A lady spoke the other day of the impossibility of knowing her own sex till she saw them in the company of men; and cited one whom she thought all gentleness, propriety, and delicacy, during some days passed in a country house, till at last a man came to nail down the carpets. A man, like Ithuriel’s spear, makes some women start up in their own shape, and so it was here. She immediately displayed forwardness, affectation, and coquetry in all their varying forms. How often we are reminded of this story.
I hear the Dowager Lady —— will certainly marry Mr. ——. As we heard from one to whom her physician announced it, that she bore her lord’s death ‘like a Lion,’ one is the less surprised that she should so soon have made a second choice.
TO THE SAME.
London, Jan. 1, 1824.
Alas! I knew the sad news of Mad. de Stierneld’s departure a little before your letter confirmed it. Her house, all covered with announcements of its being on sale, first surprised me; but there we were only directed to another and smaller habitation, where we thought the Baron had removed on changing his former house, which I knew was not quite approved. The quivering lip and sorrowing countenance of the servant, when I inquired if she was at home, spoke the whole truth at once, and never did I so much regret one whom I had so seldom seen, passée comme une fleur que le vent emporte. Nature is at war with excellence, and seldom does one so faultless run the usual career of life. How deeply do I feel for her sorrowing mother. Tell me what other children she has.
My chief objection to your present situation is, that you can learn nothing there of your métier, and see but little of the illumination which is centred in the more literary and busy capitals of Europe. Its rays become very faint at such a distance from the centre. If you would produce a clever volume, to be printed in London, and perhaps acknowledged only in case of success, it might remind our Premier of his hyperborean client. Translations are now in great request; for every man must know everything, talk of everything, and, if he possesses not a language, must catch the spirit of its chef-d’œuvres as he best can. Versions of Swedish poets, with your name at once, would be extremely popular both here and there.
Adieu, I continue well, and want nothing but you to keep me so.