ht to clear,
And round his head the playful halo throws
That plucks the terror from the front severe:
Such grace was thine, and such thy gracious part,
Thou wise old Scottish man of large and loving heart.

II.

The twentieth edition! I have looked
Long for my second--but it not appears;
Yet not the less I joy that thou hast brooked
Rich fruit of fair fame, and of mellow years,
Thou wise old man, within whose saintly veins
No drop of gall infects life's genial tide,
Whose many-chambered human heart contains
No room for hatred and no home for pride.
Happy who give with stretch of equal love
This hand to Heaven and that to lowly earth,
Wise there to worship with great souls above
As here to sport with children in their mirth;
Who own one God with kindly-reverent eyes
In flowers that prink the earth, and stars that gem the skies.

JOHN STUART BLACKIE.

CHARLES DICKENS to DEAN RAMSAY.

Gad's Hill Place, Higham, by Rochester, Kent,

Tuesday, 29th May 1866.

My dear Sir--I am but now in the receipt of your kind letter,
and its accompanying book. If I had returned home sooner, I
should sooner have thanked you for both.

I cannot adequately express to you the gratification I have
derived from your assurance that I have given you pleasure.
In describing yourself as a stranger of whom I know nothing,
you do me wrong however. The book I am now proud to possess
as a mark of your goodwill and remembrance has for some time
been too well known to me to admit of the possibility of my
regarding its writer in any other light than as a friend in
the spirit; while the writer of the introductory page marked
viii. in the edition of last year[12] had commanded my
highest respect as a public benefactor and a brave soul.

I thank you, my dear Sir, most cordially, and I shall always
prize the words you have inscribed in this delightful volume,
very, very highly.--Yours faithfully and obliged,

CHARLES DICKENS.

Dr. GUTHRIE to DEAN RAMSAY.

1 Salisbury Road,

30th October 1872.

My dear Mr. Dean--My honoured and beloved friend, I have
received many sweet, tender, and Christian letters touching
my late serious illness, but among them all none I value
more, or almost so much, as your own.

May the Lord bless you for the solace and happiness it gave