on of all those immediate affections and disquietudes that have
their root in the actual realities of life, the art of the poet, from
the very circumstance of its being an art, as well as from the coloured
form in which it is accustomed to transmit impressions, cannot be
otherwise than a medium as false as it is feeble.

To so very low an ebb had the industry of his assailants now succeeded
in reducing his private character, that it required no small degree of
courage, even among that class who are supposed to be the most tolerant
of domestic irregularities, to invite him into their society. One
distinguished lady of fashion, however, ventured so far as, on the eve
of his departure from England, to make a party for him expressly; and
nothing short, perhaps, of that high station in society which a life as
blameless as it is brilliant has secured to her, could have placed
beyond all reach of misrepresentation, at that moment, such a compliment
to one marked with the world's censure so deeply. At this assembly of
Lady J * *'s he made his last appearance, publicly, in England; and the
amusing account given of some of the company in his Memoranda,--of the
various and characteristic ways in which the temperature of their manner
towards him was affected by the cloud under which he now appeared,--was
one of the passages of that Memoir it would have been most desirable,
perhaps, to have preserved; though, from being a gallery of sketches,
all personal and many satirical, but a small portion of it, if any,
could have been presented to the public till a time when the originals
had long left the scene, and any interest they might once have excited
was gone with themselves. Besides the noble hostess herself, whose
kindness to him, on this occasion, he never forgot, there was also one
other person (then Miss M * *, now Lady K * *,) whose frank and fearless
cordiality to him on that evening he most gratefully
commemorated,--adding, in acknowledgment of a still more generous
service, "She is a high-minded woman, and showed me more friendship than
I deserved from her. I heard also of her having defended me in a large
company, which _at that time_ required more courage and firmness than
most women possess."

* * * * *

As we are now approaching so near the close of his London life, I shall
here throw together the few remaining recollections of that period with
which the gleanings of his Memorandum-book, s