,--I am very sorry to hear that Amelia is again far from
well; but I think both she and I should try and not be too anxious.
Even if matters do not prosper this time, all may go as well some
future day. I think it is not these _early_ mishaps that break the
constitution, but those which occur in a much later stage. She must
take heart--there may yet be a round dozen of little Joe Taylors to
look after--run after--to sort and switch and train up in the way
they should go--that is, with a generous use of pickled birch. From
whom do you think I have received a couple of notes lately? From
Alice. They are returned from the Continent, it seems, and are now
at Torquay. The first note touched me a little by what I thought its
subdued tone; I trusted her character might be greatly improved.
There were, indeed, traces of the "old Adam," but such as I was
willing to overlook. I answered her soon and kindly. In reply I
received to-day a longish letter, full of clap-trap sentiment and
humbugging attempts at fine writing. In each production the old
trading spirit peeps out; she asks for autographs. It seems she had
read in some paper that I was staying with Miss Martineau; thereupon
she applies for specimens of her handwriting, and Wordsworth's, and
Southey's, and my own. The account of her health, if given by any
one else, would grieve and alarm me. She talks of fearing that her
constitution is almost broken by repeated trials, and intimates a
doubt as to whether she shall live long: but, remembering her of old,
I have good hopes that this may be a mistake. Her "beloved papa and
mama" and her "precious sister," she says, are living, and "gradely."
(That last is my word. I don't know whether they use it in Birstall
as they do here--it means in a middling way.)

'You are to say no more about "Jupiter" and "Venus"--what do you mean
by such heathen trash? The fact is, no fallacy can be wilder, and I
won't have it hinted at even in jest, because my common sense laughs
it to scorn. The idea of the "little man" shocks me less--it would
be a more likely match if "matches" were at all in question, which
_they are not_. He still sends his little newspaper; and the other
day there came a letter of a bulk, volume, pith, judgment, and
knowledge, worthy to have been the product of a giant. You ma