LORD LILFOKD 



' March 27. Talking of Gray's interesting 

 letters, papa gave me an account of Thomas 

 Warton, the author of the " History of Poetry," 

 in which many of his theories appear doubtful, 

 but from which work many have collected 

 material for books on the same subject. We 

 talked of Milton; I expressed my unbounded 

 admiration of his poetry, all of which I have 

 read, save Paradise Kegained. Papa considered 

 that the faults of Paradise Lost were the 

 subject, and the falling off in style towards the 

 end.' 



' August 11, 1823. I spent nearly the 

 whole morning with papa. We talked of Plato 

 and Aristotle, and their different philosophies, 

 both pupils of Socrates, but not friends. Plato's 

 system that of Pre-existence. His notion of 

 virtue very exalted ; everything to be forsaken 

 or neglected in the pursuit of perfection. It 

 seems to me a very complicated system, and one 

 I should never have even faintly understood, did 

 papa not happen to have the clearest manner of 

 explaining any subject, however abstruse. In 

 order to exemplify Aristotle's system, papa 

 pointed out that substance and colour were not 



