There are other authors whom I have never read, and yet whom I have frequently had a great desire to read, from some circumstance relating to them. Among these is Lord Clarendon's History of the Grand Rebellion, after which I have a hankering, from hearing it spoken of by good judges--from my interest in the events, and knowledge of the characters from other sources, and from having seen fine portraits of most of them. I like to read a well-penned character, and Clarendon is said to have been a master in this way. I should like to read Froissart's Chronicles, Hollinshed and Stowe, and Fuller's Worthies. I intend, whenever I can, to read Beaumont and Fletcher all through. There are fifty-two of their plays, and I have only read a dozen or fourteen of them. A Wife for a Month, and Thierry and Theodoret, are, I am told, delicious, and I can believe it. I should like to read the speeches in Thucydides, and Guicciardini's History of Florence, and Don Quixote in the original. I have often thought of reading the Loves of Persiles and Sigismunda, and the Galatea of the same author. But I somehow reserve them like "another Yarrow." I should also like to read the last new novel (if I could be sure it was so) of the author of Waverley:--no one would be more glad than I to find it the best!-- FOOTNOTES: [1] _Dramatic Essays_, VIII, 415. [2] "On Living to One's Self," in _Table Talk_. [3] "On Reading Old Books," pp. 344-45. [4] "On Criticism," in _Table Talk_. [5] _Life of Holcroft_, Works, II, 171, n. [6] "On the Pleasure of Painting," in _Table Talk_. [7] W. C. Hazlitt: _Lamb and Hazlitt_ (1900), p. 44. The letter in which these phrases are to be found is dated 1793 by Mr. W. C. Hazlitt, but the present writer has given a detailed statement of his reasons for believing that it was written in 1803. See _Nation_, October 19, 1911. [8] XI, 26. [9] _Table Talk_, "On the Indian Jugglers." [10] _Round Table_. [11] "On Respectable People," in _Plain Speaker_. [12] "On Paradox and Commonplace," in _Table Talk_.