at down on a stone step. They all laughed--then
looked very thoughtful. Had the finite measured itself with infinity,
instead of surrendering itself up to the influence? Again they
laughed--then bade each other good night, and betook themselves
homeward with slow and serious pace."[A]

[Footnote A: "A New Spirit of the Age," by R.H. Home. London, 1844.
Vol. . p. 278.]

In 1840 Leigh Hunt left Chelsea, and went to live at Kensington, but
Carlyle never altogether lost sight of him, and on several occasions
was able to do him very serviceable acts of kindness; as, for
instance, in writing certain Memoranda concerning him with the view of
procuring from Government a small provision for Leigh Hunt's declining
years, which we may as well give in this place:--

MEMORANDA

CONCERNING MR. LEIGH HUNT.

"1. That Mr. Hunt is a man of the most indisputedly superior worth;
a _Man of Genius_ in a very strict sense of that word, and in all
the senses which it bears or implies; of brilliant varied gifts,
of graceful fertility, of clearness, lovingness, truthfulness; of
childlike open character; also of most pure and even exemplary private
deportment; a man who can be other than _loved_ only by those who have
not seen him, or seen him from a distance through a false medium.

"2. That, well seen into, he _has_ done much for the world;--as every
man possessed of such qualities, and freely speaking them forth in
the abundance of his heart for thirty years long, must needs do: _how_
much, they that could judge best would perhaps estimate highest.

"3. That, for one thing, his services in the cause of reform, as
Founder and long as Editor of the 'Examiner' newspaper; as Poet,
Essayist, Public Teacher in all ways open to him, are great and
evident: few now living in this kingdom, perhaps, could boast of
greater.

"4. That his sufferings in that same cause have also been great; legal
prosecution and penalty (not dishonourable to him; nay, honourable,
were the whole truth known, as it will one day be): unlegal obloquy
and calumny through the Tory Press;--perhaps a greater quantity of
baseless, persevering, implacable calumny, than any other living
writer has undergone. Which long course of hostility (nearly the
cruellest conceivable, had it not been carried on in half, or almost
total misconception) may be regarded as the beginning of his other
worst distresses, and a main cause of them, down to this day.

"5. That he is heavily