"goody-good;"--in fact, involved
still in the shadows of the surplice, and inculcating (on hearsay
mainly) a weak morality, which he would one day find not to be moral at
all, but in good part maudlin-hypocritical and immoral. As indeed was
to be said still of most of his performances, especially the poetical;
a sickly _shadow_ of the parish-church still hanging over them, which
he could by no means recognize for sickly. _Imprimatur_ nevertheless
was the concluding word,--with these grave abatements, and rhadamanthine
admonitions. To all which Sterling listened seriously and in the mildest
humor. His reading, it might have been added, had much hurt the effect
of the piece: a dreary pulpit or even conventicle manner; that flattest
moaning hoo-hoo of predetermined pathos, with a kind of rocking canter
introduced by way of intonation, each stanza the exact fellow Of the
other, and the dull swing of the rocking-horse duly in each;--no reading
could be more unfavorable to Sterling's poetry than his own. Such a mode
of reading, and indeed generally in a man of such vivacity the total
absence of all gifts for play-acting or artistic mimicry in any kind,
was a noticeable point.

After much consultation, it was settled at last that Sterling should go
to Madeira for the winter. One gray dull autumn afternoon, towards
the middle of October, I remember walking with him to the eastern Dock
region, to see his ship, and how the final preparations in his own
little cabin were proceeding there. A dingy little ship, the deck
crowded with packages, and bustling sailors within eight-and-forty hours
of lifting anchor; a dingy chill smoky day, as I have said withal, and
a chaotic element and outlook, enough to make a friend's heart sad. I
admired the cheerful careless humor and brisk activity of Sterling, who
took the matter all on the sunny side, as he was wont in such cases. We
came home together in manifold talk: he accepted with the due smile
my last contribution to his sea-equipment, a sixpenny box of German
lucifers purchased on the sudden in St. James's Street, fit to be
offered with laughter or with tears or with both; he was to leave for
Portsmouth almost immediately, and there go on board. Our next news
was of his safe arrival in the temperate Isle. Mrs. Sterling and the
children were left at Knightsbridge; to pass this winter with his Father
and Mother.

At Madeira Sterling did well: improved in health; was busy with much
L