aven's eternal year" be ours. Hereafter, her meek spirit shall not
reproach me. Oh, my friend, cultivate the filial feelings, and let no
man think himself released from the kind "charities" of relationship.
These shall give him peace at the last; these are the best foundation
for every species of benevolence. I rejoice to hear, by certain
channels, that you, my friend, are reconciled with all your relations.
'T is the most kindly and natural species of love, and we have all the
associated train of early feelings to secure its strength and
perpetuity. Send me an account of your health; _indeed_ I am solicitous
about you. God love you and yours!

C. LAMB.

[1] From "A Very Woman."

[2] An allusion to Lamb's first love,--the "Anna" of his sonnets, and
the original, probably, of "Rosamund Gray" and of "Alice W---n" in the
beautiful essay "Dream Children."

[3] The earliest sonnets of William Lisle Bowles were published in 1789,
the year of Lamb's removal from Christ's Hospital.

[4] Alluding to the prospective joint volume of poems (by Coleridge,
Lamb, and Charles Lloyd) to be published by Cottle in 1797. This was
Lamb's second serious literary venture, he and Coleridge having issued a
joint volume in 1796.

IX.

TO COLERIDGE.

[Fragment.]

_Dec_. 5, 1796.

At length I have done with verse-making,--not that I relish other
people's poetry less: theirs comes from 'em without effort; mine is the
difficult operation of a brain scanty of ideas, made more difficult by
disuse. I have been reading "The Task" with fresh delight. I am glad you
love Cowper. I could forgive a man for not enjoying Milton; but I would
not call that man my friend who should be offended with the "divine
chit-chat of Cowper." Write to me. God love you and yours!

C. L.

X.

TO COLERIDGE,

_Dec_. 10, 1796.

I had put my letter into the post rather hastily, not expecting to have
to acknowledge another from you so soon. This morning's present has made
me alive again. My last night's epistle was childishly querulous: but
you have put a little life into me, and I will thank you for your
remembrance of me, while my sense of it is yet warm; for if I linger a
day or two, I may use the same phrase of acknowledgment, or similar, but
the feeling that dictates it now will be gone; I shall send you a _caput
mortuum_; not a _cor vivens_. Thy "Watchman's," thy bellman's verses, I
do retort upon thee, thou libellous varlet,--why, you cried the