he _Nightingale_ and other
such masterpieces are jostled indiscriminately, with such
wretched juvenile trash as _Lines to some Ladies on
receiving a Shelly etc_), should of course be amended, and
the rubbish (of which there is a fair quantity), removed to
a "Juvenile" or other such section. It is a curious fact
that among a poet's early writings, some will really be
juvenile in this sense, while others, written at the same
time, will perhaps take rank at last with his best efforts.
This, however, was not substantially the case with Keats.

As to Leigh Hunt's friendship for Keats, I think the points
you mention look equivocal; but Hunt was a many-laboured and
much belaboured man, and as much allowance as may be made on
this score is perhaps due to him--no more than that much.
His own powers stand high in various ways--poetically higher
perhaps than is I at present admitted, despite his
detestable flutter and airiness for the most part. But
assuredly by no means could he have stood so high in the
long-run, as by a loud and earnest defence of Keats. Perhaps
the best excuse for him is the remaining possibility of an
idea on his part, that any defence coming from one who had
himself so many powerful enemies might seem to Keats
rather to! damage than improve his position.

I have this minute (at last) read the first instalment of
your Keats paper, and return it.... One of the most marked
points in the early recognition of Keats's claims, as
compared with the recognition given to other poets, is the
fact that he was the only one who secured almost at once a
_great_ poet as a close and obvious imitator--viz., Hood,
whose first volume is more identical with Keats's work than
could be said of any other similar parallel. You quote some
of Keats's sayings. One of the most characteristic I think
is in a letter to Haydon:--

"I value more the privilege of seeing great things in
loneliness, than the fame of a prophet." I had not in mind
the quotations you give from Keats as bearing on the poetic
(or prophetic) mission of "doing good." I must say that I
should not have thought a longer career thrown away upon him
(as you intimate) if he had continued to the age of anything
only to give joy. Nor would he ever have done any "good" at
a