MY DEAR SIR,

My letters being of no value but as tokens of friendship, I waited for
the opportunity of a frank, which I had reason to expect earlier.
Sincerely do we all congratulate you upon your marriage. Accept our best
wishes upon the event, and believe that we shall always be deeply
interested in your welfare. Make our kind regards also to Mrs. Hamilton,
who of course will be included in every friendly hope and expectation
formed for yourself.

[133] _Memoirs_, ii. 275-6.

We look with anxiety to your sister Eliza's success in her schemes,--but
for pecuniary recompense in literature, especially poetical, nothing can
be more unpromising than the present state of affairs, except what we
have to fear for the future. Mrs. Godwyn, who sends verses to Blackwood,
is our neighbour. I have had no conversation with her myself upon the
subject, but a friend of hers says she has reason to believe that she
has got nothing but a present of books. This however is of no moment, as
Mrs. G. being a person of easy fortune she has not probably bargained
for a return in money. Mrs. Hemans I see continues to publish in the
periodicals. If you ever see her, pray remember me affectionately to
her, and tell her that I have often been, and still am, troubled in
conscience for having left her obliging letter so long unanswered; but
she must excuse me as there is not a motive in my mind urging me to
throw any interest into my letters to friends beyond the expression of
kindness and esteem; and _that_ she does not require from me. Besides my
friends in general know how much I am hindered in all my pursuits by the
inflammation to which my eyes are so frequently subject. I have long
since given up all exercise of them by candle-light, and the evenings
and nights are the seasons when one is most disposed to converse in that
way with absent friends. News you do not care about, and I have none for
you, except what concerns friends. My sister, God be thanked, has had a
respite. She can now walk a few steps about her room, and has been borne
twice into the open air. Southey to whom I sent your Sonnets had, I
grieve to say, a severe attack of some unknown and painful complaint,
about ten days ago. It weakened him much, but he is now I believe
perfectly recovered. Coleridge I have reason to think is confined to his
bed; his mind vigorous as ever. Your Sonnets I think are as good as
anything you have done in verse. We like the 2d best; and I singl