t an effort of memory. _Then_, indeed,
the lights are rekindled for a moment; but who can be sure that
imagination is not the torch-bearer? Let any man try at the end of
_ten_ years to bring before him the features, or the mind, or the
sayings, or the habits of his best friend, or his _greatest_ man, (I
mean his favourite, his Buonaparte, his this, that, or t'other,) and
he will be surprised at the extreme confusion of his ideas. I speak
confidently on this point, having always passed for one who had a
good, ay, an excellent memory. I except, indeed, our recollection of
womankind; there is no forgetting _them_ (and be d--d to them) any
more than any other remarkable era, such as 'the revolution,' or 'the
plague,' or 'the invasion,' or 'the comet,' or 'the war' of such and
such an epoch,--being the favourite dates of mankind who have so many
_blessings_ in their lot that they never make their calendars from
them, being too common. For instance, you see 'the great drought,'
'the Thames frozen over,' 'the seven years' war broke out,' 'the
English, or French, or Spanish revolution commenced,' 'the Lisbon
earthquake,' 'the Lima earthquake,' 'the earthquake of Calabria,'
'the plague of London,' ditto 'of Constantinople,' 'the sweating
sickness,' 'the yellow fever of Philadelphia,' &c. &c. &c.; but you
don't see 'the abundant harvest,' 'the fine summer,' 'the long
peace,' 'the wealthy speculation,' 'the wreckless voyage,' recorded
so emphatically! By the way, there has been a _thirty years' war_ and
a _seventy years' war_; was there ever a _seventy_ or a _thirty
years' peace_? or was there even a DAY'S _universal_ peace? except
perhaps in China, where they have found out the miserable happiness
of a stationary and unwarlike mediocrity. And is all this because
nature is niggard or savage? or mankind ungrateful? Let philosophers
decide. I am none.

* * * * *

"In general, I do not draw well with literary men; not that I dislike
them, but I never know what to say to them after I have praised their
last publication. There are several exceptions, to be sure, but then
they have either been men of the world, such as Scott and Moore, &c.
or visionaries out of it, such as Shelley, &c.: but your literary
every-day man and I never went well in company, especially your
foreigner, whom I never could abide; except Giordani,
and--and--and--(I really can't name any other)--I don't remember a
man amongst them