ch.
"To an idler like myself, to write and receive letters are both very
pleasant;" thus Lamb in one of his earliest letters to Coleridge, and
there can be little doubt that in this occupation he frequently found
the truth of the statement that the labour we delight in physics pain.
In communion with men of kindred tastes he must often have lost the
sense of his haunting troubles in intellectual and external interests.

Two or three scraps from the letters have been quoted in the first
chapter but as their peculiarly rich wit and humour, using that
much-abused word in its fullest significance, can best be shown by
example, we may here give a couple more. The first is from a letter
written in 1810, and addressed to Manning, the correspondent with whom
Lamb was most entertainingly whimsical. The second letter, given in
its entirety, was addressed in 1827 to Thomas Hood.

Holcroft had finished his life when I wrote to you, and
Hazlitt has since finished his life--I do not mean his own
life, but he has finished a life of Holcroft, which is going
to press. Tuthill is Dr. Tuthill. I continue Mr. Lamb. I
have published a little book for children on titles of
honour: and to give them some idea of the difference of rank
and gradual rising, I have made a little scale, supposing
myself to receive the following various accessions of
dignity from the king, who is the fountain of honour.--As at
first, 1, Mr. C. Lamb; 2, C. Lamb, Esq.; 3, Sir C. Lamb,
Bart,; 4, Baron Lamb of Stamford; 5, Viscount Lamb; 6, Earl
Lamb; 7, Marquis Lamb; 8, Duke Lamb. It would look like
quibbling to carry it on further, and especially as it is
not necessary for children to go beyond the ordinary titles
of sub-regal dignity in our own country, otherwise I have
sometimes in my dreams imagined myself still advancing, as
9th, King Lamb; 10th, Emperor Lamb; 11th, Pope Innocent,
higher than which is nothing but the Lamb of God. Puns I
have not made many (nor punch much), since the day of my
last; one I cannot help relating. A constable in Salisbury
Cathedral was telling me that eight people dined at the top
of the spire of the cathedral, upon which I remarked that
they must be very sharp set. But in general I cultivate the
reasoning part of my mind more than the imaginative. Do you
know Kate * * *. I am so stuffed out with eating turkey