1832.] Conversation with the Double Sighted Youth. 579 



gance and dissipation, and last of all her mental agony and final reconciliation 

 with Clifford : if every trait of passion and feeling had "been modelled from the 

 life, the resemblance could not have been more entire : and then her voice is so 

 silver-sweet, ay, sweeter than the dews of Hermon. By heaven, I could almost 

 bring myself to marry Fanny. 



O'G. M. But, Gordon, you forget her nose Is it not a little uppish? 

 D. S. Y. I never noticed that look in her eyes, and you forget it all. 

 O'G. M. You said that you do not like Francis the First. 

 D. S. Y. Some passages in it border very closely on coarseness of expression ; 

 and I take that to be a fault of no small magnitude in a woman. Lady Dacre 

 advised a revision of these objectional lines, but the friendly caution does not seem 

 to have been attended to. 



O'G. M. It may be on this account that Lady Dacre has withdrawn her new 

 Tragedy, in which Fanny was to have appeared on her benefit night. 

 D. S. Y. Isaure, you mean But have you seen Miss Taylor lately ? 

 O'G. M 1 saw her the other night in the Hunchback, and thought her (what 

 I do not always think her) quite charming. How I envied that lubberly cousin of 

 her's, who had not sense enough to understand that she was making love to him. 

 I agree with her in considering Ovid a fool. Who will ever think of reading his 

 Art of Love again, after the instructions so enthusiastically given by Miss Taylor. 

 I wonder if the man who played the ' Cousin' would surrender his part I would 

 willingly play it gratis. You are welcome to Fanny, Gordon, but give me the 

 Taylor. 



D. S. Y. Do you admire her singing ? 



O'G. M. I hate singing of all kinds. I know nothing more incomprehensible 

 than the cant phrase of an ear for Music. 



D. S. Y. Does its peculiarity consist in its length ? 



O'G. M. I think your conjecture has much plausibility. Three of the greatest 

 men who have adorned any age or nation, Pope, Swift, and Johnson, had no sym- 

 pathy whatever with sweet sounds. 

 J). &. Y. And you make the fourth. 



O'G. M. What will be the fate of the thousand and one female writers who 

 contribute so large a portion of our imaginative literature. 



D. S. Y. Some of them will live. Felicia Hemans, L. E. Landon, Mary 

 Howitt, and a few more, will not die. 



O'G. M. I love L. E. L. I mean her works. There is so much purity, and 

 truth, and freshness in her thoughts Who ever wrote so many pages about love 

 with such exquisite delicacy. L. E. L. does not seem to be infected by the poi- 

 sonous air of this busy and hateful world. She dwells, like Immalie, in an 

 enchanted island, round whose flowery borders the waves of life roll in harmless 

 fury ; and when she comes out of her solitude, she bears with her the bloom and 

 the music of her habitation. I am led to speak thus enthusiastically, because I 

 believe my opinion of her character to be correctly formed ; and I am acquainted 

 with some passages in her history which bind the feelings to her. Her " Romance 

 and Reality " is a delightful composition full of beautiful lights and shadows. 

 I am quite surprised at finding her so deeply read in the human passions. She is 

 what Lavater \umld call a powerful Pathognomist. She should try a Tragedy. 

 D. S. Y. She is contemplating one. 



O'G. M. How I envy your insight into the future, Gordon! 

 D. S. Y. Mrs. Hemans has long had a volume of Poems ready for the press, 

 but in these Political and Anti-poetical days a Bookseller finds a slow sale for 

 verses even of the highest order. I believe Blackwood will publish it. 



O'G. M. Some of Felicia's Songs are among the first in the language. She 

 has more imagination than fancy. Her words are not mere coloured images, 

 having no recommendation but their sho win ess; they are symbols of a pure and 

 intellectual beauty. Her lyre has the full triumphant tone of a Grecian Cittern ; 

 and its first note, like the chaunt of the Citharsodus in a drama of Sophocles, pre- 

 pares the auditor for the splendid company of picturesque thoughts and harmonies 

 which are to follow. Her " Songs of the Affections" ought to be immortal as the 

 feelings they commemorate. 



