“. . . . . I am bound for London, chiefly to complete these Specimens, and put them to press. Alas! for your unhappy habit of procrastination! ‘Don’t delay,’ you write in your postscript, and this in answer to a letter which had lain above a fortnight in your desk! Here it happens to be of no moment; but you tell me the habit has produced and is producing worse consequences. I would give you advice if it could be of use; but there is no curing those who choose to be diseased. A good man and a wise man may at times be angry with the world, at times grieved for it; but be sure no man was ever discontented with the world if he did his duty in it. If a man of education who has health, eyes, hands, and leisure, wants an object, it is only because God Almighty has bestowed all those blessings upon a man who does not deserve them. Dear Grosvenor, I wish you may feel half the pain in reading this that I do in writing it. . . . .
“There!
“And what shall I say after this? for this bitter pill
will put your mouth out of taste, for whatever insipidities I might have had to
offer; only the metaphor reminds me of a scheme of mine, which is to improve
cookery by chemical tuning, making every dish prepare the palate for that which
is to come
| 280 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 29. |
“I am very happy, having this week received the oldest poem in the Castilian language, and the oldest code of Gothic laws, and a reinforcement of folios besides, containing the history of Portugal, from the Creation down to 1400 a.d. God bless you!
