e floats before, the spectre stalks behind.'

My own thoughts about myself. Mr. Sterling, whom I met at dinner
the other day (son of Sterling, of the 'Times'[14]), said that
Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats were all greater poets
than Dryden, that they had all finer imaginations. He compared
'The Vision of Kubla Khan' to 'Lycidas' for harmony of
versification!!

[14] [This was Mr. John Sterling, whose life has been
written by Thomas Carlyle, and again by Julius Hare,
though it was a short and uneventful one. Few men left
a deeper mark upon his own contemporaries, not less by
the grace and purity of his character than by the
vigour of his intellect. It is hard to think that of so
bright a promise of life and thought so little remains
after him. Sterling was sometimes paradoxical, and he
worshipped Coleridge, which may account for the
incident related in the text.]

July 3rd, 1838 {p.109}

I was at the ball at Court last night to which hundreds would
have given hundreds to go, and from which I would have gladly
stayed away: all was very brilliant and very tiresome.

July 4th, 1838 {p.109}

A great exposure of Durham in the House of Lords on Monday
night,[15] Brougham chuckling over it yesterday morning. The
impression left by Melbourne's speech was, that Durham had
actually assured him he had no intention of appointing Turton,
and it was either so, or Melbourne had desired him not to do so,
and he went off without sending any answer. The former discussion
about Turton took place while Durham was at Portsmouth.
Everything blows over, so probably this will, but it is
calculated to produce a very bad effect both here and in Canada,
and to deprive Durham of all the weight which would attach to him
from the notion of his being trusted and trustworthy; besides,
the bitter mortification to his pride (by receiving this rap on
the knuckles at the outset of his career) will sour his temper
and impair his judgement. Brougham says that if he finds his
difficulties great and his position disagreeable, he will avail
himself of Melbourne's speech and resign. It is universally
thought that he must send Turton home whatever he may do himself.

[15] [Lord Durham took with him to Canada, on his staff,
besides Mr. Charles Buller (an unexceptionable
appointment), Mr. Turton, of the Calcutta Bar, and M