In a late Box of books which I had from Mudie were Macmillan and Fraser, for 1869-1870. And in one of these--I am nearly sure, Macmillan--is an Article called 'Objects of Art' {145} which treats very well, I think, on the subject you and I talked of at Whitsun. . . . My new Reader . . . has been reading to me Fields' 'Yesterdays with Authors,' Hawthorne, Dickens, Thackeray. The latter seems to me a Caricature: the Dickens has one wonderful bit about Macready in 1869, which ought not to have been printed during his Life, but which I will copy out for you if you have not seen it. Hawthorne seems to me the most of a Man of Genius America has produced in the way of Imagination: yet I have never found an Appetite for his Books. Frederic Tennyson sent me Victor Hugo's 'Toilers of the Sea,' which he admires, I suppose; but I can't get up an Appetite for that neither. I think the Scenes being laid in the Channel Islands may have something to do with old Frederic's Liking. . . . The Daily News only tells me of Crisises in France, Floods in Italy, Insubordination of London Policemen, and Desertion from the British Army. So I take refuge in other Topics. Do look for 'Objects of Art' among them. Which are you for Noi leggiavamo } or } un giorno per diletto? {146a} Noi leggevamo } WOODBRIDGE: _Nov._ 28 [1872]. 'Multae Epistolae pertransibunt et augebitur Scientia.' Our one Man of Books down here, Brooke, {146b} had told me that the old Editions on the whole favoured 'legg_ia_vamo.' Now I shall tell him that the Germans have decided on 'leggevamo.' But Brooke quotes one Copy (1502) which reads 'leggev_am_,' which I had also wished for, to get rid of a fifth (and superfluous) _o_ in the line. I suppose such a plural is as allowable as Noi andav_am_ per lo solingo Piano, etc. What is all this erudite Enquiry about? I was talking with Edwards one night of this passage, and of this line in particular, which came into my head as a motto for a Device {146c} we were talking of; and hence all this precious fuss. But I want to tell you what I forgot in my last letter; what Dickens himself says of his 'Holyday Romance' in a letter to Fields. _July_ 25, 1867. 'I hope the Americans will see the joke of Holyday Romance. The writing seems to me so much like Children's, that dull folk (on _any_ side of _any_ water) might perhaps rate it accordingly. I should like to be beside you when you read it, and particularly when you read the Pirate's Story. It made me laugh to that extent that my people here thought I was out of my wits: until I gave it to them to read, when they did likewise.' One thinks, what a delightful thing to be such an Author! Yet he died of his work, I suppose. WOODBRIDGE, _Jan_, 5/73. MY DEAR POLLOCK,