'Opening on Neptune with fair blessed beams,
Turns into yellow gold his salt sea streams;'

and superb when

'The Sun from meridian height
Illumines the depth of the sea,
And the fishes, beginning to sweat,
Cry d-

it! how hot we shall be;'

and gorgeous, when the fair planet hastens

To his home

Within the Western foam.'

But don't you think there is something extremely fine after sunset, when there are a few white clouds about, and a few stars blinking; when the waters are ebbing, and the horizon a mystery? This state of things has been so fulfilling to me that I am anxious to hear whether it is a favourite with you. So when you and club your letter to me put in a word or two about it. Tell Dilke that it would be perhaps as well if he left a pheasant or partridge alive here and there to keep up a supply of

game for next season; tell him to rein in, if possible, all the Nimrod of his disposition, he being a mighty hunter before the Lord of the manor. Tell him to shoot fair, and not to have at the poor devils in a furrow: when they are flying, he may fire, and nobody will be the wiser.

"Give my sincerest respects to Mrs. Dilke, saying that I have not forgiven myself for not having got her the little box of medicine I promised, and that, had I remained at Hampstean, I would have made precious havoc with her house and furniture-drawn a great harrow over her garden-poisoned Boxer-eaten her clothes-pegs— fried her cabbages-fricaseed (how is it spelt?) her radishes-ragouted her onions-belaboured her beatroot-outstripped her scarlet-runners-parlez-vous'd with her french-beans devoured her mignon or mignionette metamorphosed her bell-handles splintered her looking-glasses-bullocked at her cups and saucers-agonized her decanters-put old P to pickle in the brine-tub-disorganized her piano— dislocated her candlesticks-emptied her wine-bins in a fit of despair—turned out her maid to grass-and astonished B- -; whose letter to her on these events I would rather see than the original copy of the Book of Genesis.

"Poor Bailey, scarcely ever well, has gone to bed, pleased that I am writing to you. To your brother John (whom henceforth I shall consider as mine) and to you, my dear friends, I shall ever feel grateful for having made known to me so real a fellow as Bailey. He delights me in the selfish, and (please God) the disinterested part of my disposition. If the old

Poets have any pleasure in looking down at the enjoyers of their works, their eyes must bend with a double satisfaction upon him. I sit as at a feast when he is over them, and pray that if, after my death, any of my labours should be worth saving, they may have so 'honest a chronicler' as Bailey. Out of this, his enthusiasm in his own pursuit and for all good things is of an exalted kind-worthy a more healthful frame and an untorn spirit. He must have happy years to come-' he shall not die, by God.'

"A letter from John the other day was a chief happiness to me. I made a little mistake, when, just now, I talked of being far inland. How can that be when Endymion and I are at the bottom of the sea? whence I hope to bring him in safety before you leave the sea-side; and, if I can so contrive it, you shall be greeted by him upon the sea-sands, and he shall tell you all his adventures, which having finished, he shall thus proceed-'My dear Ladies, favourites of my gentle mistress, however my friend Keats may have teased and vexed you, believe me he loves you not the less-for instance, I am deep in his favour, and yet he has been hauling me through the earth and sea with unrelenting perseverance. I know for all this that he is mighty fond of me, by his contriving me all sorts of pleasures. Nor is this

He

the least, fair ladies, this one of meeting you on the desert shore, and greeting you in his name. sends you moreover this little scroll.' My dear girls, I send you, per favour of Endymion, the assurance of my esteem for you, and my utmost wishes for your health and pleasure, being ever,

"Your affectionate brother,

"JOHN KEATS."

This is of about the same date :

:

MY DEAR REYNOLDS,

OXFORD, Sunday Morning.

So you are determined to be my mortal foe-draw a sword at me, and I will forgive-put a bullet in my brain, and I will shake it out as a dewdrop from the lion's mane-put me on a gridiron and I will fry with great complacency-but-oh, horror! to come upon me in the shape of a dun!-send me bills! As I say to my tailor, send me bills and I'll never employ you more. However, needs must, when the devil drives and for fear of "before and behind Mr. Honeycomb," I'll proceed. I have not time to elucidate the forms and shapes of the grass and trees; for, rot it! I forgot to bring my mathematical case with me, which unfortunately contained my

triangular prisms; so that the hues of the grass cannot be dissected for you.

For these last five or six days we have had regularly a boat on the Isis, and explored all the streams about, which are more in number than your eye-lashes. We sometimes skim into a bed of rushes, and there become naturalised river-folks. There is one particularly nice nest, which we have christened "Reynolds' Cove," in which we have read Wordsworth, and talked as may

be.

** * Failings I am always rather rejoiced to find in a man than sorry for; they bring us to a has them, but then his makes-up are

level.
very good.

agrees with the Northern Poet in this, "He is not one of those who much delight to season their fire-side with personal talk." I must confess, however, having a little itch that way, and at this present moment I have a few neighbourly remarks to make. The world, and especially our England, has, within the last thirty years, been vexed and teased by a set of devils, whom I detest so much that I almost hunger after an Acherontic promotion to a Torturer, purposely for their accommodation. These devils are a set of women, who having taken a snack or luncheon of literary scraps, set themselves up for towers of Babel in languages, Sapphos in poetry, Euclids in geometry, and every