in life, learned les manières and les tournures, and how gay a thing it was to despise her husband, who was completely even with her, "In youth she conquered with so wild a rage No thought of peace or happiness at home." Her fortune, however, as an independent heiress, she held fast; and her wit and pleasantry seem but little impaired; but the loss of health sent her here, and she wonders to see mine so good; so indeed do I, but we were no puling family, my father, both my grandfathers, and three uncles, all died suddenly, which renders me more watchful of course. Never mind; Pope says, "Act well your part, there all the honor lies." "Nos sumus in scenâ quin et mandante magistro Quisque datas agimus partes; sit longa brevisve, I hope you will come to Bath soon, and give me some good advice. I do hope you will; nobody will be more observant of it, as nobody ever could esteem it more than does dear Sir James Fellowes's ever obliged and faithful H. L. Piozzi. You have made all your friends my friends. Pray tell them what a grateful heart that is which they have been so kind to. To Sir James Fellowes. Bath, 10th Oct. 1815. SUCH letters would make anybody well. I will implicitly follow the advice of my incomparable friend, and I will not advertise Streatham Park till you approve the measure. Alas, dear Sir, my wish is to conciliate, not provoke them. Lord North's maxim, "Amicitiæ sempiternæ, inimicitiæ placabiles,"* is the best in the world; and they will perhaps one day tell you that I have always followed it. Meanwhile I will not swear that the cross winds of domestic life have forborne to injure my tackling, and if I can *Popularly rendered: "Enmities in dust; friendships in marble." now get home under jury-masts, how thankful ought I to be! Apropos to jury-masts, what can be the meaning of such an awkward word? I have not a dictionary in the room, but I dare say they mean mâts de durer. Masts that will just serve and last but for a short time. Now, if I am the worse for the musketshot of this warring world, how reasonable is it to expect that you should have suffered, who have been so exposed to its heaviest artillery! Let us never have done rejoycing that you are returned to the bosom of your family, and permitted to enjoy their happiness which you have unremittingly preferred to your own. I was selfish once, and but once in my life; and though they lost nothing by my second marriage, my friends (as one's relations are popularly called) never could be persuaded to forgive it; was not it always so? Your Spanish Bible, in the eighteenth chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel, shows us how to obtain pardon by applying to the right place and person, not to our cruel fellow servants. So here is reciprocation of confidence, and a confession no one but your kind self could deserve, or indeed comprehend. Where the mad warrior fights for fame, And life beneath him lies; 'Tis love of praise that bears the blame, When female levity and youth But praises when by virtue given To virtue are assigned, They light like harbingers from Heaven, "Tis then with pride resembling shame And virtue with an humbler name Adieu then! and retain for Mil Años y mas your kindness for poor H. L. P. I remember an awkward Irish Miss once, when it was the fashion to give sentimental toasts, making us all look silly, because the men laughed so who loved rough merriment, when, in reply to their request of a sentiment, she made answer: "What we think on most, Sir, and talk on least." Mrs. Hoare and I both would feel that to be Streatham Park. To Sir James Fellowes. No anecdote, nor no verses so highly I value Tuesday Night, 24th Oct. 1815. no nor even your praises, which can give equal pleasure to the account you send me of your health. May God Almighty long, very long, preserve it for all our sakes, and inspire you with gratitude for its restoration, as he has inspired you with skill to preserve it. The day was so bright, and at one time so fine, I was impelled to make the rhymes you will read enclosed. Collins promises me the "Travel Book" on Thursday, which I shall correct for you, and make as clean, and as little unworthy of your acceptance as I can. Doctor Fellowes is certainly right; I took my account of Katherine's cruelty, from Govani's, whose "Memoirs des Cours d'Italie" I left in Wales. Are these verses in your margin? they should be there. "Elle fit oublier, par un esprit sublime, D'un pouvoir odieux les enormes abus; Et sur un trône acquis par le crime, Elle se maintint par ses vertus.” Her dazzling reign so brightly shone, Few sought to mark the crimes they courted, Whilst on her ill-acquired throne She sat, by virtue's self supported. The Anecdotes of Doctor Johnson were begun at Milan, where we first heard of his death, and so written on, from milestone to milestone, till arriving at Leghorn, we shipped them off to England. Mr. Thrale had always advised me to treasure up some of the valuable pearls that fell from his (Johnson's) lips, in conversation; and Mr. Piozzi was so indignant at the treatment I met with from his executors, that he spirited me up to give my own account of Doctor Johnson, in my own way; and not send to them the detached bits which they required with such assumed superiority and distance of manner, although most of them were intimates of the house till they thought it deserted forever. I think we must not tell your dear father that his friend Bennet Langton was one of them. If we do, he will not say as Dr. Johnson did, "Sit anima mea cum Langtono." But my marriage had offended them all, beyond hope of pardon. Now judge my transport, and my husband's, when at Rome we received letters saying the book was bought with such avidity, that Cadell had not one copy left, when the King sent for it at ten o'clock at night, and he was forced to beg one from a friend, to supply his Majesty's impatience, who sat up all night reading it. Samuel Lysons, Esq., Keeper of the Records in the Tower, then a law student in the Temple, made my bargain with the bookseller, from whom, on my return, I received £300, a sum unexampled in those days for so small a volume. And here, my dear Sir, is a truly-told anecdote of yours and your charming family's gratefully attached, Pray present them my verses. woman. To Sir James Fellowes. H. L. P. Sunday, 15th October, 1815. No, no; it was Jael that killed Sisera, who was a warrior, not a The termination in a does not in Hebrew feminize a name, any more than the termination in o renders a name masculine in the Greek. D, Sisera, was the proper name of the general of a hostile army sent to subdue Israel, and reduce them forcibly to acknowledge as Deity the very same abominations they are adoring even now, as our friend the general knows, fur ther to the eastward. Tabor is still an insulated mount; it was called Itabyrius by the profane writers; but indeed to be a good Bible scholar is better far, and will carry further, than being the best Greek one; and if the Spanish version does justice to that magnificent piece of lyric poetry for such it is — which you read in the fifth chapter of Judges, called the Song of Deborah and Barak, you will be enchanted with it. Lowth's praise of it is sublime indeed; and Kurstness, or Pelicanus as they call him, says boldly, "Now let your Homer or Virgil find a passage equal in eloquence and beauty to the last eight verses of that incomparable ode." I believe the challenge cannot be answered; but if you really do value my taste in literature and my opinion in the choice of books, assure yourself I would give all Lord Spencer's library for his best Bible; reflecting, with Locke and Paley, that of that work God is the author, Truth is the subject, and its tendency Eternal Life. Should such at length become your preference, too, it might not, possibly, but it is too presumptuous to say so; yet it perhaps might not be in this world only, so soon to be hid from our eyes, - that dear Sir James Fellowes should have cause to recollect with complacency his partial friendship for poor H. L. Piozzi. The vulgar menace of I'll be after you with a susurrare means, as far as it means anything, I'll follow you up with a writ of certiorari,* to call up the records, that justice may be done impartially. To Sir James Fellowes. Bath, 19th Oct. 1815. THE next best thing to shaking a friend by the hand is seeing his handwriting. I am happy to read yours, and most earnestly hope you will keep close to the house till better days. The ladies will have sad weather to travel in. General Garslin did me a great deal of honor, and deserved some amusement in payment for his trouble in finding the house. * She is substantially right. It is a writ for the removal of the proceedings, civil or criminal, from an inferior to a superior jurisdiction. |