; but what has
not, to a reflecting mind?--complained bitterly to-day, of having been
attacked by an anonymous scribbler. I was surprised to see a man
accounted clever and sensible, so much annoyed by what I consider so
wholly beneath his notice. It requires only a knowledge of the world
and a self-respect to enable one to treat such attacks with the
contempt they merit; and those who allow themselves to be mortified by
them must be deficient in these necessary qualifications for passing
smoothly through life.

It seems to me to indicate great weakness of mind, when a person
permits his peace to be at the mercy of every anonymous scribbler who,
actuated by envy or hatred (the invariable causes of such attacks),
writes a libel on him. If a person so attacked would but reflect that
few, if any, who have acquired celebrity, or have been favoured by
fortune, have ever escaped similar assaults, he would be disposed to
consider them as the certain proofs of a merit, the general
acknowledgment of which has excited the ire of the envious, thus
displayed by the only mean within their reach--anonymous abuse.
Anonymous assailants may be likened to the cuttle-fish, which employs
the inky secretions it forms as a means of tormenting its enemy and
baffling pursuit.

I have been reading the poems of Mrs. Hemans, and exquisite they are.
They affect me like sacred music, and never fail to excite religious
sentiments. England only could have produced this poetess, and peculiar
circumstances were necessary to the developement of her genius. The
music of the versification harmonises well with the elevated character
of the thoughts, which inspire the reader (at least such is their
effect on me) with a pensive sentiment of resignation that is not
without a deep charm to a mind that loves to withdraw itself from the
turmoil and bustle incidental to a life passed in a gay and brilliant
capital.

The mind of this charming poetess must be like an AEolian harp, that
every sighing wind awakes to music, but to grave and chastened melody,
the full charm of which can only be truly appreciated by those who have
sorrowed, and who look beyond this earth for repose. Well might Goethe
write,

"Wo du das Genie erblickst
Erblickst du auch zugleich die martkrone"[7]

for where is Genius to be found that has not been tried by suffering?

Moore has beautifully said,

"The hearths that are soonest awake to the flowers,
Are always