him almost every day, I know that he drank nothing stronger than water;
except tea, indeed, in which he indulged in the morning. Had he been as
temperate in his political views as in his cups, he would have escaped the
slander that pursued him through life.

The great intimacy between these two distinguished writers, Charles Lamb
and William Hazlitt (for they had known each other before), seems to have
commenced in a singular manner. They were one day at Godwin's, when "a
fierce dispute was going on between Holcroft and Coleridge, as to which
was best, 'Man as he was, or Man as he is to be.' 'Give me,' says Lamb,
'man as he is _not_ to be.'" "This was the beginning" (Hazlitt says,) "of
a friendship which, I believe, still continues." Hazlitt married in 1805,
and his wife soon became familiar with Mary Lamb. Indeed, Charles and his
sister more than once visited the Hazlitts, who at that time lived at
Winterslow, near Salisbury Plain, and enjoyed their visits greatly,
walking from eight to twenty miles a day, and seeing Wilton, Stonehenge,
and the other (to them unaccustomed) sights of the country. "The quiet,
lazy, delicious month" passed there is referred to in one of Miss Lamb's
pleasant letters. And the acquaintance soon deepened into friendship.
Whatever good will was exhibited by Hazlitt (and there was much) is repaid
by Lamb in his letter to Southey, published in the "London Magazine"
(October, 1823), wherein he places on record his pride and admiration of
his friend. "So far from being ashamed of the intimacy" (he says), "it is
my boast that I was able, for so many years, to have preserved it entire;
and I think I shall go to my grave without finding or expecting to find
such another companion."

Lamb's respect for men and things did not depend on repute. His fondness
for old books seldom (never, perhaps, except in the single case of the
Duchess of Newcastle) deluded him into a respect for old books which were