dwelt much on that regret, that 'he had not entirely devoted himself to
literature and science!!!' His mind certainly would have carried him to
eminence there, as elsewhere;--but I cannot comprehend what debility of
that mind could suggest such a wish. I, who have heard him, cannot
regret any thing but that I shall never hear him again. What! would he
have been a plodder? a metaphysician?--perhaps a rhymer? a scribbler?
Such an exchange must have been suggested by illness. But he is gone,
and Time 'shall not look upon his like again.'

"I am tremendously in arrear with my letters,--except to * *, and to her
my thoughts overpower me:--my words never compass them. To Lady
Melbourne I write with most pleasure--and her answers, so sensible, so
_tactique_--I never met with half her talent. If she had been a few
years younger, what a fool she would have made of me, had she thought it
worth her while,--and I should have lost a valuable and most agreeable
friend. Mem. a mistress never is nor can be a friend. While you agree,
you are lovers; and, when it is over, any thing but friends.

"I have not answered W. Scott's last letter,--but I will. I regret to
hear from others that he has lately been unfortunate in pecuniary
involvements. He is undoubtedly the Monarch of Parnassus, and the most
_English_ of bards. I should place Rogers next in the living list (I
value him more as the last of the best school)--Moore and Campbell both
_third_--Southey and Wordsworth and Coleridge--the rest, [Greek: hoi
polloi]--thus:--

W. SCOTT
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