hat every succeeding poem is better than
the last. Is he a widower, or a bachelor, or a married man? At all
events, he is a true poet, and I like him all the better for being a
physician,--the one truly noble profession. There are noble men in
all professions, but in medicine only are the great mass, almost the
whole, generous, liberal, self-denying, living to advance science
and to help mankind. If I had been a man I should certainly have
followed that profession. I rejoice to hear of another Romance by
the author of "The Scarlet Letter." That is a real work of genius.
Have you seen "Alton Locke"? No novel has made so much noise for a
long time; but it is, like "The Saint's Tragedy," inconclusive.
Between ourselves, I suspect that the latter part was written with
the fear of the Bishop before his eyes (the author, Mr. Kingsley, is
a clergyman of the Church of England), which makes the one volume
almost a contradiction of the others. Mrs. Browning is still at
Florence, where she sees scarcely any English, a few Italians, and
many Americans.

Ever most gratefully yours.

M.R.M.

(No date.)

Dear Mr. Fields: I sent you a packet last week, but I have just
received your two charming books, and I cannot suffer a post to
pass without thanking you for them. Mr. Whittier's volume is quite
what might have been expected from the greatest of Quaker writers,
the worthy compeer of Longfellow, and will give me other extracts to
go with "From Massachusetts to Virginia" and "Cassandra Southwick"
in my own book, where one of my pleasures will be trying to do
justice to American poetry, and Dr. Holmes's fine "Astraea." We have
nothing like that nowadays in England. Nobody writes now in the
glorious resonant metre of Dryden, and very few ever did write as
Dr. Holmes does. I see there is another volume of his poetry, but
the name was new to me. How much I owe to you, my dear Mr. Fields!
That great romance, "The Scarlet Letter," and these fine poets,--for
true poetry, not at all imitative, is rare in England, common as
elegant imitative verse may be,--and that charming edition of Robert
Browning. Shall you republish his wife's new edition? I cannot tell
you how much I thank you. I read an extract from the Times,
containing a report of Lord Carlisle's lecture on America, chiefly
because