"Vita Nuova."

What an immense long way I have wandered from "Sordello," my dear
Mainwaring, but when a man turns to his books, his thoughts, like those
of a boy, "are long, long thoughts." I have not written on Longfellow's
sonnets, for even you, impeccable sonneteer, admit that you admire them
as much as I do.




A FRIEND OF KEATS


_To Thomas Egerton, Esq., Lothian College, Oxford_.

Dear Egerton,--Yes, as you say, Mr. Sidney Colvin's new "Life of Keats"
{3} has only one fault, it's too short. Perhaps, also, it is almost too
studiously free from enthusiasm. But when one considers how Keats (like
Shelley) has been gushed about, and how easy it is to gush about Keats,
one can only thank Mr. Colvin for his example of reserve. What a good
fellow Keats was! How really manly and, in the best sense, moral he
seems, when one compares his life and his letters with the vagaries of
contemporary poets who lived longer than he, though they, too, died
young, and who left more work, though not better, never so good, perhaps,
as Keats's best.

However, it was not of Keats that I wished to write, but of his friend,
John Hamilton Reynolds. _Noscitur a sociis_--a man is known by the
company he keeps. Reynolds, I think, must have been excellent company,