nexplicable. Your domestic calamity is very grievous,
and I feel with you as much as I _dare_ feel at all. Throughout
life, your loss must be my loss, and your gain my gain; and, though
my heart may ebb, there will always be a drop for you among the
dregs.

"I know how to feel with you, because (selfishness being always the
substratum of our damnable clay) I am quite wrapt up in my own
children. Besides my little legitimate, I have made unto myself an
_il_legitimate since (to say nothing of one before[13]), and I look
forward to one of these as the pillar of my old age, supposing that
I ever reach--which I hope I never shall--that desolating period. I
have a great love for my little Ada, though perhaps she may torture
me, like * * *.

"Your offered address will be as acceptable as you can wish. I
don't much care what the wretches of the world think of me--all
_that's_ past. But I care a good deal what _you_ think of me, and,
so, say what you like. You _know_ that I am not sullen; and, as to
being _savage_, such things depend on circumstances. However, as to
being in good humour in _your_ society, there is no great merit in
that, because it would be an effort, or an insanity, to be
otherwise.

"I don't know what Murray may have been saying or quoting.[14] I
called Crabbe and Sam the fathers of present Poesy; and said, that
I thought--except them--_all_ of '_us youth_' were on a wrong tack.
But I never said that we did not sail well. Our fame will be hurt
by _admiration_ and _imitation_. When I say _our_, I mean _all_
(Lakers included), except the postscript of the Augustans. The next
generation (from the quantity and facility of imitation) will
tumble and break their necks off our Pegasus, who runs away with
us; but we keep the _saddle_, because we broke the rascal and can
ride. But though easy to mount, he is the devil to guide; and the
next fellows must go back to the riding-school and the manege, and
learn to ride the 'great horse.'

"Talking of horses, by the way, I have transported my own, four in
number, to the Lido (_beach_ in English), a strip of some ten miles
along the Adriatic, a mile or two from the city; so that I not only
get a row in my gondola, but a spanking gallop of some miles daily
along a firm and solitary beach, f