160 LETTERS TO BROTHER JOHN. 



madmen. They are all three (generally) weak, 

 wavering, wayward beings, incapable of abstracting 

 their minds at pleasure, unable to controul their 

 thoughts ; and it may almost be said of all three 

 alike, that they have scarcely any will or purpose 

 of their own. Hence, 



" The hmatic, the lover, and the poet, 

 Are of imagination all compact :" 



and hence it is true, that the poet does not sit 

 down to think what he shall write, but to write what 

 he shall think. But the word " think," in the last 

 instance, is improperly used : he sits down in order 

 to describe the ideas which his mind's eye beholds 

 dancing in antic and ever-varying groups on the 

 stage of his own brain's theatre to 



" body forth 



The forms of things unknown ; 



Turn them to shapes ; and give to airy nothings 



A local habitation and a name." 



Hence, too, every true lover is a poet, and every 

 true poet a lover. 



Finally, my dear John, you will observe that 

 eyery thing connected with life all the actions, the 

 energies, and beauties of the body all the actions, 

 energies, and beauties of the mind, as well as the 



