ishes sometimes that you always
wrote in English. 'The Spy' I shall go through more at
leisure.

"I like your praise both of myself and my poem, because
it comes from a good quarter. You saw me where and how
a man is best seen--at home, and in his every-day wear
and tear, mind and manners: I have no holiday suit, and
never seek to shine: such as it is, my light is always
burning. Somewhat of my character you may find in
Chaucer's Clerk of Oxenford; and the concluding line of
that description might be written, as the fittest
motto, under my portrait--'Gladly would he learn, and
gladly teach.' I have sinned enough to make me humble
in myself, and indulgent toward others. I have suffered
enough to find in religion not merely consolation, but
hope and joy; and I have seen enough to be contented
in, and thankful for, the state of life in which it has
pleased God to place me.

"We hoped to have seen you on your way back from
Ellery. I believe you did not get the ballad of the
'Devil and the Bishop,' which Hartley transcribed for
you. I am reprinting my miscellaneous poems, collected
into three volumes. Your projected publication[32] will
have the start of it greatly, for the first volume is
not nearly through the press, and there is a corrected
copy of the ballad, with its introduction, in
Ballantyne's hands, which you can make use of before it
will be wanted in its place.

"You ask me why I am not intimate with Wilson. There is
a sufficient reason in the distance between our
respective abodes. I seldom go even to Wordworth's or
Lloyd's; and Ellery is far enough from either of their
houses, to make a visit the main business of a day. So
it happens that except dining in his company once at
Lloyd's many years ago, and breakfasting with him here
not long afterwards, I have barely exchanged
salutations once or twice when we met upon the road.
Perhaps, however, I might have sought him had it not
been for his passion for cock-fighting. But this is a
thing which I regard with abhorrence.

"Would that 'Roderick' were in your hands for
reviewing; I should desire no fairer nor more competent
critic. But it is of little consequence what friends or
enemies may do for it now; it will find its due place
in time,