thing that makes
the sea such a delightful object of contemplation; the huge white
main, and deep, tremendous voice of the vast creature over which
man's daring and his knowledge give him but such imperfect mastery,
suggest images of strength which are full of sublime fascination as
one stands on the shore, looking at the vasty deep, and remembers
how precarious and uncertain is man's dominion over it, and how God
alone rules and governs it. It is impossible not to rejoice in the
great sense of its huge power and freedom, even though their
manifestations toward men are so often terrible and destructive....
Oh yes, indeed, I, like Wallenstein, have faith in the "strong
hours," and hold their influence the more efficacious that we
seldom think of resisting it; or, if we do, are seldom successful
in the attempt....

The theater is going on very ill, but negotiations are pending
between the partners, which it is hoped may eventually terminate in
some arrangement with the creditors about the property. I have been
acting Bianca again; I certainly am not jealous, and cannot imagine
being so, any more of my husband than of my friend. I doubt if I
have the power of loving which produces jealousy, in spite of which
that part tries me dreadfully. I can conceive no torment comparable
to that passion, which, however, I think is foreign to my own
nature. I am reading Daru's "History of Venice," and am rather
disappointed in the entertainment I expected to derive from it. It
is a pretty long undertaking, too.... Remember me to all your
people; and since you will have it that I am twin-sister to a
fountain, remember me to my cousin, the dear little spring in the
dell, which I love the more that it sometimes reflects your face
and figure, as well as the fairies who dance round it by night. Do
you hear that poor Lord Grey is said to be haunted by a vision of
Lord Castlereagh's head? It sounds like a temptation of the devil
to scare him into cutting his throat. Lord Brougham and the Duke of
Wellington seem to me the only two men likely to keep their heads
in these times of infinite political perturbation; but the one is
made of steel, and the other of india-rubber.

Yours, dearest, always,