am wondering in what Idiom you will one day answer my last. {163a}
Meanwhile, I have to thank you for Lady Pollock's Article on American
Literature: which I like, as all of hers. Only, I cannot understand her
Admiration of Emerson's 'Humble Bee'; which, without her Comment, I
should have taken for a Burlesque on Barry Cornwall, or some of that
London School. Surely, that 'Animated Torrid Zone' without which 'All is
Martyrdom,' etc., is rather out of Proportion. I wish she had been able
to tell us that ten copies of Crabbe sold in America for one in England:
rather than Philip of Artevelde. Perhaps Crabbe does too. What do you
and Miladi think of these two Lines of his which returned to me the other
day? Talking of poor Vagrants, etc.,

Whom Law condemns, and Justice with a Sigh
Pursuing, shakes her Sword, and passes by. {163b}

There are heaps of such things lying hid in the tangle of Crabbe's
careless verse; and yet such things, you know, are not the best of him,
the distressing Old Man! Who would expect such a Prettyness as this of
him?

As of fair Virgins dancing in a round,
Each binds the others, and herself is bound--{163c}

so the several Callings and Duties of Men in Civilized Life, etc. Come!
If Lady Pollock will write the Reason of all this, I will supply her with
a Lot of it without her having the trouble of looking through all the
eight volumes for it. I really can do little more than like, or dislike,
Dr. Fell, without a further Reason: which is none at all, though it may
be a very good one. So I distinguish _Phil_-osophers, and
_Fell_-osophers; which is rather a small piece of Wit. And I don't like
the Humble Bee; and won't like the Humble Bee, in spite of all the good
reasons Miladi gives why I should; and so tell her: and tell her to
forgive hers and yours always,

E. F. G.

_To W. B. Donne_.

ALDE COTTAGE, ALDEBURGH.
_August_ 18, [1873].

MY DEAR DONNE,

There being a change of servants in Market Hill, Woodbridge, I came here
for a week, bringing Tacitus {164} in my Pocket. You know I don't
pretend to judge of History: I can only say that you tell the Story of
Tacitus' own Life, and of what he has to tell of others, very readably
indeed to my Thinking: and so far I think my Thinking is to be relied on.
Some of the Translations from T. by your other hands read so well also
that I have wished to get at the original. But I really want an Edition
such as you promised to