tistically, I may have failed in these poems--that is for the critic
to consider; but in the choice of their argument I have not failed
artistically, _I think_, or my whole artistic life and understanding of
life have failed.

There, I cannot persuade you of this, but I believe it. I have tried to
stand on the facts of things before I began to feel 'dithyrambically.'
Thought out coldly, then felt upon warmly. I will not admit of 'being
heated out of fairness!' I deny it, and stand upon my innocency.

And after all, 'Casa Guidi Windows' was a book that commended itself to
you, Mr. Chorley.

[_The rest of this letter is missing_]

* * * * *

_To John Forster_

28 Via del Tritone, Rome: Monday [May 1860].

I have tried and taken pains to see the truth, and have spoken it as I
have seemed to see it. If the issue of events shall prove me wrong about
the E. Napoleon, the worse for _him_, I am bold to say, rather than for
me, who have honored him only because I believed his intentions worthy
of the honor of honest souls.

If he lives long enough, he will explain himself to all. So far, I
cannot help persisting in certain of my views, because they have been
held long enough to be justified by the past on many points. The
intervention in Italy, while it overwhelmed with joy, did not dazzle me
into doubts of the motive of it, but satisfied a patient expectation and
fulfilled a logical inference. Thus it did not present itself to my mind
as a caprice of power, to be followed perhaps by an onslaught on
Belgium, and an invasion of England. These things were out of the beat;
and _are_. There may follow Hungarian, Polish, or other questions--but
there won't follow an English question unless the English _make_ it,
which, I grieve to think, looks every day less impossible.

Dear Mr. F., have you read 'La Foi des Traites,' written, some of it, by
L.N.'s own hand? Do you consider About's 'Carte de l'Europe' (as the
'Times' does) 'a dull _jeu d'esprit_'? The wit isn't dull, and the
serious intention, hid in those mummy wrappings, is not inauthentic.
Official--certainly not; but Napoleonic--yes. I believe so. And I seem
to myself to have strong reasons.

But you are sorry that Cavour loves popularity in England. I cried
rather bitterly, 'Better so!' A complete injustice comes to nearly the
same thing as a complete justice. Have we not watched for a year while
every saddle of iniquity has been tri