-the man who thinks much of his fellows can never be in spirits. You must forgive, although I have only written three hundred lines; they would have been five, but I have been obliged to go to town. Yesterday I called at Lamb's. St. Jane looked very flush when I first looked in, but was much better before I left.

XX.-TO BENJAMIN BAILEY.

[Fragment from an outside sheet: postmark London, November 5, 1817.]

I will speak of something else, or my spleen will get higher and higher-and I am a bearer of the twoedged sword. I hope you will receive an answer from Haydon soon- -if not, Pride! Pride! Pride! I have received no more subscription—but shall soon have a full health, Liberty and leisure to give a good part of my time to him. I will certainly be in time for him. We have promised him one year: let that have elapsed, then do as we think proper. If I did not know how impossible it is, I should say "do not at this time of disappointments, disturb yourself about others."

There has been a flaming attack upon Hunt in the Endinburgh Magazine. I never read anything so virulent-accusing him of the greatest Crimes, depreciating his Wife, his Poetry, his Habits, his Company, his Conversation. These Philippics are to come out in numbers--called "the Cockney School of Poetry." There has been but one number published-that on Hunt to which they have prefixed a motto from one Cornelius Webb Poetaster-who unfortunately was of our party occasionally at Hampstead and took it into his head to write the following,-something about "we'll talk on Wordsworth, Byron, a theme we never tire on ;" and so forth till he comes to Hunt and Keats. In the Motto they have put Hunt and Keats in large lettersI have no doubt that the second number was intended for me but have hopes of its non-appearance, from the

following Advertisement in last Sunday's Examiner :"To Z.-The Writer of the Article signed Z., in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine for October 1817 is invited to send his address to the printer of the Examiner, in order that Justice may be Executed on the proper person." I don't mind the thing much-but if he should go to such lengths with me as he has done with Hunt, I must infallibly call him to an Account if he be a human being, and appears in Squares and Theatres, where we might possibly meet--I don't relish his abuse.

XXI. TO CHARLES WENTWORTH DILKE.

[Hampstead, November 1817.]

My dear Dilke-Mrs. Dilke or Mr. Wm. Dilke, whoever of you shall receive this present, have the kindness to send pr. bearer Sibylline Leaves, and your petitioner shall ever pray as in duty bound.

Given under my hand this Wednesday morning of Novr. 1817.

Vivant Rex et Regina-amen.

JOHN KEATS.

XXII. TO BENJAMIN BAILEY.

[Burford Bridge, November 22, 1817.]

My dear Bailey-I will get over the first part of this (unsaid 1) Letter as soon as possible, for it relates to the affairs of poor Cripps.-To a Man of your nature such a Letter as Haydon's must have been extremely cuttingWhat occasions the greater part of the World's Quarrels ? -simply this-two Minds meet, and do not understand each other time enough to prevent any shock or surprise at the conduct of either party-As soon as I had known Haydon three days, I had got enough of his Character not to have been surprised at such a Letter as he has hurt you

1 Sic: for "unpaid"?

with. Nor, when I knew it, was it a principle with me to drop his acquaintance; although with you it would have been an imperious feeling. I wish you knew all that I think about Genius and the Heart and yet I think that you are thoroughly acquainted with my innermost breast in that respect, or you could not have known me even thus long, and still hold me worthy to be your dear Friend. In passing, however, I must say one thing that has pressed upon me lately, and increased my Humility and capability of submission-and that is this truthMen of Genius are great as certain ethereal Chemicals operating on the Mass of neutral intellect—but they have not any individuality, any determined Character-I would call the top and head of those who have a proper self Men of Power.

