ut our Abbe only
tried at gravity; he sympathises secretly with the insorgimento d'
Italia, and besides is very fond of Pen. Poor Pen, 'innocent of the
knowledge, dearest chuck,' how his mama has been wickedly cursing her
native country (after Chorley)! It's hard upon me, Fanny, that you
won't tell me of the spirits, you who can see. Here is even Robert,
whose heart softens to the point of letting me have the 'Spiritual
Magazine' from England. Do knock at Mrs. Milner Gibson's doors till you
get to see the 'hands' and the 'heads' and the 'bodies' and the
'celestial garlands' which she has the privilege of being familiar with.
_Touch_ the hands. Has Mr. Monckton Milnes seen anything so as to
believe? Is it true that Lord Lyndhurst was lifted up in a chair? Does
he believe? I hear through Mr. Trollope and Chapman that Edwin Landseer
has received the faith, and did everything possible to persuade Dickens
to investigate, which Dickens refused. Afraid of the truth, of course,
having deeply committed himself to negatives. This is a moral _lachete_,
hard for my feminine mind to conceive of. Dickens, too, who is so fond
of ghost-stories, as long as they are impossible....

I can scarcely imagine the summer's passing without a struggle on the
Continent of Italy. It can't be, I think. At least we are prepared for
it here.

We find Wilson well. Mr. Landor also. He had thrown a dinner out of the
window only once, and a few things of the kind, but he lives in a
chronic state of ingratitude to the whole world except Robert, who waits
for his turn. I am glad to think that poor Mr. Landor is well;
unsympathetical to me as he is in his _morale_. He has the most
beautiful sea-foam of a beard you ever saw, all in a curl and white
bubblement of beauty. He informed us the other morning that he had
'quite given up thinking of a future state--he had _had_ thoughts of it
once, but that was very early in life.' Mr. Kirkup (who is deafer than a
post now) tries in vain to convert him to the spiritual doctrine. Landor
laughs so loud in reply that Kirkup hears him.

Pray keep Mr. ---- off till we have settled the independence and unity
of Italy. It isn't the hour for peace, and we don't want a second
Villafranca. By the way, I dare say nobody in England lays his face in
the dust and acknowledges, in consequence of the official declaration
of the Prussian Minister (to the effect that Prussia was to attack on
the crossing of the Mincio, and that no