. The soul's right of wonder is
still left to us; and we have righteous praise and doom awarded,
assuredly without cant. Yes, comfort yourself on that
particular, O ungodliest divine man! thou cantest never. Finally
we have not--a dull word. Never was there a style so rapid as
yours,--which no reader can outrun; and so it is for the most
intelligent. I suppose nothing will astonish more than the
audacious wit and cheerfulness which no tragedy and no magnitude
of events can overpower or daunt. Henry VIII loved a Man, and I
see with joy my bard always equal to the crisis he represents.
And so I thank you for your labor, and feel that your
contemporaries ought to say, All hail, Brother! live forever:
not only in the great Soul which thou largely inhalest, but also
as a named, person in this thy definite deed.

I will tell you more of the book when I have once got it at focal
distance,--if that can ever be, and muster my objections when I
am sure of their ground. I insist, of course, that it might be
more simple, less Gothically efflorescent. You will say no rules
for the illumination of windows can apply to the Aurora borealis.
However, I find refreshment when every now and then a special
fact slips into the narrative couched in sharp and businesslike
terms. This character-drawing in the book is certainly
admirable; the lines are ploughed furrows; but there was cake
and ale before, though thou be virtuous. Clarendon surely drew
sharp outlines for me in Falkland, Hampden, and the rest, without
defiance or sky-vaulting. I wish I could talk with you face to
face for one day, and know what your uttermost frankness would
say concerning the book. I feel assured of its good reception in
this country. I learned last Saturday that in all eleven hundred
and sixty-six copies of _Sartor_ have been sold. I have told the
publisher of that book that he must not print the _History_ until
some space has been given to people to import British copies. I
have ordered Hilliard, Gray, & Co. to import twenty copies as an
experiment. At the present very high rate of exchange, which
makes a shilling worth thirty cents, they think, with freight and
duties, the book would be too costly here for sale, but we
confide in a speedy fall of Exchange; then my books shall come.
I am ashamed that you should educate our young men, and that we
should pirate your books. One day we will have a better law, or
perhaps you will make our law