Erasmus Compared to Charles Lamb. 165 



lery — Harriet Martineau. I have heard him more 

 than once call her a faithful friend, and it always 

 seemed to me a curious tribute to something in the 

 friendship that he alone supplied ; but if she had 

 written of him at all, I believe the mention, in its 

 heartiness of appreciation, would have afforded a 

 rare and curious meeting-point with the other * Remi- 

 niscences,' so like and yet so unlike. It is not possible 

 to transfer the impression of a character ; we can 

 only suggest it by means of some resemblance ; 

 and it is a singular illustration of that irony which 

 checks or directs our sympathies, that in trying to 

 give some notion of the man whom, among those 

 who were not his kindred, Carlyle appears to have 

 most loved, I can say nothing more descriptive than 

 that he seems to me to have had something in com- 

 mon with the man whom Carlyle least appreciated. 

 The society of Erasmus Darwin had, to my mind, 

 much the same charm as the writings of Charles 

 Lamb. There was the same kind of playfulness, 

 the same lightness of touch, the same tenderness, 

 perhaps the same limitations. On another side of 

 his nature, I have often been reminded of him by 

 the quaint, delicate humour, the superficial intoler- 

 ance, the deep springs of pity, the peculiar mixture 

 of something pathetic with a sort of gay scorn, en- 

 tirely remote from contempt, which distinguish the 

 Ellesmere of Sir Arthur Helps' earlier dialogues. 

 Perhaps we recall such natures most distinctly, when 

 such a resemblance is all that is left of them. The 

 character is not merged in the creation ; and what 

 we lose in the power to communicate our impres- 



