l
health, in the harbour of Valetta, about four o'clock, Friday afternoon,
April 18. Since then I have been waiting, day after day, for the
departure of Mr. Laing, tutor of the only child of Sir A. Ball, our
civil governor.'

* * * * *

My sister has to thank Lady Beaumont for a letter; but she is at present
unable to write, from a violent inflammation in her eyes, which I hope
is no more than the complaint going about: but as she has lately been
over-fatigued, and is in other respects unwell, I am not without fear
that the indisposition in her eyes may last some time. As soon as she is
able, she will do herself the pleasure of writing to Lady Beaumont. Mrs.
Wordsworth and Lady B.'s little god-daughter[22] are both doing very
well. Had the child been a boy, we should have persisted in our right to
avail ourselves of Lady Beaumont's goodness in offering to stand sponsor
for it. The name of _Dorothy_, obsolete as it is now grown, had been so
long devoted in my own thoughts to the first daughter that I might have,
that I could not break this promise to myself--a promise in which my
wife participated; though the name of _Mary_, to my ear the most musical
and truly English in sound we have, would have otherwise been most
welcome to me, including, as it would, Lady Beaumont and its mother.
This last sentence, though in a letter to you, Sir George, is intended
for Lady Beaumont.

[22] Dora Wordsworth, born Aug. 16. 1804.

* * * * *

When I ventured to express my regret at Sir Joshua Reynolds giving so
much of his time to portrait-painting and to his friends, I did not mean
to recommend absolute solitude and seclusion from the world as an
advantage to him or anybody else. I think it a great evil; and indeed,
in the case of a painter, frequent intercourse with the living world
seems absolutely necessary to keep the mind in health and vigour. I
spoke, in some respects, in compliment to Sir Joshua Reynolds, feeling
deeply, as I do, the power of his genius, and loving passionately the
labours of genius in every way in which I am capable of comprehending
them. Mr. Malone, in the account prefixed to the Discourses, tells us
that Sir Joshua generally passed the time from eleven till four every
day in portrait-painting. This it was that grieved me, as a sacrifice of
great things to little ones. It will give me great pleasure to hear from
you at your leisure. I am anxio