uld sell if there be any taste for French literature. It
is so curious, so various, so healthy, so catholic in its biography
and criticism; but it must be well done by some one who writes good
English prose and knows well the literary history of France. Don't
trust women; they, especially the authoresses, are as ignorant as
dirt. Just as I had got to this point, Mr. Willmot came to spend the
evening, and very singularly consulted me about undertaking a series
of English Portraits Litteraires, like Sainte-Beuve's former works.
He will do it well, and I commended him to the charming "Causeries,"
and advised him to make that a weekly article, as no doubt he could.
It would only tell the better for the wide diffusion. He does, you
know, the best criticism of The Times. I have most charming letters
from Dr. Parsons and dear Mr. Whittier. His cordiality is
delightful. God bless you.

Ever yours, M.R.M.

(No date.)

Never, my dear friend, did I expect to like so well a man who came
in your place, as I do like Mr. Ticknor. He is an admirable person,
very like his cousin in mind and manners, unmistakably good. It is
delightful to hear him talk of you, and to feel that the sort of
elder brotherhood which a senior partner must exercise in a firm is
in such hands. He was very kind to little Harry, and Harry likes him
_next_ to you. You know he had been stanch in resisting all the
advances of dear Mr ----, who had asked him if he would not come to
him, to which he had responded by a sturdy "no!" He (Mr. Ticknor)
came here on Saturday with the dear Bennochs (N.B. I love him better
than ever), and the Kingsleys met him. Mr. Hawthorne was to have
come, but could not leave Liverpool so soon, so that is a pleasure
to come. He will tell you that all is arranged for printing with
Colburn's successors, Hurst and Blackett, two separate works, the
plays and dramatic scenes forming one, the stories to be headed by a
long tale, of which I have always had the idea in my head, to form
almost a novel. God grant me strength to do myself and my publishers
justice in that story! This whole affair springs from the fancy
which Mr. Bennoch has taken to have the plays printed in a collected
form during my lifetime, for I had always felt that they would be so
printed after my death, so that their coming out now