cpherson _professes_ to
embody.

Sergeant Talfourd dined here to meet Wordsworth yesterday.
Wordsworth is vehement against Byron. Saw in Shelley the lowest
form of irreligion, but a later progress towards better things.
Named the discrepancy between his creed and his imagination as the
marring idea of his works, in which description I could not concur.
Spoke of the _entire_ revolution in his own poetical taste. We were
agreed that a man's personal character ought to be the basis of his
politics. He quoted his sonnet on the contested election [what
sonnet is this?], from which I ventured to differ as regards its
assuming nutriment for the heart to be inherent in politics. He
described to me his views; that the Reform Act had, as it were,
brought out too prominently a particular muscle of the national
frame: the strength of the towns; that the cure was to be found in
a large further enfranchisement, I fancy, of the country chiefly;
that you would thus extend the base of your pyramid and so give it
strength. He wished the old institutions of the country preserved,
and thought this the way to preserve them. He thought the political
franchise upon the whole a good to the mass--regard being had to
the state of human nature; against me. _11th._--Read Browning's
_Paracelsus_. Went to Richmond to dine with the Gaskells. A two
hours' walk home at night. _16th._--Wrote two sonnets. Finished and
wrote out _Brant von Korinth_. Shall I ever dare to make out a
counterpart? _21st._--Breakfast at Mr. Hallam's to meet Mr.
Wordsworth and Mr. Rogers. Wordsworth spoke much and justly about
copyright. Conversation with Talfourd in the evening, partly about
that subject. Began something on egotism. _24th._--Breakfast with
Mr. Rogers, Mr. Wordsworth only there. Very agreeable. Rogers
produced an American poem, the death of Bozzaris, which Wordsworth
proposed that I should read to them: of course I declined, so even
did Rogers. But Wordsworth read it through in good taste, and doing
it justice.

_Fasque_ in time for Aug. 12; out on the hill, but unlucky with a
sprained ankle, and obliged to give up early. _Aug. 15th._--Wrote
(long) to Dr. Chalmers. Orator. _Sept. 20th._--Milner, finished
Vol. ii. Cic. _Acad._ Wraxall. Began Goethe's _Iphigenie_. Wrote.
_Oct. 7t