These lines are written of Sir Philip Sidney. Could another man have written them they had stood even better for Mr. Swinburne. But we are considering the metre, not the meaning. Now the metre may have great merits. I am disposed to say that, having fascinated Mr. Swinburne, it must have great merits. That I dislike it is, no doubt, my fault, or rather my misfortune. But undoubtedly it is a metre that no man but Mr. Swinburne could handle without producing a monotony varied only by discords.
A MORNING WITH A BOOK
April 29, 1893. Hazlitt's Stipulation.
"Food, warmth, sleep, and a book; these are all I at present ask—the Ultima Thule of my wandering desires. Do you not then wish for—
a friend in your retreat
Whom you may whisper, 'Solitude is sweet'?
Expected, well enough: gone, still better. Such attractions are strengthened by distance."
So Hazlitt wrote in his Farewell to Essay Writing. There never was such an epicure of his moods as Hazlitt. Others might add Omar's stipulation—
"—and Thou
Beside me singing in the wilderness."