F! 



LETTEr.S. 2f)9 



with sleeplessness and palpitations of the heart, which 

 symptoms have now disappeared, and I am quite restored 

 to mj former good health. My journey will re-establish 

 me completely, and it will give me no small pleasure to 

 see you after so long an absence from home. I shall be 

 very idle while I am at Xottingliam ; I shall only amuse 

 myself with teaching Maria and Kate. 



* * * * 



(supposed to be addressed) 

 TO MRS WEST. 



I have stolen your first volume of Letters from the 

 chimneypiece of a College friend, and I have been so 

 much pleased both with the spirit, conduct, and stylo of 

 the work, that I cannot refrain from writing to tell you 

 so. I shall read the remaining volumes immediately ; 

 but as I am at this moment just in that desultory mood 

 when a man can best write a letter, I have determined 

 not to delay what, if I defer at all, I shall probably not 

 do at all. 



Well, then, my dear JNIadam, although I have insi- 

 diously given you to understand that I write to tell you 

 how much I approve your work, I will be frank enough 

 to tell you likewise, that I think, in one point, it is faulty ; 

 and that, if I had not discovered what I consider to be 

 a defect in the book, I should probably not have written 

 for the mere purpose of declaiming on its excellences. 



Start not, ]Madara ; it is in that very point whereon 

 you have bestowed most pains, that I think the work is 

 faulty — Religion. If I mistake not, there will be some 

 little confusion of idea detected, if we examine this part 

 narrowly ; and as I am not quite idle enough to write 

 my opinions without giving the reasons for them, I will 

 endeavour to explain why I think so. 



Eeligion, then. Madam, I conceive to be the service a 

 creature owes to his Creator ; and I take it for granted, 

 that service implies some self-denial, and some labour; 



