your Union notes. I have read one-half (about 900 pages) of Wodrow's
_Correspondence_, with some improvement, but great fatigue. The doctor
thinks well of my recovery, which puts me in good hope for the future. I
should certainly be able to make a fine history of this.

My Essays are going through the press, and should be out in January or
February.--Ever affectionate son,

R. L. S.

TO SIDNEY COLVIN

[_Hotel Belvedere, Davos, December 1880_]

MY DEAR COLVIN,--I feel better, but variable. I see from the doctor's
report that I have more actual disease than I supposed; but there seems
little doubt of my recovery. I like the place and shall like it much
better when you come at Christmas. That is written on my heart: S. C.
comes at Christmas: so if you play me false, I shall have a lie upon my
conscience. I like Symonds very well, though he is much, I think, of an
invalid in mind and character. But his mind is interesting, with many
beautiful corners, and his consumptive smile very winning to see. We
have had some good talks; one went over Zola, Balzac, Flaubert, Whitman,
Christ, Handel, Milton, Sir Thomas Browne; do you see the _liaison_?--in
another, I, the Bohnist, the un-Grecian, was the means of his conversion
in the matter of the Ajax. It is truly not for nothing that I have read
my Buckley.[32]

To-day the south wind blows; and I am seedy in consequence.

_Later._--I want to know when you are coming, so as to get you a room.
You will toboggan and skate your head off, and I will talk it off, and
briefly if you don't come pretty soon, I will cut you off with a
shilling.

It would be handsome of you to write. The doctor says I may be as well
as ever; but in the meantime I go slow and am fit for little.--Ever
yours,

R. L. S.

TO EDMUND GOSSE

The suggestions contained in the following two letters to Mr. Gosse
refer to the collection of English Odes which that gentleman was then
engaged in editing (Kegan Paul, 1881).

_Hotel Belvedere, Davos, [Dec. 6, 1880]._

MY DEAR WEG,--I have many letters that I ought to write in preference to
this; but a duty to letters and to you prevails over any private
consideration. You are going to collect odes; I could not wish a better
man to do so; but I tremble lest you should commit two sins of omission.
You will not, I am sure, be so far left to yourself as to give us no
more of Dryden than the hackneyed St. Cecilia; I know y