, if only because of the
use of words that would "have made Quintillian stare."

I further instanced--

"Harry whose tuneful and well-measured song;" and
"Lawrence, of virtuous father virtuous son,"

as examples of Milton at his weakest as a sonnet-writer. He replied:

I am sorry I must still differ somewhat from you about
Milton's sonnets. I think the one on _Tetrachordon_ a very
vigorous affair indeed. The one to Mr. H. Lawes I am half
disposed to give you, but not altogether--its close is
sweet. As to _Lawrence_, it is curious that my sister was
only the other day expressing to me a special relish for
this sonnet, and I do think it very fresh and wholesomely
relishing myself. It is an awful fact that sun, moon, or
candlelight once looked down on the human portent of Dr.
Johnson and Mrs. Hannah More convened in solemn conclave
above the outspread sonnets of Milton, with a meritorious
and considerate resolve of finding out for him "why they
were so bad." This is so stupendous a warning, that perhaps
it may even incline one to find some of them better than
they are.

Coming to Coleridge, I must confess at once that I never
meet in any collection with the sonnet on Schiller's
_Robbers_ without heading it at once with the words
"unconscionably bad." The habit has been a life-long one.
That you mention beginning--"Sweet mercy," etc., I have
looked for in the only Coleridge I have by me (my brother's
cheap edition, for all the faults of which _he_ is not at
all answerable), and do not find it there, nor have I it in
mind.

To pass to Keats. The ed. of 1868 contains no sonnet on the
Elgin Marbles. Is it in a later edition? Of course that on
Chapman's _Homer_ is supreme. It ought to be preceded {*} in
all editions by the one _To Homer_,

"Standing aloof in giant ignorance," etc.
which contains perhaps the greatest single line in Keats:

"There is a budding morrow in midnight."

* I pointed out that it was written later than the one on
Chapman's Homer (notwithstanding its first line) and
therefore should follow after it, not go before.

Other special favourites with me are--"Why did I laugh to-
night?"--" As Hermes once,"--"Time's sea hath been," and
the one _On the Flower and, Leaf_.

It is odd that sev