. . . What do you think I am reading? Voltaire's 'Pucelle': the Epic he was fitted for. It is poor in Invention, I think: but wonderful for easy Wit, and the Verse much more agreeable to me than the regularly rhymed Alexandrines. I think Byron was indebted to it in his Vision of Judgment, and Juan: his best works. There are fine things too: as when Grisbourdon suddenly slain tells his Story to the Devils in Hell where he unexpectedly makes his Appearance, Et tout l'Enfer en rit d'assez bon coeur. This is nearer the Sublime, I fancy, than anything in the Henriade. And one Canto ends: J'ai dans mon temps possede des maitresses, Et j'aime encore a retrouver mon coeur-- is very pretty in the old Sinner. . . . I am engaged in preparing to depart from these dear Rooms where I have been thirteen years, and don't know yet where I am going. {169} _To John Allen_. GRANGE FARM: WOODBRIDGE _Febr_: 21/74. MY DEAR ALLEN, While I was reading a volume of Ste. Beuve at Lowestoft a Fortnight ago, I wondered if you got on with him; j'avais envie de vous ecrire une petite Lettre a ce sujet: but I let it go by. Now your Letter comes; and I will write: only a little about S. B. however, only that: the Volume I had with me was vol. III. of my Edition (I don't know if yours is the same), and I thought you [would] like _all_ of three Causeries in it: Rousseau, Frederick the Great, and Daguesseau: the rest you might not so much care for: nor I neither. Hare's Spain was agreeable to hear read: I have forgot all about it. His 'Memorials' were insufferably tiresome to me. You don't speak of Tichborne, which I never tire of: only wondering that the Lord Chief Justice sets so much Brains to work against so foolish a Bird. {170} The Spectator on Carlyle is very good, I think. As to Politics I scarce meddle with them. I have been glad to revert to Don Quixote, which I read easily enough in the Spanish: it is so delightful that I don't grudge looking into a Dictionary for the words I forget. It won't do in English; or _has not done_ as yet: the English colloquial is not the Spanish do. It struck me oddly that--of all things in the world!--Sir Thomas Browne's Language might suit. They now sell at the Railway Stalls Milnes' Life of Keats for half a crown, as well worth the money as any Book. I would send you a Copy if you liked: as I bought three or four to give away. You may see that I have changed my Address: obliged to leave the Lodging where I had been thirteen years: and to come here to my own house, while another Lodging is getting ready, which I doubt I shall not inhabit, as it will entail Housekeeping on me. But I like to keep my house for my Nieces: it is not my fault they do not make it their home. Ever yours, E. F. G. _To S. Laurence_. GRANGE FARM, WOODBRIDGE. _February_ 26/74. MY DEAR LAURENCE,