simple Fish genus is that the stage next above him is
_Gau_, the Bull, as the Symbol of _Earth_. It seems to me one sees this
as it were pictured in those Assyrian Sculptures; just some waving lines
and a fish to represent Water, etc. And it hooks on, I think, to Max
Muller's Theory in that Essay {323a} of his. Saturday, April 4. Why, we
are creeping toward another Post day! another 25th when the 'Via
Marseilles' Letters go off! And I now renew this great Sheet, because in
returning to old Hafiz two or three days ago, I happened on a line which
you will confer with a Tetrastich of Omar's. . . . Donne has got the
Licenser's Post; given him in the handsomest way by Lord Bredalbane to
whom the Queen as handsomely committed it. The said Donne has written an
Article on Calderon in Fraser, {323b} in which he says very handsome
things of me, but is not accurate in what he says. I suppose it was he
wrote an Article in the Saturday Review some months ago to the same
effect; but I have not asked him. I find people like that Calderon book.
By the bye again, what is the passage I am to write out for you from the
Volume you gave me, the old Bramford Volume, 'E. B. Cowell, Bramford,
Aug. 20, 1849?' Tell me, and I will write it in my best style: I have
the Volume here in my room, and was looking into it only last night; at
that end of the Magico which we read together at Elmsett! I don't know
if I could translate it now that the '_aestus'_ caught from your sympathy
is gone! . . . April 5. In looking into the 'Secreto Agravio' I see an
Oriental superstition, which was likely enough however to be a poetical
fancy of any nation: I mean, the Sun turning Stone to Ruby, etc. Enter
Don Luis: 'Soy mercador, y trato en los Diamantes, que hoy son Piedras, y
rayos fueron antes de Sol, que perficiona e ilumina rustico Grano en la
abrasada Mina.' The Partridge in the Mantic tells something of the same;
he digs up and swallows Rubies which turn his Blood to Fire inside him
and sparkle out of his Eyes and Bill. This volume of Calderon is marked
by the Days on which you finished several Plays, all at Bramford!
Wednesday, April 8. I have been reading the 'Magico' over and
remembering other days; I saw us sitting at other tables reading it. Also
I am looking over old AEschylus--Agamemnon--with Blackie's Translation. .
. . Is it in Hafiz we have met the Proverb (about _pregnant_ Night)
which Clytemnestra also makes her Entry with [264, 5