But I am running my head into a subject which I am certain I could not do justice to under five Years' study, and 3 vols. octavo-and, moreover, I long to be talking about the Imagination--so my dear Bailey, do not think of this unpleasant affair, if possible do not-I defy any harm to come of it-I defy. I shall write to Cripps this week, and request him to tell me all his goings-on from time to time by Letter wherever I may be. It will go on well-so don't because you have suddenly discovered a Coldness in Haydon suffer yourself to be teased-Do not my dear fellow-O! I wish I was as certain of the end of all your troubles as that of your momentary start about the authenticity of the Imagination. I am certain of nothing but of the holiness of the Heart's affections, and the truth of Imagination. What the Imagination seizes as Beauty must be truth-whether it existed before or not, for I have the same idea of all our passions as of Love: they are all, in their sublime, creative of essential Beauty. In a Word, you may know my favourite speculation by my first Book, and the little Song I sent in my last, which is a representation from the fancy of the probable mode of operating in these Matters. The Imagination may be compared to Adam's dream,-he

awoke and found it truth:1-I am more zealous in this
affair, because I have never yet been able to perceive how
anything can be known for truth by consecutive reasoning
--and yet it must be. Can it be that even the greatest
Philosopher ever arrived at his Goal without putting aside
numerous objections? However it may be, O for a life
of Sensations rather than of Thoughts! It is “
a Vision
in the form of Youth," a shadow of reality to come—And
this consideration has further convinced me,--for it has
come as auxiliary to another favourite speculation of
mine,—that we shall enjoy ourselves hereafter by having
what we called happiness on Earth repeated in a finer
tone-And yet such a fate can only befall those who
delight in Sensation, rather than hunger as you do after
Truth. Adam's dream will do here, and seems to be a
Conviction that Imagination and its empyreal reflection, is
the same as human life and its spiritual repetition. But,
as I was saying, the Simple imaginative Mind may have
its rewards in the repetition of its own silent Working
coming continually on the Spirit with a fine Suddenness-
to compare great things with small, have you never by
being surprised with an old Melody, in a delicious place
by a delicious voice, felt over again your very speculations
and surmises at the time it first operated on your soul?
-do you not remember forming to yourself the Singer's
face-more beautiful than it was possible, and yet with
the elevation of the Moment you did not think so?
Even then you were mounted on the Wings of Imagina-
tion, so high that the prototype must be hereafter—that
delicious face you will see. What a time! I am con-
tinually running away from the subject. Sure this cannot

1 "She disappear'd, and left me dark: I waked
To find her, or for ever to deplore

Her loss, and other pleasures all abjure:
When, out of hope, behold her not far off,
Such as I saw her in my dream, adorn'd
With what all Earth or Heaven could bestow
To make her amiable."

Paradise Lost, Book VIII.

be exactly the Case with a complex mind-one that is imaginative, and at the same time careful of its fruits,who would exist partly on Sensation, partly on thoughtto whom it is necessary that years should bring the philosophic Mind? Such a one I consider yours, and therefore it is necessary to your eternal happiness that you not only drink this old Wine of Heaven, which I shall call the redigestion of our most ethereal Musings upon Earth, but also increase in knowledge and know all things. I am glad to hear that you are in a fair way for Easter. You will soon get through your unpleasant reading, and then!—but the world is full of troubles, and I have not much reason to think myself pestered with many.

I think Jane or Marianne has a better opinion of me than I deserve: for, really and truly, I do not think my Brother's illness connected with mine-you know more of the real Cause than they do; nor have I any chance of being rack'd as you have been. You perhaps at one time thought there was such a thing as worldly happiness to be arrived at, at certain periods of time marked out, you have of necessity from your disposition been thus led away-I scarcely remember counting upon any Happiness-I look not for it if it be not in the present hour,—nothing startles me beyond the moment. The Setting Sun will always set me to rights, or if a Sparrow come before my Window, I take part in its existence and pick about the gravel. The first thing that strikes me on hearing a Misfortune having befallen another is this"Well, it cannot be helped: he will have the pleasure of trying the resources of his Spirit"—and I beg now, my dear Bailey, that hereafter should you observe anything cold in me not to put it to the account of heartlessness, but abstraction—for I assure you I sometimes feel not the influence of a passion or affection during a whole Week—and so long this sometimes continues, I begin to suspect myself, and the genuineness of my feelings at other times-thinking them a few barren Tragedy Tears. My brother Tom is much improved-he is going to