When he was in prison he wrote “The Age of Reason,” and amused himself by carrying on a correspondence with Lady S----, under the assumed name of “The Castle in the Air.” To this her ladyship answered under the title of “The Little Corner of the World.” This correspondence still continues. He showed me some of it, which, notwithstanding the dreadful places in which it was composed, is beautiful and interesting. He is the author of that beautiful song on the death of General Wolfe, which a few years ago was in every one’s mouth. The following extract from one of his manuscript essays affords a competent idea of his manner in treating subjects less solemn and invidious than politics. TO FORGETFULNESS. _From the “Castle in the Air,” to the “Little Corner of the World.”_ Memory like a beauty that is always present to hear herself flattered, is flattered by every one. But the silent goddess Forgetfulness has no votaries, yet we owe her much. She is the goddess of ease, though not of pleasure. When the mind is like a room hung with black, and every corner of it is crowded with the most horrid images Imagination can create, this kind speechless goddess Forgetfulness is following us night and day with her opium wand and gently touching first one and then another, benumbs them into rest, and at last glides away with the silence of a departing shadow. How dismal must the picture of life appear to that soul which resolves on darkness and to die! Yet how many of the young and beautiful, timid in everything else, have shut their eyes upon the world and made the waters their sepulchral bed! Ah! if at that crisis they had thought or tried to think that Forgetfulness would eventually come to their relief, they would lay hold on life. All grief, like all things else, will yield to the obliterating power of time, while Despair is preying on the mind, Time is preying upon Despair and Forgetfulness will change the scene. I have twice been present at a scene of attempted suicide. The one a love-distracted girl in England; the other a patriotic friend in France. I will relate these circumstances to you. They will in some measure corroborate my assertion upon Forgetfulness.