culapian oracles, it would appear,
gave altogether cheerful prophecy; the highest medical authority
"expresses the most decided opinion that I have gradually mended for
some years; and in truth I have not, for six or seven, been so free
from serious symptoms of illness as at present." So uncertain are all
oracles, AEsculapian and other!

During this visit, he made one new acquaintance which he much
valued; drawn thither, as I guess, by the wish to take counsel about
_Strafford_. He writes to his Clifton friend, under date, 1st July 1842:
"Lockhart, of the _Quarterly Review_, I made my first oral acquaintance
with; and found him as neat, clear and cutting a brain as you would
expect; but with an amount of knowledge, good nature and liberal
anti-bigotry, that would much surprise many. The tone of his children
towards him seemed to me decisive of his real kindness. He quite
agreed with me as to the threatening seriousness of our present social
perplexities, and the necessity and difficulty of doing something
effectual for so satisfying the manual multitude as not to overthrow all
legal security....

"Of other persons whom I saw in London," continues he, "there are
several that would much interest you,--though I missed Tennyson, by
a mere chance.... John Mill has completely finished, and sent to the
bookseller, his great work on Logic; the labor of many years of a
singularly subtle, patient and comprehensive mind. It will be our chief
speculative monument of this age. Mill and I could not meet above two
or three times; but it was with the openness and freshness of school-boy
friends, though our friendship only dates from the manhood of both."

He himself was busier than ever; occupied continually with all manner of
Poetic interests. _Coeur-de-Lion_, a new and more elaborate attempt in
the mock-heroic or comico-didactic vein, had been on hand for some time,
the scope of it greatly deepening and expanding itself since it first
took hold of him; and now, soon after the Naples journey, it rose into
shape on the wider plan; shaken up probably by this new excitement, and
indebted to Calabria, Palermo and the Mediterranean scenes for much of
the vesture it had. With this, which opened higher hopes for him than
any of his previous efforts, he was now employing all his time and
strength;--and continued to do so, this being the last effort granted
him among us.

Already, for some months, _Strafford_ lay complete: but how to get i