'Wide was his range, but ne'er in human breast
Did private feeling find a holier nest.'

'Holier nest' were the words she objected to, as not being a correct
union of ideas. He took the suggestion most kindly, and said it had been
much discussed in his own mind and in his family circle, but that he saw
the force of what she said, and that he was aware many others would see
it also. He said there was yet time to change it, and that he should
consult Judge Coleridge whether the line, as he once had it,

'Did private feeling meet in holier rest,'

would not be more appropriate to the simplicity of an epitaph where you
con every word, and where every word is expected to bear an exact
meaning. We all thought this was an improvement. During tea he talked
with great animation of the separation of feeling between the rich and
poor in this country; the reason of this he thinks is the greater
freedom we enjoy; that the line of demarcation not being so clearly laid
down in this country by the law as in others, people fancy they must
make it for themselves. He considers Christianity the only cure for this
state of things. He spoke of his own desire to carry out the feeling of
brotherhood with regard to servants, which he all along endeavoured to
do. He doubted whether he might not have had better servants on a
different system; but he thought it right to endeavour to inspire your
domestics with a feeling of common interest. My mother said she entirely
agreed with him, but she had always found it most difficult.

(III.) LADY RICHARDSON (CONTINUED).

_November_ 1843.--Wordsworth holds the critical power very low,
infinitely lower than the inventive; and he said to-day that if the
quantity of time considered in writing critiques on the works of others
were given to original composition, of whatever kind it might be, it
would be much better employed; it would make a man find out sooner his
own level, and it would do infinitely less mischief. A false or
malicious criticism may do much injury to the minds of others; a stupid
invention, either in prose or verse, is quite harmless.

_December_ 22_d_, 1843.--The shortest day is past, and it was a very
pleasant one to us, for Wordsworth and Miss Fenwick offered to spend it
with us. They came early, and, although it was misty and dingy, he
proposed to walk up Easedale. We went by the terrace, and through the
little gate on the Fell, round by Brimmer Head, having diverged a lit