ighly beneficial when they feel,
instead of affecting to do so, the sanctity they profess.

When those in the possession of supreme power, and all the advantages
it is supposed to confer, turn from the enjoyment of them to seek
support from Heaven to meet the doom allotted to kings as well as
subjects, the example is most salutary; for the piety of the rich and
great is even more edifying than that of the poor and lowly, who are
supposed to seek consolation which the prosperous are imagined not to
require.

The Duchesse de Berri is very popular at Paris, and deservedly so. Her
natural gaiety harmonises With that of this lively people; and her love
of the fine arts, and the liberal patronage she extends to them,
gratify the Parisians.

I heard an anecdote of her to-day from an authority which leaves no
doubt of its truth. Having commanded a brilliant _fete_, a heavy fall
of snow drew from one of her courtiers a remark that the extreme cold
would impede the pleasure of the guests, who would suffer from it in
coming and departing, "True," replied the Duchesse; "but if they in
comfortable carriages, and enveloped in furs and cashmeres, can suffer
from the severity of the weather, what must the poor endure?" And she
instantly ordered a large sum of money to be forthwith distributed, to
supply fuel to the indigent, saying--"While I dance, I shall have the
pleasure of thinking the poor are not without the means of warmth."

Received a long and delightful letter from Walter Savage Landor. His is
one of the most original minds I have ever encountered, and is joined
to one of the finest natures. Living in the delightful solitude he has
chosen near Florence, his time is passed in reading, reflecting, and
writing; a life so blameless and so happy, that the philosophers of
old, with whose thoughts his mind is so richly imbued, might, if envy
could enter into such hearts, entertain it towards him.

Landor is a happy example of the effect of retirement on a great mind.
Free from the interruptions which, if they harass not, at least impede
the continuous flow of thought in those who live much in society, his
mind has developed itself boldly, and acquired a vigour at which,
perhaps, it might never have arrived, had he been compelled to live in
a crowded city, chafed by the contact with minds of an inferior
calibre.

_The Imaginary Conversations_ could never have been written amid the
vexatious interruptions incidental to one ming