in that he was
cheerfully assiduous according to his light. The unfortunate _Strafford_
is far on towards completion; a _Coeur-de-Lion_, of which we shall hear
farther, "_Coeur-de-Lion_, greatly the best of all his Poems," unluckily
not completed, and still unpublished, already hangs in the wind.

His Letters to friends continue copious; and he has, as always, a
loyally interested eye on whatsoever of notable is passing in the world.
Especially on whatsoever indicates to him the spiritual condition of the
world. Of "Strauss," in English or in German, we now hear nothing more;
of Church matters, and that only to special correspondents, less and
less. Strauss, whom he used to mention, had interested him only as a
sign of the times; in which sense alone do we find, for a year or two
back, any notice of the Church, or its affairs by Sterling; and at last
even this as good as ceases: "Adieu, O Church; thy road is that way,
mine is this: in God's name, adieu!" "What we are going _to_," says he
once, "is abundantly obscure; but what all men are going _from_, is very
plain."--Sifted out of many pages, not of sufficient interest, here are
one or two miscellaneous sentences, about the date we are now arrived
at:--

_To Dr. Symonds_.

"_Falmouth, 3d November_, 1841.--Yesterday was my Wedding-day: eleven
years of marriage; and on the whole my verdict is clear for matrimony.
I solemnized the day by reading _John Gilpin_ to the children, who
with their Mother are all pretty well.... There is a trick of sham
Elizabethan writing now prevalent, that looks plausible, but in most
cases means nothing at all. Darley has real (lyrical) genius; Taylor,
wonderful sense, clearness and weight of purpose; Tennyson, a rich and
exquisite fancy. All the other men of our tiny generation that I know
of are, in Poetry, either feeble or fraudulent. I know nothing of the
Reviewer you ask about."

_To his Mother_

"_December 11th_.--I have seen no new books; but am reading your last.
I got hold of the two first Numbers of the _Hoggarty Diamond_; and
read them with extreme delight. What is there better in Fielding or
Goldsmith? The man is a true genius; and, with quiet and comfort, might
produce masterpieces that would last as long as any we have, and delight
millions of unborn readers. There is more truth and nature in one of
these papers than in all ----'s Novels together."--Thackeray, always
a