, or Smith, or ----? Alas! I
get short-sighted on this point, and cannot penetrate the
impenetrable dark. Make my remembrances acceptable to Longfellow, to
Lowell, to Emerson, and to any one else who remembers me.

"Yours, ever sincerely,

"B.W. PROCTER."

And here are a few paragraphs from the last letter I ever received in
Procter's loving hand:--

"Although I date this from Weymouth Street, yet I am writing 140 or
150 miles away from London. Perhaps this temporary retreat from our
great, noisy, turbulent city reminds me that I have been very
unmindful of your letter, received long ago. But I have been busy,
and my writing now is not a simple matter, as it was fifty years
ago. I have great difficulty in forming the letters, and you would
be surprised to learn with what labor _this_ task is performed. Then
I have been incessantly occupied in writing (I refer to the
_mechanical_ part only) the 'Memoir of Charles Lamb.' It is not my
book,--i.e. not my property,--but one which I was hired to write,
and it forms my last earnings. You will have heard of the book
(perhaps seen it) some time since. It has been very well received. I
would not have engaged myself on anything else, but I had great
regard for Charles Lamb, and so (somehow or other) I have contrived
to reach the end.

"I _have_ already (long ago) written something about Hazlitt, but I
have received more than one application for it, in case I can manage
to complete my essay. As in the case of Lamb, I am really the only
person living who knew much about his daily life. I have not,
however, quite the same incentive to carry me on. Indeed, I am not
certain that I should be able to travel to the real Finis.

"My wife is very grateful for the copies of my dear Adelaide's poems
which you sent her. She appears surprised to hear that I have not
transmitted her thanks to you before.

"We get the 'Atlantic Monthly' regularly. I need not tell you how
much better the poetry is than at its commencement. Very good is
'Released,' in the July number, and several of the stories; but they
are in London, and I cannot particularize them.

"We were very much pleased with Colonel Holmes, the son of your
friend and contributor. He seems a very intelligent, modest young
man; as little military as need be, and, like Coriolanus, not baring