Perhaps it is a self-delusion to say so--but I think I could not be deceived in the manner that Hunt is--may I die to-morrow if I am to be. There is no greater Sin after the seven deadly than to flatter oneself into an idea of being a great Poet--or one of those beings who are privileged to wear out their Lives in the pursuit of Honor--how comfortable a feel it is to feel that such a Crime must bring its heavy Penalty? That if one be a Self-deluder accounts must be balanced? I am glad you are hard at Work--'t will now soon be done--I long to see Wordsworth's as well as to have mine in:[20] but I would rather not show my face in Town till the end of the Year--if that will be time enough--if not I shall be disappointed if you do not write for me even when you think best. I never quite despair and I read Shakspeare--indeed I shall I think never read any other Book much. Now this might lead me into a long Confab but I desist. I am very near agreeing with Hazlitt that Shakspeare is enough for us. By the by what a tremendous Southean article his last was--I wish he had left out "grey hairs." It was very gratifying to meet your remarks on the manuscript--I was reading Anthony and Cleopatra when I got the Paper and there are several Passages applicable to the events you commentate. You say that he arrived by degrees and not by any single struggle to the height of his ambition--and that his Life had been as common in particulars as other Men's. Shakspeare makes Enobarb say-- Where's Antony? _Eros._--He's walking in the garden, and _spurns The rush that lies_ before him; cries, Fool, Lepidus! In the same scene we find-- Let determined things To destiny hold unbewailed their way. Dolabella says of Anthony's Messenger, An argument that he is pluck'd when hither He sends so poor a pinion of his wing. Then again-- _Eno._--I see Men's Judgments are A parcel of their fortunes; and things outward Do draw the inward quality after them, To suffer all alike. The following applies well to Bertrand[21]-- Yet he that can endure To follow with allegiance a fallen Lord, Does conquer him that did his Master conquer, And earns a place i' the story. But how differently does Buonaparte bear his fate from Anthony!