it has an effect upon him. You tell me
always you have much to write about. Write it, but let us drop
metaphysics;--on that point we shall never agree. I am dull and
drowsy, as usual. I do nothing, and even that nothing fatigues me.
Adieu."

* * * * *

LETTER 71. TO MR. DALLAS.

"Newstead Abbey, Oct. 11. 1811.

"I have returned from Lancs., and ascertained that my property
there may be made very valuable, but various circumstances very
much circumscribe my exertions at present. I shall be in town on
business in the beginning of November, and perhaps at Cambridge
before the end of this month; but of my movements you shall be
regularly apprised. Your objections I have in part done away by
alterations, which I hope will suffice; and I have sent two or
three additional stanzas for both '_Fyttas_' I have been again
shocked with a death, and have lost one very dear to me in happier
times; but 'I have almost forgot the taste of grief,' and 'supped
full of horrors' till I have become callous, nor have I a tear left
for an event which, five years ago, would have bowed down my head
to the earth. It seems as though I were to experience in my youth
the greatest misery of age. My friends fall around me, and I shall
be left a lonely tree before I am withered. Other men can always
take refuge in their families; I have no resource but my own
reflections, and they present no prospect here or hereafter, except
the selfish satisfaction of surviving my betters. I am indeed very
wretched, and you will excuse my saying so, as you know I am not
apt to cant of sensibility.

"Instead of tiring yourself with _my_ concerns, I should be glad to
hear _your_ plans of retirement. I suppose you would not like to be
wholly shut out of society? Now I know a large village, or small
town, about twelve miles off, where your family would have the
advantage of very genteel society, without the hazard of being
annoyed by mercantile affluence; where _you_ would meet with men of
information and independence; and where I have friends to whom I
should be proud to introduce you. There are, besides, a
coffee-room, assemblies, &c. &c., which bring people together. My
mother had a house there some years, and I am well acquainted with
the economy of South