to your MS. of the Dream of Fair Women? It
is very splendid.

1.

As when a man that sails in a balloon
Down looking sees the solid shining ground
Stream from beneath him in the broad blue noon,--
Tilth, hamlet, mead and mound:

2.

And takes his flags, and waves them to the mob
That shout below, all faces turn'd to where
Glows rubylike the far-up crimson globe
Filled with a finer air:

3.

So, lifted high, the Poet at his will
Lets the great world flit from him, seeing all,
Higher through secret splendours mounting still
Self-poised, nor fears to fall,

4. Hearing apart the echoes of his fame--

This is in his best style: no fretful epithet, nor a word too much.

[CASTLE IRWELL]
MANCHESTER, _February_ 24, 1833.

DEAR ALLEN,

. . . I am fearful to boast, lest I should lose what I boast of: but I
think I have achieved a victory over my evil spirits here: for they have
full opportunity to come, and I often observe their approaches, but
hitherto I have managed to keep them off. Lord Bacon's Essay on
Friendship is wonderful for its truth: and I often feel its truth. He
says that with a Friend 'a man _tosseth_ his thoughts,' an admirable
saying, which one can understand, but not express otherwise. But I feel
that, being alone, one's thoughts and feelings, from want of
communication, become heaped up and clotted together, as it were: and so
lie like undigested food heavy upon the mind: but with a friend one
_tosseth_ them about, so that the air gets between them, and keeps them
fresh and sweet. I know not from what metaphor Bacon took his 'tosseth,'
but it seems to me as if it was from the way haymakers toss hay, so that
it does not press into a heavy lump, but is tossed about in the air, and
separated, and thus kept sweet. . . .

Your most affectionate friend,

E. FITZGERALD.

_To W. B. Donne_. {22}

GELDESTONE, _Sept_. 27, [1833].

DEAR DONNE,

. . . As to my history since I have seen you, there is little to tell.
Divinity is not outraged by your not addressing me as a Reverend--I not
being one. I am a very lazy fellow, who do nothing: and this I have been
doing in different places ever since I saw you last. I have not been
well for the last week: for I am at present rather liable to be overset
by any weariness (and where can any be found that can match the effect of
two Oratorios?), since for the last three months I have lived on
vegetabl