{24} Coventry Patmore. You cannot read him too often or too carefully; as far as I know he is the only living poet who always strengthens and purifies; the others sometimes darken, and nearly always depress and discourage, the imagination they deeply seize. {25} Observe, it is “Nature” who is speaking throughout, and who says, “while she and I together live.” {26} “Joan of Arc: in reference to M. Michelet’s ‘History of France.’” De Quincey’s Works. Vol. iii. p. 217. {27} I wish there were a true order of chivalry instituted for our English youth of certain ranks, in which both boy and girl should receive, at a given age, their knighthood and ladyhood by true title; attainable only by certain probation and trial both of character and accomplishment; and to be forfeited, on conviction, by their peers, of any dishonourable act. Such an institution would be entirely, and with all noble results, possible, in a nation which loved honour. That it would not be possible among us, is not to the discredit of the scheme. {28} See note {19} {29} That no reference should be made to religious questions. {30} I have sometimes been asked what this means. I intended it to set forth the wisdom of men in war contending for kingdoms, and what follows to set forth their wisdom in peace, contending for wealth. {31} See “The Two Paths,”—paragraph beginning “You know I said of that great and pure . . .”