For to be man is to be a debtor:--hinting but slightly at the grand and primeval debt implied in the idea of a creation, as matter too hard for ears like thine, (for saith not Luther, What hath a cow to do with nutmegs?) I must, nevertheless, remind thee that all moralists have concurred in considering this our mortal sojourn as indeed an uninterrupted state of debt, and the world our dwelling-place as represented by nothing so aptly as by an inn, wherein those who lodge most commodiously have in perspective a proportionate score to reduce,* and those who fare least delicately, but an insignificant shot to discharge--or, as the tuneful Quarles well phraseth it-- He's most in _debt_ who lingers out the day, Who dies betimes has less and less to pay. So far, therefore, from these sagacious ethics holding that Debt cramps the energies of the soul, &c. as thou pratest, 'tis plain that they have willed on the very outset to inculcate this truth on the mind of every man,--no barren and inconsequential dogma, but an effectual, ever influencing and productive rule of life,--that he is born a debtor, lives a debtor--aye, friend, and when thou diest, will not some judicious bystander,--no recreant as thou to the bonds of nature, but a good borrower and true--remark, as did his grandsire before him on like occasions, that thou hast 'paid the _debt_ of nature'? Ha! I have thee 'beyond the rules', as one (a bailiff) may say! * Miss Hickey, on reading this passage, has called my attention to the fact that the sentiment which it parodies is identical with that expressed in these words of 'Prospice', . . . in a minute pay glad life's arrears Of pain, darkness, and cold. Such performances supplied a distraction to the more serious work of writing 'Paracelsus', which was to be concluded in March 1835, and which occupied the foregoing winter months. We do not know to what extent Mr. Browning had remained in communication with Mr. Fox; but the following letters show that the friend of 'Pauline' gave ready and efficient help in the strangely difficult task of securing a publisher for the new poem. The first is dated April 2, 1835. Dear Sir,--I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter:--Sardanapalus 'could not go on multiplying kingdoms'--nor I protestations--but I thank you very much. You will oblige me indeed by forwarding the introduction to Moxon. I merely suggested him in particular, on account of his good name and fame among author-folk, besides he has himself written--as the Americans say--'more poetry 'an you can shake a stick at.' So I hope we shall come to terms.