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Charles Lamb to Mr. Moxon-Effect of present of a Watch on his Betrothed.

A third time, he would carve a fowl, which he did very ill favoredly, because" we did not know how indispensable it was for a barrister to do all those sort of things well! Those little things were of more consequence than we supposed!" So he goes on, harassing about the way to prosperity, and losing it. With a long head, but somewhat a wrong one-harum-scarum. Why does not his guardian angel look to him? He deserves one; maybe he has tired him out. I am done with this long scrawl, but I thought in your exile you might like a letter. Commend me to all the wonders in Derbyshire, and tell the devil I humbly kiss-my hand to him.

Yours ever,

C. LAMB.

ENFIELD, Saturday.

XLVI.-EFFECT OF PRESENT OF A WATCH ON HIS BETROTHED.

Charles Lamb to Mr. Moxon.

July 24th, 1833.

For God's sake give Emma no more watches; one has turned her head. She is arrogant and insulting. She said something very unpleasant to our old clock in the passage, as if he did not keep time, and yet he had made her no appointment. She takes it out every instant to look at the moment-hand. She lugs us out into the fields, because there the bird-boys ask you, "Pray, sir, can you tell us what's o'clock?" and she answers them punctually. She loses all her time looking to see "what the time is." I overheard her whispering, "Just so many hours, minutes, etc., to Tuesday;" I think St. George's goes too slow! This little present of Time !-why-'tis Eternity to her!

What can make her so fond of a gingerbread watch? She has spoiled some of the movements. Between ourselves, she has

Rev. Sydney Smith to Mrs.

-No Affection beyond 78° or below 20° Fahrenheit.

kissed

away "half-past twelve," which I suppose to be the canonical hour in hanover Square.

Well, if "love me, love my watch" answers, she will keep time to you. 66 It goes right by the Horse Guards."

DEAREST M.: Never mind opposite nonsense.* * She does not love you for the watch, but the watch for you. I will be at the wedding, and keep the 30th July as long as my poor months last me, as a festival gloriously.

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We have not heard from Cambridge, I will write the moment we do.

Edmonton, 24th July, twenty minutes past three by Emma's

watch.

XLVII-NO AFFECTION BEYOND 78° OR BELOW 20° FAHRENHEIT.

Rev. Sydney Smith to Mrs.

July, 1836.

Mrs. Syd

DEAR MRS. —: I shall have great pleausre in calling for you to go to Mrs. Charles Buller, on Wednesday. ney's arm is rather better, many thanks for the inquiry. Very high and very low temperature extinguishes all human sympathy and relations. It is impossible to feel affection beyond 78° or below 20° of Fahrenheit; human nature is too solid or too liquid beyond these limits. Man only lives to shiver or to perspire. God send that the glass may fall and restore me to my regard which, in the temperate zone, is invariable.

for

you,

SYDNEY SMITH.

* Written on the opposite page to that in which the previous affectionate letter appears.

Sydney Smith to Lady Dufferin-The Gout. Value of Easy-Chairs.

XLVIII.-THE GOUT-VALUE OF EASY-CHAIRS.

Sydney Smith to Lady Dufferin.

COMBE FLOREY (No date).

I am just beginning to get well from that fit of gout, at the beginning of which you were charitable enough to pay me a visit, and I said the same Providence that inflicts gout creates Dufferins! We must take the good and the evils of life.

I am charmed, I confess, with the beauty of this country. I hope some day you will be charmed with it too. It banished, however, every Arcadian notion to see walk in at the gate to-day. I seemed to be transported instantly to Piccadilly, and the innocence went out of me.

I hope the process of furnishing goes on well. Attend, I pray you, to the proper selection of an easy-chair, where you may cast yourself down in the weariness and distresses of life, with the absolute certainty that every joint of the human frame will receive all the comfort which can be derived from easy position and soft materials; then the glass, on which your eyes are so often fixed, knowing that you have the great duty imposed on the Sheridans, of looking well. You may depend upon it, happiness depends mainly on these little things.

I hope you remain in perfect favor with Rogers, and that you are not omitted in any of the dress breakfast parties. Remember me to the Norton. Tell her I am glad to be sheltered from her beauty by the insensibility of age; that I shall not live to see its decay, but die with that unfaded image before my eyes. But don't make a mistake and deliver the message to stead of your sister.

I remain, dear Lady Dufferin,

9

Very sincerely yours, SYDNEY SMITH.

in

Sydney Smith to Chas. Dickens and Lord Mahon-Invitation Accepted. Apology, etc.

XLIX. - INVITATION ACCEPTED.

Sydney Smith to Charles Dickens.

May 14th, 1842.

MY DEAR DICKENS: I accept your obliging invitation conditionally. If I am invited by any man of greater genius than yourself, or one by whose works I have been more completely interested, I will repudiate you, and dine with the more splendid phenomenon of the two.

Ever yours sincerely,

SYDNEY SMITH.

L.-APOLOGY FOR DECLINING A DINNER PARTY.

Sydney Smith to Lord Mahon.

July 4th, 1843.

MY DEAR LORD MAHON: I am only half recovered from a violent attack of gout in the knee, and I could not bear the confinement of dinner without getting up and walking between the courses, or thrusting my foot on somebody else's chair, like the Archbishop of Dublin. For these reasons I have been forced for some time, and am still forced, to decline dinner engagements. I should, in a sounder state, have had great pleasure in accepting the very agreeable party you are kind enough to propose to me; but I shall avail myself, in the next campaign, of your kindness. I consider myself as well acquainted with Lady Malion and yourself, and shall hope to see you here, as well as elsewhere. Pray present my benediction to your charming wife, who I am sure would bring any plant in the garden into full flower by looking at it and smiling upon it.

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Try the experi

SYDNEY SMITH.

Sydney Smith to Lord Murray-A Hundred Persons Starved by his Voracity

LI.-A HUNDRED PERSONS STARVED BY HIS VORACITY.

Sydney Smith to Lord Murray.

COMBE FLOREY, Sept. 29th, 1843.

MY DEAR MURRAY; Jeffrey has written to me to say he
This I think a very great

I am sure he ought to

means to dedicate his essays to me. honor, and it pleases me very much. resign. He has very feeble health; a mild climate would suit the state of his throat. Mrs. Jeffrey thinks he could not employ himself. Wives know a great deal about husbands, but if she is right I should be surprised. I have thought he had a canine appetite for books, though this sometimes declines in the decline of life. I am beautifying my house in Green street; a comfortable house is a great source of happiness. It ranks immediately after health and a good conscience. I see your religious war is begun in Scotland. I suppose Jeffrey will be at the head of the Free Church troops. Do you think he has any military talents?

You are, I hear, attending more to diet than heretofore. If you wish for any thing like happiness in the fifth act of life, eat and drink about one-half what you could eat and drink. Did I ever tell you my calculation about eating and drinking? Having ascertained the weight of what I could live upon, so as to preserve health and strength, and what I did live upon, I found that, between ten and seventy years of age, I had eaten and drunk forty-four horse wagon loads of meat and drink more than would have preserved me in life and health! The value of this mass of nourishment I considered to be worth seven thousand pounds sterling. It occurred to me that I must, by my voracity, have starved to death fully a hundred persons. This is a

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