are beautiful. I need not say with
what feelings they were read. Pray accept the grateful
acknowledgments of us all, and believe me when I say that nothing
could have been a greater cordial to us in our affliction than such
a testimony from such a quarter. He was --for none knew him so
well--we were born within a year or two of each other--a man of a
very high mind, and with less disguise than perhaps any that ever
lived. Whatever he was, _that_ we saw. He stood before his fellow
beings (if I may be forgiven for saying so) almost as before his
Maker: and God grant that we may all bear as severe an examination.
He was an admirable scholar. His Dante and his Homer were as
familiar to him as his Alphabets: and he had the tenderest heart.
When a flock of turkies was stolen from his farm, the indignation of
the poor far and wide was great and loud. To me he is the greatest
loss, for we were nearly of an age; and there is now no human being
alive in whose eyes I have always been young.

Under the date June 10, 1829, Mr. Macdonald prints a note from Lamb to
Ayrton, which states that he has two young friends in the house. Here,
therefore, I think, should come a letter from Lamb to William Hazlitt,
Junior, in which Lamb says that he cannot see Mrs. Hazlitt this time. He
adds that the ladies are very pleasant. Emma Isola adds a letter which
tells us that the ladies are herself and her friend Maria. This would be
the Maria of Lamb's sonnet "Harmony in Unlikeness," evidently written at
this time (see Vol. IV.).]

LETTER 489

CHARLES LAMB TO BERNARD BARTON

Enfield Chase Side

Saturday 25 July A.D. 1829.--11 A.M.

There--a fuller plumper juiceier date never dropt from Idumean palm. Am
I in the dateive case now? if not, a fig for dates, which is more than a
date is worth. I never stood much affected to these limitary
specialities. Least of all since the date of my superannuation.

What have I with Time to do? } Dear B.B.--Your hand writing has
Slaves of desks, twas meant for you.} conveyed much pleasure to me

in report of Lucy's restoration. Would I could send you as good news of
my poor Lucy. But some wearisome weeks I must remain lonely yet. I have
had the loneliest time near 10 weeks, broken by a short apparition of
Emma for her holydays, whose departure only deepend the returning
solitude, and by 10 days I have past in Town. But Town, with all m