * is, I hear, thriving on the repute of a pun which was mine (at
Mackintosh's dinner some time back), on Ward, who was asking 'how much
it would take to _re-whig_ him?' I answered that, probably, 'he must
first, before he was _re-whigged_, be re-_warded_.' This foolish
quibble, before the Stael and Mackintosh, and a number of
conversationers, has been mouthed about, and at last settled on the head
of * *, where long may it remain!

"George[97] is returned from afloat to get a new ship. He looks thin,
but better than I expected. I like George much more than most people
like their heirs. He is a fine fellow, and every inch a sailor. I would
do any thing, _but apostatise_, to get him on in his profession.

"Lewis called. It is a good and good-humoured man, but pestilently
prolix and paradoxical and _personal_. If he would but talk half, and
reduce his visits to an hour, he would add to his popularity. As an
author he is very good, and his vanity is _ouverte_, like Erskine's, and
yet not offending.

"Yesterday, a very pretty letter from Annabella[98], which I answered.
What an odd situation and friendship is ours!--without one spark of love
on either side, and produced by circumstances which in general lead to
coldness on one side, and aversion on the other. She is a very superior
woman, and very