full of the usual compliments, &c. &c. It is still somewhere amongst my papers. In the same

month I received an invitation into Holstein from a Mr. Jacobsen, (I think,) of Hamburgh: also, by the same medium, a translation of Medora's song in the Corsair, by a Westphalian baroness, (not 'Thunderton-Tronck'), with some original verses of hers (very pretty and Klopstock-ish), and a prose translation annexed to them, on the subject of my wife :-as they concerned her more than me, I sent them to her, together with Mr. Jacobsen's letter. It was odd enough to receive an invitation to pass the summer in Holstein while in Italy, from people I never knew. The letter was addressed to Venice. Mr. Jacobsen talked to me of the "wild roses growing in the Holstein summer." Why then did the Cimbri and Teutones emigrate ?

1821.

INTRODUCTION TO THE HOUSE OF LORDS.

WHEN I came of age, some delays, on account of some birth and marriage-certificates from Cornwall, occasioned me not to take my seat for several weeks. When these were over, and I had taken the oaths, the Chancellor apologized to me for the delay, observing “that these forms were a part of his duty." I begged him to make no apology, and added (as he

HOUSE OF LORDS.

13

certainly had shown no violent hurry), “Your lordship was exactly like Tom Thumb-(which was then being acted)—' you did your duty, and you did no more.""

1809.

NAPOLEON.

NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE has abdicated the throne of the world. Excellent well.' Methinks Sylla did better; for he revenged, and resigned in the height of his sway, red with the slaughter of his foes—the finest instance of glorious contempt of the rascals upon record. Dioclesian did well too-Amurath not amiss, had he become aught except a dervise-Charles the Fifth but so, so-but Napoleon, worst of all. What! wait till they were in his capital, and then talk of his readiness to give up what is already gone!! "What whining monk art thou-what holy cheat?" "Sdeath! Dionysius at Corinth was yet a king to this. The 'Isle of Elba' to retire to! Well-if it had been Caprea I should have marvelled less. "I see men's minds are but a parcel of their fortunes." I am utterly bewildered and confounded.

I don't know-but I think I, even I, (an insect compared with this creature), have set my life on casts not a millionth part of this man's. But, after all, a crown may be not worth dying

for. Yet, to outlive Lodi for this!!! Oh, that Juvenal or Johnson could rise from the dead!— "Expende-quot libras in duce summo invenies ?”—I knew they were light in the balance of mortality; but I thought their living dust weighed more carats. Alas! this imperial diamond hath a flaw in it, and is now hardly fit to stick in a glazier's pencil :—the pen of the historian won't rate it worth a ducat.

Psha! "something too much of this." But I won't give him up, even now; though all his admirers have, "like the Thanes," fall'n from him!

1814

RELIGION.

THE difference between a religious and irreligious man is, that the one sacrifices the present to the future; and the other, the future to the present.

1823.

ECONOMY.

You will perhaps wonder at this recent and furious fit of accumulation and retrenchment; but it is not so unnatural. I am not naturally ostentatious, although once careless, and expensive because careless; and my most extravagant passions have pretty well subsided, as it is time that they should do on the very verge

of thirty-five. I always looked to about thirty as the barrier of any real or fierce delight in the passions, and determined to work them out in the younger ore and better veins of the mine; and I flatter myself that perhaps I have pretty well done so, and now the dross is coming, and I loves lucre. For we must love something. At least, if I have not quite worked out the others, it is not for want of labouring hard to do so. But perhaps I deceive myself. At any rate, then, I have a passion the more; and, thus, a feeling. However, it is not for myself; but I should like, God willing, to leave something to my relatives more than a mere name; and besides that, to be able to do good to others to a greater extent. If nothing else will do, I must try bread and water, which, by the way, are very nourishing and sufficient, if good of their kind.

1823.

COMPOSITION.

I ONCE wrote from the fulness of my mind and the love of fame, (not as an end, but as a means, to obtain that influence over men's minds which is power in itself and in its consequences), and now from habit and from avarice; so that the effect may probably be as different as the inspiration. I have the same

facility, and indeed necessity, of composition, to avoid idleness (though idleness in a hot country is a pleasure), but a much greater indifference to what is to become of it, after it has served my immediate purpose.

1818.

CAMBRIDGE.

Alma Mater was to me injusta noverca: and the old beldam only gave me my M. A. degree because she could not avoid it.-You know what a farce a noble Cantab. must perform.

1809.

SHERIDAN.

I Do not know any good model for a life of Sheridan but that of Savage. Recollect, however, that the life of such a man may be made far more amusing than if he had been a Wilberforce; and this without offending the living, or insulting the dead. The Whigs abuse him; however, he never left them, and such blunderers deserve neither credit nor compassion. As for his creditors,-remember, Sheridan never had a shilling, and was thrown, with great powers and passions, into the thick of the world, and placed upon the pinnacle of success, with no other external means to support him in his elevation. Did Fox ✶✶ ✶ pay his debts? or did Sheridan