tonish the mind, and stagger the belief, of those
who have adopted, as once I did myself, the misrepresentations which are
purchased for a hire and vended for a price, concerning your character
and works. You have only to shut your ear to what they ignorantly say of
you, and earnestly to meditate the deep thoughts with which you are
instinct, and give them a suitable body and form that they may live,
then silently commit them to the good sense of ages yet to come, in
order to be ranked hereafter amongst the most gifted sages and greatest
benefactors of your country. Enjoy and occupy the quiet which, after
many trials, the providence of God hath bestowed upon you, in the bosom
of your friends; and may you be spared until you have made known the
multitude of your thoughts, unto those who at present value, or shall
hereafter arise to value, their worth.

I have partaken so much high intellectual enjoyment from being admitted
into the close and familiar intercourse with which you have honoured me,
and your many conversations concerning the revelations of the Christian
faith have been so profitable to me in every sense, as a student and a
preacher of the Gospel, as a spiritual man and a Christian pastor, and
your high intelligence and great learning have at all times so kindly
stooped to my ignorance and inexperience, that not merely with the
affection of friend to friend, and the honour due from youth to
experienced age, but with the gratitude of a disciple to a wise and
generous teacher, of an anxious inquirer to the good man who hath helped
him in the way of truth, I do now presume to offer you the first-fruits
of my mind since it received a new impulse towards truth, and a new
insight into its depths, from listening to your discourse. Accept them
in good part, and be assured that however insignificant in themselves,
they are the offering of a heart which loves your heart, and of a mind
which looks up with reverence to your mind.

EDWARD IRVING.

"Old friend Thornton" was Leigh Hunt's son, Thornton Leigh Hunt, whom
Lamb had addressed in verse in 1815 as "my favourite child." He was now
fourteen.]

LETTER 358

CHARLES LAMB TO BERNARD BARTON AND LUCY BARTON

[P.M. December 1, 1824.]

Dear B.B.--If Mr. Mitford will send me a full and circumstantial
description of his desired vases, I will transmit the same to a
Gentleman resident at Canton, whom I think I have interest enough in to
take the proper care for their