s.'

_To Mrs. Cowell_.

LONDON. Friday [_April_ 25, 1856].

MY DEAR LADY,

The Picture after all did not go down yesterday as I meant, but shall and
will go to-morrow (Saturday). Also I shall send you dear Major Moor's
'Oriental Fragments'; an almost worthless Book, I doubt, to those who did
not know him--which means, _love_ him! {307} And somehow all of us in
our corner of Suffolk knew something of him: and so again loved something
of him. For there was nothing at all about him not to be beloved. Ah! I
think how interested he would have been with all this Persian: and how we
should have disputed over parts and expressions over a glass of his
Shiraz wine (for he had some) in his snug Parlour, or in his Cornfields
when the Sun fell upon the latest Gleaners! He is dead, and you will go
where he lived, to be dead to me!

Remember to take poor Barton's little Book {308a} with you to India;
better than many a better Book to you there!

I got a glimpse of Professor Muller's Essay {308b}--full of fine things;
but I hardly gather it up into a good whole, which is very likely my
fault; from hasty perusal, ignorance, or other Incapacity. Perhaps, on
the other hand, he found the Subject too great for his Space; and so has
left it disproportioned, which the German is not inapt to do. But one
may be well thankful for such admirable fragments, perhaps left so in the
very honesty that is above rounding them into a specious Theory which
will not hold.

[1856.]

MY DEAR LADY,

. . . If you see Trench's new Book about Calderon {308c} you will see he
has dealt very handsomely with me. He does not approve the Principle I
went on; and what has he made of his own! I say this with every reason,
as you will see, to praise him for his good word. He seems to me wrong
about his 'asonantes,' which were much better _un_-assonanted as Cowell
did his Specimens. {309} With Trench the Language has to be forced to
secure the shadow of a Rhyme which is no pleasure to the Ear. So it
seems to me on a hasty Look.

* * * * *

Mr. Cowell was appointed Professor of History at the Presidency College,
Calcutta, in 1856, and went out to India by the Cape in August, greatly
to FitzGerald's regret. 'Your talk of going to India,' he wrote, 'makes
my Heart hang really heavy at my side.'

_To E. B. Cowell_.

31 GT PORTLAND ST. LONDON.
_Jan._ 22/57.

MY DEAREST COWELL,

As usual I blunder. I have been taking for granted all this wh