I have this minute (at last) read the first instalment of your Keats paper, and return it.... One of the most marked points in the early recognition of Keats’s claims, as compared with the recognition given to other poets, is the fact that he was the only one who secured almost at once a _great_ poet as a close and obvious imitator--viz., Hood, whose first volume is more identical with Keats’s work than could be said of any other similar parallel. You quote some of Keats’s sayings. One of the most characteristic I think is in a letter to Haydon:-- “I value more the privilege of seeing great things in loneliness, than the fame of a prophet.” I had not in mind the quotations you give from Keats as bearing on the poetic (or prophetic) mission of “doing good.” I must say that I should not have thought a longer career thrown away upon him (as you intimate) if he had continued to the age of anything only to give joy. Nor would he ever have done any “good” at all. Shelley did good, and perhaps some harm with it. Keats’s joy was after all a flawless gift. Keats wrote to Shelley:--“You, I am sure, will forgive me for sincerely remarking that you might curb your magnanimity and be more of an artist, and load every rift of your subject with ore.” Cheeky!--but not so much amiss. Poetry, and no prophecy however, must come of that mood,--and no pulpit would have held Keats’s wings,--the body and mind together were not heavy enough for a counterweight.... Did you ever meet with <center>ENDIMION AN EXCELLENT FANCY FIRST COMPOSED IN FRENCH By Monsieur GOMBAULD AND NOW ELEGANTLY INTERPRETED By RICHARD HURST, Gentleman 1639. ?</center> It has very finely engraved plates of the late Flemish type. There is a poem of Vaughan’s on Gombauld’s _Endimion_, which might make one think it more fascinating than it really is. Though rather prolix, however, it has attractions as a somewhat devious romantic treatment of the subject. The little book is one of the first I remember in this world, and I used to dip into it again and again as a child, but never yet read it through. I still possess it. I dare say it is not easily met with, and should suppose Keats had probably never seen it. If he had, he might really have taken a hint or two for his scheme, which is hardly so clear even as Gombauld’s, though its endless digressions teem with beauty.... I do not think you would benefit at all by seeing Gombauld’s _Endimion_. Vaughan’s poem on it might be worth quoting as showing what attention the subject had received before Keats. I have the poem in Gilfillan’s _Less-Known Poets_. Rossetti took a great interest in the fund started for the relief of Mme. de Llanos, Keats’s sister, whose circumstances were seriously reduced. He wrote: